by Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO–Amid the hustle and bustle that pervades the budding metropolis of San Francisco, this day replete with blustery winds, ping pong weather, the persistent news cycle, and of course, traffic, even the Giants could be rendered an afterthought.

But not today.

The Giants rung up a season-high 13 runs, on 16 hits, to sweep the Padres, putting a nice conclusion on a rough home stand while compressing the early standings in the NL West. Brandon Belt had three hits and five RBI to back Jeff Samardzjia and five relievers. The 13-9 win marked the Giants’ eighth win in a row over San Diego at AT&T Park.

Andrew Cashner started for the Padres, but lasted just 2 2/3 innings, and remains winless in his six career starts at San Francisco.

“In all reality we had every opportunity to win the first two games of the series, and then putting nine runs on the board today. Very competitive games for us. Just not getting over the hump right now,” Padres’ manager Andy Green said.

The Giants didn’t hit a home run, but had five extra-base hits that had the crowd of 41,357 buzzing, including three triples, just the fourth time they’ve accomplished that feat in 17 seasons at McCovey Cove.

“Someone mentioned that we didn’t have a home run. That’s OK, we can hit a team to death,” Matt Duffy stated.

The Giants begin a stretch of 17 games in 17 days in New York on Friday with Jake Peavy facing Steven Matz at 4:10pm.