San Diego Padres’ Manny Machado celebrates a two-run home run against the San Francisco Giants during the seventh inning of a baseball game at Alfredo Harp Helu Stadium in Mexico City, Saturday, April 29, 2023. (AP News photo)

Giants Lose Slug Fest In Mexico City to San Diego 16-11

By Barbara Mason

Saturday afternoon the San Diego Padres (14-14) hosted the San Francisco Giants (11-15) in a two game series. The two teams are squaring up in the first regular season game ever in Mexico City. A ton of offense was a big part of this hitter-friendly environment that had runs galore.

Alfredo Harp Helu Stadium sits at 7,350 elevation which is 2,000 feet higher than Coors Field . The air is much thinner in Mexico City but along with that the stadium walls are much shorter. The game showcased a whole lot of hits and runs in the Padres 16-11 win.

Game recap: Fan were not disappointed with the deluge of offense that the two teams provided. The Padres scored in the first five innings to lead the game 10-8 which included five home runs. Nelson Cruz, Juan Soto, Xander Bogarerts, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado all hit long balls in this slug fest.

The Giants had a couple of home runs in the third inning and a huge fourth inning scoring six runs. Brandon Crawford and LaMonte Wade Jr. both hit home runs in the third inning. In the fourth inning, Mitch Haniger hit a three-run home run to tie up the game 5-5. The Giants took the lead 8-5 in the fourth. Thairo Estrada doubled in three runs and LaMonte Wade Jr, Mike Yastrzemski and Blake Sabol all scored.

In the fourth and fifth innings the Padres had the four home runs for the 10-8 lead.

In the seventh inning, Blake Sabol hit a two run home run to tie up the game 10-10. The Giants took the lead on a David Villar solo home run 11-10.

That lead was short-lived when Manny Machado hit his second home run of the game, this one a two-run home run to take back the lead 12-11. The Padres extended their lead in the eighth inning 14-11. Trent Grisham doubled driving in Ha- Seong Kim and Austin Nola. The Padres loaded the bases in the eighth inning scoring two more runs now leading 16-11.

The game went into the ninth inning and the Giants had one last chance to make a difference in this game. Trailing by five runs, they had a lot of work to do. The first MLB game played in Mexico City was in the books.

When all was said and done fans watched 11 home runs sailed out of the park. The Giants had five of those home runs and San Diego came in with six. This game was an absolute nightmare for both teams pitchers. While this was not the ideal for either team’s bullpen, it sure gave the fans in attendance a lot of high offense baseball.

Sean Manaea started for San Francisco but lasted only two innings. He allowed five hits and four earned runs.

Sunday game two of this series will start at 1:05 Alex Cobb (1-1 ERA 1.91) will be on the mound for the Giants and Yu Darvish (1-2 ERA 3.00) will get the nod for San Diego.