San Diego Padres pitcher Seth Lugo pitches the top of the first against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Tue Sep 26, 2023 (AP News photo)

San Diego (78-80). 101 000 200. – 4. 7. 1

San Francisco (78-80). 000 000 000. – 0. 3. 1

Time: 2:19

Attendance: 28,183

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

By Lewis Rubman

SAN FRANCISCO—The San Francisco Giants were outplayed from beginning to end in Tuesday night’s 4-0 loss to the San Diego Padres.

San Francisco fans thought they would be given another chance to see the highly touted rookie Kyle Harrison acclimate himself to the rigors of major league baseball. The 22 year old righty from San José had been on the line up card that Gabe Kapler originally submitted and was featured prominently on the tenth page game Information notes that the Giants distributed to the press as well as in the pregame public address announcements.

Unfortunately, an illness, the nature of which was not disclosed, caused him to miss his start. It’s not known, or at least hasn’t been announced, if he’ll pitch again this season The lineup card that Sean Manaea delivered to home plate umpire Tripp Gibson listed opener John Brebbia as San Francisco’s starting pitcher.

The unforesen change did not work to the Giants’ benefit. Juan Soto smacked his 34th home run of the year, a two out solo shot to center that travelled 396 feet into the plaza area that divides the two halves of the bleachers.

Brebbia fanned Fernando Tatís, Jr. to retire the side and retired Garrett Cooper, the first batter he faced in the second, before giving way to Alex Wood, who stayed in the game and threw 82 pitches over 4-2/3 innings and allowed only one run, which was unearned, on four hits and three walks.

San Francisco almost got back the run that Brebbia had allowed when, in the bottom of the first, JD Davis lined a double off the brick wall in right field, where Tatís let it get away from him. Davis beat shortstop Xander Bogoaerts’ relay to third but overslid the bag and was tagged out to end the inning.

Poor defence cost San Francisco another run in the third. After Brettt Sullivan’s clean one out single to left, Bogaerts got a checked swing infield hit to second. Tairo Estrada’s throw not only failed to nab Sullivan, but it sailed past Wade and enabled Sullivan to move onto third. He scored on Ha-Seong Kim’s 6-3 ground out, short to first when Marco Luciano had a play in front of him at second, although it’s not clear that the Giants could have pulled off a double play.

Ryan Walker replaced Wood for the visitors’ seventh, and Soto did what he’d done to Brebbia, smack a four bagger. This one came with two outs and a runner on first. The 398 foot shot to left center came off a 95mph slider and left Soto’s bat at 108.4 mph. It brought his home run total to 35 and his RBI to 108.

Sean Hjelle, who has struggled mightily this year, hurled two scoreless innings to keep the Giants behind by only a 4-0 margin when they took their last licks. He even managed to be the sole Giant pitcher to retire Soto. managed to get through a scoreless top of the eighth.

The Padres got an outstanding performance from their starting pitcher, Seth Lugo. The right hander shut the orange and black out for 8-2/3 innings, limiting them to three hits and three walks. He threw 123 pitches 80 for strikes and struck out seven Giants. He was the winning pitcher, which improved his record to 8-7, 3.57. Josh Harder, who struck out a pinch hitting Wilmer Flores, earned his 32nd save.

Brebbia was charged with the loss. His balance sheet now reads, 3-3, 3.65.

Contrary to what I reported last night, the Padres have not yet been eliminated from the wild card race. Both the Giants and the Pads have a tragic number of one, and San Diego has a insurmountable advantage in the tie-breaking run differential figures.

The two rivals will play the rubber game match of this series, Wednesday, at 6:45pm PT. Matt Waldron (1-3,4.58) is scheduled to start for San Diego. Sean Manaea (7-6, 4.51) will return to his role as starter.