San Diego Padres Juan Soto (left) celebrates his home run with third base coach Matt Williams (right) against the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park in San Diego on Sun Sep 3, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

The San Francisco Giants (70-67) are really struggling against the San Diego Padres (65-73) having lost games two and four. They couldn’t tie up the series with a win Saturday losing to the Padres 4-0. The Giants offensively and defensively they are not looking good.

Yes, they might get lucky enough to get a wild card but what then? Playing the way they are right now even winning a round in the playoffs is a long shot. They have to turn things around and Sunday would be a good time to do it.

It was not to be for the Giants. They had four hits in this game but they were shut out by the Padres. San Diego played a huge first inning scoring three runs. Juan Soto started the first inning with a two-run home run.

Fernando Tatis Jr. was on base when Soto crushed one to left center for a 2-0 lead. Xander Bogaerts doubled Manny Machado home for another run and San Diego had a great first inning leading 3-0. The Padres would add one more run in the third inning courtesy of Manny Machado extending the San Diego lead to 4-0. That would be the final.

The Padres won the last three games of this series after dropping game one in this four game series. After the third inning neither team would score for the rest of the game. It became a purely defensive game for the remaining six innings.

Soto homered in his third straight game. He has been terrific along with Manny Machado who also homered in this game. San Diego hit eight home runs in their three wins against the Giants.

This series was an important one for the Giants as they fight for a playoff spot. They were tied with the Diamondbacks coming into this game vying for the final spot in the NL. Arizona lost today losing to the Orioles 8-5.

San Francisco pitcher Alex Cobb went three innings and gave up six hits and four runs with three strikeouts. Relief pitcher Keaton Winn went five innings and gave up four hits and no runs. Padres pitcher Seth Lugo got the win going six innings giving up four hits and had four strikeouts.

It is a very nervous time for the Giants. They cannot continue with this lack of offense and defense. It just won’t fly. Even if they somehow get into the post season, they won’t go far unless they completely turn things around.

The Giants have obviously seen these guys play amazing ball. They’ve seen great starts, they’ve seen come from behind wins and the Giants have certainly seen their bats going crazy. Right now the bats are eerily silent. It is far too deep in the season to fall into the current trend we are seeing right now.

Sunday afternoon the Giants will start a three game series in Chicago with the Cubs. Logan Webb will take the mound for the Giants. He has a 3.49 ERA and a 9-11 win/loss record going for the Cubs Justine Steele (15-3 ERA 2.69).

San Francisco will try to right the ship as they head into this series. It will not be an easy series. The Cubbies lost their last series to the Reds but Chicago crushed the Reds Sunday in game three 15-7. First pitch right now is scheduled for 11:20 AM.