San Francisco Giants center fielder Mike Yastrzemski, center, walks with a trainer after an injury as manager Gabe Kapler walks alongside, right, during the eighth inning. Yastrzemski is headed to the IL after injuring his left hamstring on Sun Apr 30, 2023 at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium in Mexico City. (AP News photo)

Giants Swept In Mexico City Series Losing To Padres 6-4

By Barbara Mason

Sunday afternoon the San Francisco Giants (11-16) finished up their two-game series getting swept against the San Diego Padres (15-14) in Mexico City 6-4. A lot of fans were expecting another slug fest much like the one we saw Saturday. 19,633 fans got to enjoy Sunday’s game, only the second MLB game played in Mexico city ever.

The Giants jumped all over the Padres to start this game. After four innings San Francisco led 4-0. The Giants had three home runs in the first four innings. The first one came off the bat of LaMonte Wade Jr in the first inning. In the second inning another long ball from J.D. Davis and in the fourth inning Mitch Haniger sent one sailing over the wall to take a 3-0 San Francisco lead. They would extend their lead when Mike Yastrzemski singled Michael Conforto home in the fourth.

The Giants held the lead into the fifth inning and then that is when the tide turned.. San Francisco did not have another hit after the sixth inning single from Yastrzemski.

In the bottom of the fifth the Padres scored three runs starting off with an Austin Nola two-run home run followed by a Juan Soto single driving in Fernando Tatis Jr. After seven innings the Giants were hanging onto a 4-3 lead.

San Diego had another three-run inning in the bottom of the eighth. Jake Cronenworth singled driving Juan Soto home to tie the game 4-4. Matt Carpenter would double bringing Xander Bogaerts and Cronenworth home taking a 6-4 lead. That would be the final in this game with the Padres sweeping the series.

The losses were bad enough but there were some costly injuries in this series. Brandon Crawford missed todays game after right calf tightness suffered yesterday in the fourth inning and Mike Yastrzemski attempted a diving catch on a shallow fly ball in center field that resulted in a possible hamstring issue and was forced to leave todays game. He was hurt in the eighth inning.

Giants starting pitcher Alex Cobb had a great game under the tough conditions despite the loss. He went five innings and gave up seven hits and three runs with seven strikeouts. He struggled a bit in the fifth with the altitude and Scott Alexander relieved him in the sixth inning. In this game Cobb got his 1000th strikeout mixing up his pitches but the bullpen struggled for the rest of the game.

San Francisco will now travel to Houston taking on the Astros Monday night. Ross Stripling (0-1 ERA 6.89) will take the mound for the Giants and for the Astros Luis Garcia (4-4 ERA 4.00) will start. It will be a tough game for the Giants after dealing with the altitude in Mexico City with little to no rest before Monday night’s game. First pitch is scheduled for 5:10 PM.