San Diego Padres’ Victor Caratini, center, is congratulated by Manny Machado, right after belting a two run seventh inning home run against the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park in San Diego on Tue Apr 7, 2021 (AP News photo)

By Jeremy Kahn

Things were looking good in the middle game between the San Francisco Giants and the San Diego Padres were going good, but that all changed with one pitch.

Victor Caratini hit a two-run home run off of Matt Wisler in the bottom of the seventh inning, helping the Padres to a 3-1 victory over the Giants at Petco Park.

With one out in the inning, Wisler walked Ha-Seong Kim on six pitches and on the first pitch to Caratini, he launched it into the right field seats to give the Padres the lead for good.

Keone Kela pitched a perfect seventh inning, striking out two to pick up his first win of the young season. Former Giants closer Mark Melancon threw a perfect ninth inning that included a strikeout to pick up his third save of the 2021 season.

Yu Darvish made his second start of the season, as he went six innings, allowing one run on three hits, walking one and striking out seven, as he was straddled with a no-decision.

Aaron Sanchez made quite a first impression on the Giants and their fans in his first start as a member of the team. In five innings of work, Sanchez gave up just one run on six hits, not allowing a walk and striking out four and like Darvish, did not fare in the decision.

Brandon Crawford got the Giants on the board in the top of the third inning, as he took a Darvish offering and planted it into the right-center seats for his first home run of the season to give the Giants a 1-0 lead.

Unfortunately, that lead did not last long, as Sanchez gave up a game-tying, run-scoring single to Eric Hosmer in the bottom half of the third inning to score Jake Cronenworth and that would be the score until Caratini untied it in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The Giants managed just three hits on the night against the Padres, as Buster Posey and Austin Slater picked up the other two hits.

NOTES: In the opener of the three-game series that the Giants won 3-2, they were helped by hitting three solo homers…the last time the Giants won a game by hitting three solo home runs to account for all their runs was October 3, 2015 vs. Colorado (Kelby Tomlinson, Marlon Byrd and Brandon Crawford each homered), this according to SportsRadar.

Crawfords home run in the top of the first inning was the teams 10th of the season and the ninth solo home run. Evan Longoria hit the only non-solo home run, when he hit a two-run home run on Friday night against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park.

UP NEXT: Kevin Gausman will make his second start of the season, as he takes the mound in the series finale for the Giants, while the Padres will send Blake Snell for his second start of the young season.