Saturday, March 30, 2024

Petco Park

San Diego, California

San Francisco Giants 9 (2-1)

San Diego Padres 1 (2-3)

Win: Jordan Hicks (1-0)

Loss: Dylan Cease (0-1)

Time: 3:04

Attendance: 37,104

By Stephen Ruderman

Jordan Hicks pitched five solid innings in his first start as a Giant, as the Giants exploded for six runs in the eighth inning to blow the game open, and the Padres scored five in the bottom of the ninth to turn it into a slugfest, but the Giants held on to win a wild one 9-6.

The Giants won their first game of the season last night behind a strong start by Kyle Harrison, and a big night by Matt Chapman. Tonight, the Giants looked to get over .500 for the first time this season, as they sent Jordan Hicks to the mound for his first start as a Giant.

The Giants signed Hicks, a right-handed flame-throwing reliever, over the off-season to convert him into a starter. Hicks had a 2.65 ERA over five starts in Spring Training, and he accumulated 28 strikeouts over 17 innings pitched. Hicks ended his spring with five no-hit innings against the Oakland A’s at the Oakland Coliseum Monday night.

Opposing Hicks was Dylan Cease, who was traded from the Chicago White Sox to the Padres during the spring.

With rain in the San Diego area, there was a question of whether this game would start on time, or even be played at all, but the rain moved out in the afternoon, thus the game was able to start on time, and both pitchers threw 1-2-3 innings in the first.

Matt Chapman struck out on a foul tip to start the top of the second, but Wilmer Flores walked, and Michael Conforto doubled Flores to third base. Thairo Estrada came up, and hit a sacrifice fly to center field to put the Giants on the board first. Tom Murphy, the Giants’ new backup catcher, who got the start today, lined a double to the wall in left to score Conforto and make it 2-0.

Hicks retired the first two men he faced in the bottom of the second, but he hit Jurickson Profar, and walked Tyler Wade. Hicks then fell behind 3-1 to Jackson Merrill, and was a ball away from loading the bases, but Hicks came back to strike out Merrill to end the inning.

Both teams went down 1-2-3 in the third, and Cease threw a 1-2-3 top of the fourth.

Hicks ran into trouble again in the bottom of the fourth. Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado singled to start the inning, and put runners at first and second with nobody out. Ha-seong Kim popped out to first on an infield fly, but Profar singled to right to load the bases with one out.

However, just like in the second inning, Hicks was able to settle down and escape trouble in the fourth, as he struck out Tyler Wade, and he got Merrill to line out to short to end the inning unscathed.

Hicks’ escape from trouble in the bottom of the fourth gave the Giants a shot in the arm going into the fifth. Murphy walked with one out, and Nick Ahmed reached on an error by Fernando Tatis Jr. out in right, which put runners at second and third for the Giants with one away. That brought up Jung-hoo Lee, who hit a sac fly to right to score Murphy, and that extended the Giants’ lead to 3-0.

Hicks then came back out, and threw a 1-2-3 shutdown bottom of the fifth. That would do it for Hicks, who gave up just three hits, and struck out six over five shutout innings.

The Padres got a brief reprieve, as Jhony Brito, who came in for Brito after Lee’s sac fly in the top of the fifth, threw a 1-2-3 top of the sixth. The lefty, Taylor Rogers, came in for the Giants in the bottom of the sixth, and surrendered a leadoff single to Cronenworth. Machado struck out swinging for the first out, and Kim popped out to first for the second out. However, Profar pulled a ball past Chapman at third, and down the left field line for a double to score Cronenworth, and put the Padres on the board to make it 3-1.

Brito and Rogers each threw 1-2-3 innings in the seventh, and Tom Cosgrove came in for Brito in the eighth. Ahmed was called out on striked, but Lee pulled a sweeper on the inside corner from Cosgrove, and hit his first big league home run to right to make it 4-1.

“We love watching him hit,” said Conforto. “Everybody is watching when he’s up there. Just his discipline, his eye at the plate, his ability to stay on pitches, stay through the middle of the field, and then obviously we saw a little bit of power, [and he has] a lot of power if he gets the right pitch. He’s been awesome. We’re just going to keep putting him at the top of the lineup, and let him set the tone for us.”

“It’s not about how I get evaluated, but back in the KBO, I had a lot of doubles and triples,” said Lee through his interpreter, Justin Han. “I’m putting the bat to the ball, and that’s what I’m thinking about now.”

The Giants were back up by three at 4-1, but they were not done. Jorge Soler reached on an infield hit to third; Austin Slater pinch-hit for LaMonte Wade Jr. and walked; and Chapman lined a single to left to load the bases. Flores then lined a base-hit to left to keep the line moving, as everyone moved up, and Soler scored to make it 5-1.

With the bases still loaded with one out, Michael Conforo came up, and hit a grand slam to right for his second home run of the year, and that blew the Giants’ lead wide open to 9-1. The Giants ended up scoring six runs in the top of the eighth.

“It was a cool at-bat to have with [the] bases loaded against that guy, he’s a good lefty,” said Conforto. “To battle and fight and kind of change my approach by the end of it, that felt really good.”

Conforto also discussed making a two-strike adjustment, something that has not been seen much in Baseball during the Three True Outcomes Era over the last six-to-eight years.

“[With two strikes], it’s time to fight and see it deep and shorten up the swing a little bit,” Conforto continued. “Kind of knew in the back of my mind at some point he would come back to the sinker and that ninth pitch he came back to it and I put a much better swing on it.”

Enyel De Los Santos came in for Cosgrove following Conforto’s grand slam, and gave up singles to Estrada and Ahmed, but escaped the inning without any further damage. Erik Miller, who threw a 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth in his major league debut in the opener Thursday, came in and pitched a scoreless bottom of the eighth.

The Giants went down 1-2-3 against Stephen Kolek in the top of the ninth, and Miller was back out for the Giants in the bottom of the ninth. Profar walked to start the inning, and Eguy Rosario hit a home run to left to make it 9-3. Jackson Merrill walked, and even though the Giants were up by six runs, the Padres’ offense was very much capable of making a big comeback, and Miller needed to bear down, which he did by striking out Kyle Higashioka.

Bob Melvin opted to bring in his closer, Camilo Doval, who had been warming up in the top of the ninth inning last night for a potential save situation, but after Matt Chapman hit his two-run bomb to give the Giants a five-run lead, Melvin went to Ryan Walker instead. Today, Doval was brought in to get some work, as he had yet to pitch in the Regular Season, but also out of respect for a powerful Padres offense.

Doval has been dominant as the Giants’ closers over the last two seasons, but he got off to rocky starts in each of the last two seasons. This season would be no different, as this game was about to get a lot more interesting. Doval walked Jose Azocar to put runners at first and second with one out; and then Graham Pauley came up, and hit a three-run home run to right to make it 9-6, as this game had suddenly turned into a slugfest

Once again, Doval had a rocky start to a season, but he settled down, as he got Cronenworth to ground out to second, and Manny Machado to ground out to third to end the game. What was a blowout turned into a very interesting game thanks to a five-run bottom of the ninth for the Padres, but the Giants ended up winning it 9-6.

In a big break from the majority of the last two seasons, the Giants’ offense has started out on fire. They are coming through in key RBI situations, and getting the big hits when needed.

The optimism within the Giants’ clubhouse during Spring Training has followed the team into the Regular Season.

“I feel like everything’s coming together at the right time, right at the beginning of the season,” said Conforto.

Through this wild game, Jordan Hicks got the win in the first start of his reliever-to-starter experiment, which has started out quite successfully, and Dylan Cease took the loss for the Padres

With this win, the Giants improve to 2-1, and are over .500 for the first time this season. The Giants can take the opening series with a win tomorrow afternoon. Even though there is more rain in the forecast for San Diego tomorrow morning, it will clear out well in time for the scheduled 1:10 first pitch.

News and Notes:

Daulton Jefferies will be called up to make the start tomorrow. The Giants signed Jefferies to a minor league deal over the off-season, and in five games and one start during Spring Training, he posted a 2.57 ERA over five innings.

Jefferies is not currently a member of the 40-man Roster, so a flurry of roster moves would be expected to be made tomorrow morning.

Camilo Doval once again has had a rocky start to a season. Like last year, Doval struggled with the Pitch Clock, as he had two pitch clock violations in his outing today. Bob Melvin said that he will have a talk with Doval about it.

Jung-hoo Lee expressed his gratitude for his fellow countryman, Ha-seong Kim. Lee said he believed that he would not have received his contract with the Giants if it was not for Kim. Lee also expressed hope that this will help bring more players from South Korea into Major League Baseball.