By Morris Phillips

In splitting their first 38 home games, the Giants have been all over the place in terms of their play: just as often brilliant as they’ve been just been bad.

On Wednesday afternoon, they squeezed the whole gamut into one ballgame.

The Giants cruised through the first seven innings, leading 9-2 behind starting pitcher Chris Heston and an impressive offensive display.  But the Padres mounted in a huge rally in the eighth to climb within 9-8, only to see the Giants rally back in the bottom of that inning to finish off a 13-8 win.

How up and down have the Giants been at home?  The matinee win against the Padres marked the first time the Giants have won back-to-back home games in almost a month, last accomplishing the trick on May 29 with consecutive wins against the Braves.

“Obviously we would have like not to make it interesting, but it was good to counter-punch,” Joe Panik said of the Giants’ topsy-turvy afternoon.

The Giants racked up a season-best 13 runs and 19 hits, but it wasn’t easy street until they added on the final six hits and four runs in the eighth, to answer the Padres’ big rally.  In a ballgame featuring 31 hits, the fans were treated to an offensive display by both teams that’s been rare along McCovey Cove this season for sure, but in previous seasons as well.

Even rarer were the Giants’ four triples, a feat the team hadn’t accomplished since 1960 when Willie Mays accounted for three of the four three-baggers all by himself.  This time, Brandon Belt had a pair of triples, and that had him all fired up describing the thrill of baseball’s rarest type of hit.

“When I can sniff a triple, I’m going to turn it on.  I will do whatever I have to do–use my giraffe strides—to get to third base,” Belt said.

Heston did his best to take advantage of all the offensive support.  The rookie pitched well again, throwing seven innings, allowing two runs and five hits, while walking one and striking out six. All indications are that Heston will retain his spot in the rotation when Matt Cain and Jake Peavy return from the disabled list, and he showed why again on Wednesday.

Heston won his eighth game against five defeats to maintain his stature as one of the most impressive rookies on any team this season.  Again, Heston showed great command of all four of his pitches and kept the Padres at bay.

But when Jeremy Affeldt relieved Heston, things got interesting.  Affeldt allowed two doubles and a Matt Kemp two-run homer before manager Bruce Bochy could make a change.  But Javier Lopez and Sergio Romo had issues as well, allowing a combined four hits before Romo got Clint Barmes to pop out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Giants bounced right back.  Mat Duffy and Belt came up with RBI singles and Buster Posey knocked in a couple of runs with a double.

James Shields got the start for San Diego, and he ended up no happier than he was in a pair of World Series matchups with Madison Bumgarner last fall.  The former Royals starter was lifted Wednesday after allowing seven runs and nine hits in only four innings of work.

The Giants look to move their home record above .500 on Friday night when Colorado comes to town.  Tim Hudson and the Rockies’ Chad Bettis are scheduled for the series opener at 7:15pm.