San Francisco Giants’ Mike Yastrzemski, right, celebrates with third base coach Mark Hallberg after hitting a home run during the fifth inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park in San Diego (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

The San Francisco Giants (70-64) took on the San Diego Padres (62-73) Thursday night starting a four game series and having had some successful games they kept it going with a 7-2 win at Petco Park in San Diego.

The Giants have a lot on their plate right now. While they are in second place in the NL West and trail the Los Angels Dodgers by 14 games, the Dodgers are not their problem right now. It’s more like the Phillies, the Cubs, the Reds , the Marlins and the Diamondbacks.

Six contenders all vying for a wild card spot. San Francisco has been struggling for awhile now. It wasn’t really that long ago that the Giants trailed the Dodgers by a single game. So the Giants have some work to do and it needs to happen sooner rather than later with roughly 29 games left in the regular season.

Thursday game recap: San Francisco went into this game with purpose and determination. Neither team scored in the first two innings but the Giants were first up on the board in the third inning scoring not only early but often. When the dust had settled San Francisco had a 6-0 lead. The Giants hit a slew of singles in the inning.

Joc Pederson singled LaMonte Wade Jr. home for the first run of the inning taking a 1-0 lead and the hits just kept on coming. Mike Yastrzemski singled Thairo Estrada home. Joc Pederson scored on a Padre error followed by another single, a bunt single off the bat of Wade Meckler and Yastrzemski scored.

Blake Sabol got another run on the board when he doubled and J.D. Davis scored. They would finish off the inning when Casey Schmitt sacrificed and Meckler scored for an amazing offensive inning leading 6-0. San Francisco would add one more run when Mike Yastrzemski homered in the fifth inning, a solo shot and a 7-0 Giants lead.

Through four innings the Padres were looking for their first hit. Starting pitcher for San Francisco Jakob Junis went four innings not allowing a single hit with three strikeouts. Sean Manea would relieve Junis in the fifth inning.

Through six innings the Padres had only managed two hits. Manea did get into a bit of trouble in the bottom of the sixth loading the bases. Manea made the pitches when he needed to striking out Garrett Cooper for the third out of the inning and it was on to the seventh inning.

The Padres got a couple of base runners in the bottom of the eighth inning threatening to deny the shut out. San Diego did get on the board in the inning, a single run. Garrett Cooper doubled and Juan Soto scored for a 7-1 Giants lead.

Scott Alexander came to the mound to try and close out this game. The Padres were able to score one run but that would be all they got. San Francisco will be back on the field in game two Friday night with first pitch at 6:40 PM.

Starting pitchers for San Francisco TBA and for San Diego Michael Wacha (10-2 ERA 2.84) first pitch 6:40pm PT.