San Francisco Giants pitcher Joel Peguero throws against the San Diego Padres in the bottom of the seventh inning at Petco Park in San Diego on Thu Aug 21, 2025 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

Despite a great start in this game taking a 2-0 lead through the third inning. the San Francisco Giants (61-67) lost to the San Diego Padres (72-56) 8-4 losing the four-game series 3-1 Thursday. The Giants got a great start but could not hang onto it.

The Padres outhit them 11-7. Verlander was looking very good until the fourth inning. He is getting no run support; many of these losses pinned on Verlander was not on him. Rafael Devers and Willy Adames both had solo home runs but when you are trailing significantly, solo’s do not get the job done. The San Francisco offense continues to putter along.

Game recap: The first two innings were quiet for both teams but San Francisco broke through in the third inning taking a 2-0 lead. Andrew Knizner doubled Luis Matos home for the 1-0 lead and then Heliot Ramos grounded into a double play allowing Knizner to score taking the 2-0 lead.

The San Francisco lead only lasted through the third inning. San Diego had a productive fourth inning coring two runs and tying up the game. Manny Machado singled Fernando Tatis Jr home and Xander Bogaerts hit a sacrifice fly and Luis Arraez scored for the 2-2 tally. It was a new ballgame.

Justin Verlander exited the game after 4 1/3 innings in another rough outing He had a great three opening inning but it all started to come apart in the fourth inning and continued into the fifth inning. He allowed seven hits, seven runs with four strikeouts. He was relieved by Matt Gage who got the Giants out of the inning.

The Padres were just getting started hitting lights out in the fifth inning scoring six runs. The Giants had a rough inning with a Casey Schmitt throwing error and a fielding error by Luis Matos allowing the Padres Ramon Laureano and Jake Cronenworth to both score taking their lead to 4-2.

Manny Machado doubled a couple of runners home; Freddy Fermin and Fernando Tatis Jr. both crossed home plate and San Diego was having a huge inning now leading 6-2. The hits just kept on coming for the Padres; Xander Bogaerts singled Machado home and Laureano singled Ryan O’Hearn home; when the dust had settled San Diego had a 8-2 lead.

After getting such a great start in the game, the Giants needed to not only stop the bleeding but to also start hitting. San Francisco answered in the sixth inning hitting a couple of solo home runs. Rafael Devers homered to right center and Willy Adames sent the ball sailing to center. They had cut the Padres lead in half but still had some work to do.

Neither team scored in the seventh inning and the Giants had a quiet eighth inning with the score remaining 8-4. The game went into the ninth inning and San Francisco was down to their last three outs. Christian Koss struck out, Luis Matos lined out, Patrick Bailey struck out and that was the ball game 8-4 in favor of the Padres.

Game notes: Thursday afternoon the Giants finished off their four-game series losing three out of four games in San Diego. After winning the first game of the series, the Giants dropped the next three games. They lost game three Wednesday night 8-1. Despite his record Verlander, had had some good games but just didn’t have the team support needed to win those games.

The Giants need to have some far better offense. The Padres have been dominant in the last two games and had better offense to win the series. The Padres started Dylan Cease who went five innings allowed six hits and four earned runs. Verlander went 4.1 innings, and allowed seven hits and seven earned runs..

After this most disappointing series the Giants will be off to Milwaukee for a three game series with the Brewers that gets underway Friday night. The Brewers are the first team this season to reach 80 wins and they are favored in this series.

San Francisco will have Carson Whisenhunt on the mound with a 1-1 win/loss record and a 5.02 ERA. The Brewers will start Jose Quintara. He has a 10-4 win/loss record and a 3.32 ERA.