Ha Seong Kim (7) of the San Diego Padres is jubilant after crossing the plate after a second inning three run homer against catcher Patrick Bailey (left) and the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park in San Diego on Sun Mar 31, 2024 (AP News photo)

Sunday, March 31, 2024

Petco Park

San Diego, California

San Francisco Giants 4 (2-2)

San Diego Padres 13 (3-3)

Win: Pedro Avila (1-0)

Loss: Daulton Jefferies (0-1)

Time: 2:43

Attendance: 34,499

By Stephen Ruderman

The Padres blew out the Giants 13-4, as the Giants ended up getting a split in their opening series in San Diego.

The Giants lost on Opening Day Thursday by a final of 6-4, but had two strong offensive performances carry them to wins Friday and yesterday. Today, the Giants were looking to win their opening series with Daulton Jefferies being called up to make the start.

Jefferies pitched in a handful of games for the Oakland A’s in 2020, 2021 and 2022, but missed all of last season after having Tommy John Surgery. The Giants then signed Jefferies to a minor league deal over the winter.

Michael King got the start for the Padres, and after Jung-hoo Lee walked to start the game, King set down the next three Giants in order. Jefferies came out for the bottom of the first, and Xander Bogaerts reached on an error by the shortstop, Tyler Fitzgerald, who got the start today. 

Fernando Tatis Jr. came up, and hit a pop up into foul territory on the first base side that first-baseman Wilmer Flores chased, and lunged into the Padres’ dugout to try and catch. Flores was unable to catch the ball, but even worse, he tumbled over the railing of the dugout, and crashed hard. 

Manager Bob Melvin and Senior Director of Athletic Training Dave Groeschner went to the Padres’ dugout to check on Flores. They were able to get Flores up, and got him to walk back onto the field on his own. Flores had a cut on one of the fingers on his right hand, which Groeschner bandaged up, and Flores stayed in the game.

Tatis then hit a ground rule double that bounced up and over the wall in left that put runners on second and third base with nobody out for Jake Cronenworth. Jefferies’ first pitch to Cronenworth was a cutter at the top of the zone for a called strike, but the ball hit off of catcher Patrick Bailey’s mask, and sailed to the Padres’ on-deck circle, which allowed Bogaerts to score the first run of the game, and Tatis to go to third. 

Cronenworth grounded out to Flores at first, but Manny Machado lined a double into the gap in right-center field to score Tatis and make it 2-0 San Diego. Ha-seong Kim reached on an infield single to third, and Jurickson Profar grounded out to first for the second out. Runners were at first and second with two outs for catcher Luis Campusanocame, who came up and hit a three-run opposite-field home run to the jury box out in right to make it 5-0

Wilmer Flores was due to lead off the top of the top of the second, but in addition to the finger on his right hand that was bandaged up, he hit his right shoulder pretty hard as well on his tumble into the Padres’ dugout. Flores left the game with a right shoulder contusion, and he was pinch-hit for by Luis Matos, as the Giants went down quietly in the second.

Jefferies was back out for the bottom of the second, and immediately ran back into trouble. Jackson Merrill and Bogaerts both singled to start the inning. Tatis flew out to center, which advanced Merrill to third, and Cronenworth lined a double to right to knock in Merrill and make it 6-0.

Bogaerts, who advanced to third on Cronenworth’s double, was thrown out at the plate for the second out when Machado reached on a fielder’s choice, but Kim came up and hit a three-run home run to left to blow it open to 9-0.

“I’m happy to get back on the mound,” said Jefferies. “It was a long road, but at the end of the day, I didn’t really do my job. I could feel good all I want [about] getting back here, but when I got here, I wanted to compete and help the team win. I just didn’t do that today.”

The Giants went into the third down 9-0, but the Padres turned a 9-1 game into a 9-6 game yesterday, so in the Giants’ view, there was no reason why the Giants couldn’t make a comeback with seven innings remaining. Lee walked to start the inning, and LaMonte Wade Jr. walked with one out to put runners on second and third for the Giants, but hard-hit fly balls by Matt Chapman and Matos ended up being routine fly outs to end the inning.

Kai-Wei Teng came in for the Giants to make his major league debut in the bottom of the third inning, as became the first-ever Taiwanese-born player to appear in a game with the Giants, and the 17th in Major League Baseball history. However, Teng had a very rough first inning, as the Padres scored three runs off him to make it 12-0.

Michael Conforto, who has been off to a hot start for the Giants, walked to start the fourth, and Thairo Estrada hit a towering two-run home run to the front row of the second deck out in left-center to put the Giants on the board and make it 12-2.

Bailey and Lee drew walks, and were at first and second with one out for Jorge Soler, who hit a popup to shallow left-center that the shortstop, Kim, went out on and was unable to catch. Center-fielder Jackson Merrill, who had also come in on the ball, fielded it, and tried to nab Bailey at third, but the throw sailed away. 

It was originally believed that the bases were going to be loaded with one out, but the umpires called an infield fly on the play. The ball fell in shallow left-center field, but an infield fly is described as “any fair fly ball (not including a line drive or a bunt) which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort when first and second or first, second and third base are occupied, before two men are out.” 

Even though Kim was drifting back on the ball, it was in his general vicinity the entire time, which meant he could have caught it with ordinary effort, so the umpires made the correct call. Bob Melvin came out to argue the call, and was quite upset, but there was nothing he could do. The infield fly took the sails out of the Giants’ rally in the fourth, and really, any hope of coming back today. 

Teng pitched through a two-out base-hit in the bottom of the fourth, and pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fifth, so he ended his major league debut on a positive note.

The Giants scored two runs off of Pedro Avila in the top of the seventh. On the pitching side for the Giants, Ryan Walker pitched a scoreless bottom of the seventh, and Landed Roupp pitched a scoreless seventh.

Melvin decided to bring Tyler Fitzgerald in from short to pitch the bottom of the eighth, and the Padres scored a run off him to make it 13-4, which would be the final score.

“It was a tough day,” said Melvin. “[It was] a weird game all around,”

Since Avila replaced Michael King at the start of the fifth inning, it is Availa who got the win for the Padres, as starting pitchers have to go five full innings to get the win. Daulton Jefferies of course took the loss for the Giants.

The Giants fall to 2-2, and all they can do is move on and get ready for their three-game series in Los Angeles against the Dodgers that will start tomorrow night. Keaton Winn will be on the mound for the Giants, and first pitch will be at 7:10 p.m.

News and Notes:

• To clear a roster spot for Jefferies, who was not on the 40-man roster, the Giants designated catcher Joey Bart for assignment.

Bart was the Giants’ first-round pick, and the second overall pick in the 2018 Draft. Bart was originally believed to be the Giants’ catcher of the future, but he struggled when he was called up during the 60-game sprint season of 2020, and even though he was the opening day catcher for the Giants in 2022, he struggled that season as well.

Bart started last season on the Giants’ roster, but he did not make the start on Opening Day, and he ended up spending most of the season in the minors with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats.

Bart will have 10 days to either accept an assignment in the minors, or become a free agent.

• Wilmer Flores says he is still feeling sore, and will be reevaluated in Los Angeles tomorrow.

• Blake Snell pitched four innings, gave up three hits and struck out 11 in an extended spring training game against the Giants’ Double-A team in Scottsdale on Friday. 

“I feel good,” said Snell. “[I] just [want to] get more reps, get better and better [and] stronger and stronger. When we get out there, that will be the real tell of where I’m at, and what I need to work on.”

Manager Bob Melvin has not announced the Giants’ probable pitchers past tomorrow night’s game. With Snell expected to make his next start on Wednesday or Thursday, That could feasibly mean that Snell’s next start will come for the Giants against the Dodgers on Wednesday night.

Snell has already been expected to be ready to join the Giants when they host the Padres Friday for the Home Opener at Oracle Park.