Author: jeremy2878

By Jeremy Harness

Rory McIlroy roared back from a late deficit to move on to Saturday’s round of 16. Meanwhile, Keegan Bradley and Miguel Angel Jimenez roared at each other.

The top-seeded McIlroy, who had never had the lead in regulation and was two holes down to defending FedEx Cup champion Billy Horschel heading into the 17th hole, rolled in three straight birdies to extend the match into extra holes.

Down the stretch, the difference was the short game and the putter. After hitting two good shots, Horschel had a chance to close it out at the par-5 18th by getting it up and down for birdie from just off the green. However, he hit a poor chip shot and missed his lengthy birdie putt while McIlroy two-putted for his birdie to extend the match.

Horschel again hit a great drive and hit his second shot just off the green into the rough on the first extra hole while McIlroy wound up 20 yards right of the green after his second shot. However, he hit another bad chip that left him a long putt for birdie, which he missed. However, McIlroy missed his birdie putt as well to extend the match.

The difference in short game skill sealed the deal at the ensuing par-3. McIlroy wound up in the greenside bunker while Horschel left his shot in the thick rough on the left side of the green, with an angle that forced him to hit a difficult flop shot.

While Horschel saw his pitch run far past the hole and failed to get up and down, McIlroy hit a beautiful sand shot that checked up only three feet from the hole, which he easily converted to punch his ticket to the next round.

“I think over the last three days, I’ve only made one bogey,” McIlroy said. “So if guys are wanting to beat me, they’re going to have to make birdies on holes, and (I’m) just not giving holes away. I think that was very important.”

While the best player in the world is moving on, the second-best player is not. Lee Westwood spoiled things for Jordan Spieth on Friday, beating the defending Masters champion and a player who rolled through the first two rounds this week, 2-up.

“I had nothing to lose,” Westwood said. “Jordan’s arguably the best player in the world right now. I’m pleased with the way I played and got through.”

Said Spieth after the round: “No complaints. It’s just a challenging group, and it’s match play. What are you going to do? I’m excited about the way I’m playing.”

Bradley and Jimenez also made things interesting around the course on Friday, but it didn’t have nearly as much to do with golf. In an otherwise-meaningless match between two guys that entered Friday with 0-2 records this week, there was a disagreement regarding the kind of drop that Bradley needed to take after an errant shot at the 18th.

While a rules official was on hand to give a ruling, Jimenez made his way over to the area to give his opinion. He then got into a disagreement with Bradley’s caddie and, at one point, told him to “shut up.”

At that point, Bradley got into Jimenez’s face, and it appeared that there was a strong possibility of a physical confrontation, but the two eventually separated.

Jimenez eventually won the hole – and the match – but that was rendered unimportant.

“It’s very rare when you’re getting a ruling with a rules official standing there to have another person kind of interject and be very over-the-top accusatory,” Bradley said. “He’s a great player out here, but I have to be able to stick up for myself when I feel like something’s wrong.”

Said Jimenez: “I think my intention was to be helpful, that’s it.”

By Jeremy Harness

Going into the Cadillac Match Play at TPC Harding Park, the common thought was that things will continue to be interesting throughout.

So far, it has lived up to all of that, as all but two groups will have to be settled on Friday, the final day of pool play before the tournament moves to the single-elimination round of 16, which starts Saturday morning.

Those who have already advanced and will play stress-free rounds on Friday are third-seeded Rickie Fowler and John Senden, the 60-seed.

Fowler, the top player in his group, won his first two matches and sealed his place in the round of 16 by beating Shane Lowry, 1-up, Thursday afternoon. The reason why Fowler has advanced ahead of most groups was that Lowry and Harris English, whom Fowler beat on Wednesday, are the only players in the group that have a chance of going 2-1 if they win their Friday matches.

“(Getting) into the weekend is nice to kind of have a day where (I) kind of continue to see what I need to work on,” Fowler said. “The game hasn’t been perfect the last few days, (but) luckily I’ve been able to get enough out of it to win my matches.

“If we can tighten the swing up, continue to make some putts, it’s going to be a really fun weekend.”

As for Senden, who upset Henrik Stenson in extra holes on Wednesday and took down Bill Haas, 4 and 3, on Thursday, he is also looking forward to the next round and will use Friday’s match to stay sharp.

“(I’ve) just got to go out there and play my game, stay aggressive and, hopefully, knock few birdies in and put the pressure on,” Senden said.

Most of the other groups have different scenarios that will play out on the final day of pool play, but four of them will feature winner-take-all matches, two of them involving the best players in the world.

Rory McIlroy, the world’s No. 1 player, defeated AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am winner Brandt Snedeker on Thursday, will face defending FedEx Cup champion Billy Horschel, who took down Jason Dufner in the second round.

Meanwhile, Jordan Spieth, who has run into no real obstacles in winning his first two matches, figures to have a fight on his hands against Lee Westwood to determine the winner of that group.

In the fourth group, Bubba Watson and Louis Oosthuizen, who battled in a playoff for the 2012 Masters title, will face each other again to decide who advances there. Watson got the better of Oosthuizen to win his first green jacket, and the South African will try to get even on Friday.

Gary Woodland and Webb Simpson, who won the 2012 U.S Open at the Olympic Club, TPC Harding park’s neighbor course, will square off in the 11th group in the final winner-moves-on contest.

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – Most PGA Tour players look forward to this match-play tournament each year, for the simple fact that it’s a break from the monotony that is stroke-play competition all year long.

And now, the way that this tournament is being played has changed, and players were looking forward to the new format.

In years past, the World Golf Championships Cadillac Match Play had been played in the manner of the single-elimination NCAA basketball tournament. However, the one being held this week at San Francisco’s TPC Harding Park, is a lot more like the World Cup of soccer.

The 64-player field is divided into 16 four-player groups and has begun playing round-robin matches with their particular group on Wednesday and will continue to do so on Thursday and Friday. The player with the best record in each group will advance to the round of 16 for single-elimination match play that commences Saturday morning.

When that stage concludes, the quarterfinals will be held Saturday afternoon and be followed by the semifinals on Sunday morning. The third-place match, as well as the one for the title, will take place Sunday afternoon.

With that said, there was no shortage of lower seeds beating higher-ranked players on Wednesday, which was the first day of the competition.

“There were a ton of upsets already from what I’ve seen,” said Jason Day, who himself was knocked off 4 and 3 (Day was down four holes with three left to play) to Charley Hoffmann on Wednesday. “But no one’s a favorite here in formats like this. You really have to go out and still – no matter who it is – win that match and try and get through to the next round.

“It doesn’t matter who you’re playing; you can’t underestimate what they’re playing like leading up to the event.”

Among other higher-ranked players who learned the hard way was Justin Rose, fresh off of his win at last weekend’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, who fell to Marc Leishman, 3 and 2.

John Senden was another surprise winner on Wednesday, as the No. 60 seed took down the third-seeded Henrik Stenson in 19 holes in a match that Senden trailed by one going into the 18th and final hole in regulation.

Meanwhile, the two top players in the world took care of their business, as No.1 Rory McIlroy defeated Jason Dufner by a 5-and-4 count, while Jordan Spieth, this year’s Masters winner, was a 4-and-2 winner over Mikko Ilonen.

“It’s good to get off to a good start,” Spieth said after his round. “It got a little interesting on the back nine, (but) I’m extremely pleased.”

The shot of the day was turned in by Ben Martin, who was all square with Matt Kuchar after 16 holes. Martin pulled out a hybrid club at the par-3 17th hole, and his ball hit the middle of the green and rolled into the hole for an ace that put him ahead by one.

That proved to be the difference, as both men missed their birdie putts at the 18th, and Martin pulled off the minor upset.

“I’d say under the circumstances, (it was) definitely the best shot I’ve ever hit,” Martin said. “I knew it was on a good line, but I looked down, and then it was almost too far to see it go in.”

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – Lydia Ko is the only champion the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic has ever known. The only real difference is that this year, besides the need for a playoff, she has switched her eyewear from thick glasses to contacts.

Ko, who just turned 18 on Friday, drained a five-footer for birdie on the second playoff hole with Morgan Pressel to win this event held at Lake Merced Golf Club for the second straight year.

She began her final round in the fourth position and trailing by three shots, and she didn’t get off to a very good start. She bogeyed the first two holes and actually had two more bogeys on the back nine, but she hung in there and kept giving herself a chance by making several key putts that resulted in six birdies, including an eight-footer at the 72nd hole of regulation to force the playoff.

The two players both made par on the first playoff hole, and each had a good look at a birdie on the second extra hole. Pressel had a 12-footer for her birdie, which she missed, and moments later, Ko put hers in the center of the cup to conclude matters.

It was the sixth career win in only two years on the LPGA Tour for Ko, who was recently named Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.

“Every hole is pretty nerve-racking, but to be in a playoff, that was double the pressure,” she said. “Morgan had been playing so well the whole week, and she’s a tough player to beat, but I had to concentrate on my game. That’s all I can do.

“Obviously, I would love to have the lead going into a final round, but it ended up being OK today.”

Pressel teed off Sunday trailing by a single stroke but took the lead at the third hole, and she expanded it by rolling in a 40-foot putt for an eagle three holes later. She dropped a shot at the seventh but got it right back on the very next hole to keep her lead intact.

She began to come back to the group on the back nine with three bogeys on holes 12 through 16, opening the door for Ko to use her superior putting to get back into the hunt and eventually track her down.

“She’s very, very impressive and always there,” Pressel said of Ko. “At her age, she plays with so much poise and calmness I don’t think you see from other kids her age.”

However, Ko herself said, don’t let the exterior fool you.

“I do get nervous; you have to take my word on that,” she said. “I think everybody has nerves. Some people show it, some people don’t. But to me, even just playing a round of golf with club members gets me nervous.”

Brooke Henderson, the 17-year-old from Canada, was the 54-hole leader but lost that advantage early on, as she bogeyed the first two holes and just did not seem to be in sync the entire round.

Especially damaging was a three-putt bogey that she took on the 12th hole, when after reaching the green on the tough, uphill par-3, she missed a two-foot par putt while Pressel bogeyed that hole as well.

“I just wasn’t 100 percent comfortable (over the ball), and I hit it harder than I should have,” Henderson said. “Putts have to go in with the perfect weight, and when you hit them too firm, that’s what happens.”

She then dropped another shot on the next hole, as she was unable to get it up and down from the thick greenside rough. She quickly got two shots back at the 14th, however, as she rolled it in from the sand for an eagle to immediately lift her spirits and get her right back on track.

Pressel, though, answered with a tap-in birdie to push the lead back to two shots.

At about the same time, however, Ko drained a 40-footer for birdie at the 15th to leap-frog Henderson and get within a stroke of the lead but made a bogey at the 16th to fall into a second-place tie.

Henderson had another chance to get one in close at the 17th, as she had 73 yards for her approach. However, she hit her wedge shot a bit thin, and she ended up near the back of the green while the pin was located in front. She was able to two-putt for par to keep the deficit down to a single stroke, but it was chalked up as an opportunity gone by the wayside.

Ko did her part to put pressure on Pressel, making birdie at the 18th in front of her to tie her at the top of the leaderboard. Pressel herself left herself a 12-foot birdie chance to win the tournament, but she left the putt just short, and after she tapped in for her par, the playoff was on.

Henderson could not join Ko and Pressel, however. Her tee shot at the par-5 18th hit a rake located just outside of a fairway bunker, leaving her with an awkward stance for her second shot. As a result, she ended up with a slightly-longer approach than usual – 156 yards – and although she hit the green and had a reasonable look at a birdie, she missed the 20-footer and finished a shot back.

“I learned a lot from today,” said Henderson, who will get on an airplane en route to the Dallas area for a Monday qualifier to get into next weekend’s Volunteers of America North Texas Shootout. “I didn’t play my best, but it was fun just to be there and be in contention most of the day.

“(Being in the playoff) would have been nice, but a third (place) finish is definitely a confidence booster moving forward.”

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – Fifty-four-hole leader Brooke Henderson and Morgan Pressel will be playing in the final group on Sunday at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic, and the outcome could have big implications for either player.

For Pressel, a victory would be her first on the LPGA Tour in seven years, while a win for Henderson would likely mean a complete change in her playing status altogether. To make things more interesting, the two are only separated by a single stroke.

That’s because Pressel made a big move on Saturday, shooting a five-under 67 to catapult herself into a tie for second place.

Heading into the 13th hole, she was one under par for her day with two birdies against one bogey. She then caught fire, racking up four birdies in the final six holes, including a tap-in at the par-5 18th to wrap up the lowest round of the day.

Pressel’s round was especially impressive due to the fact that the conditions were very windy and severely limited scoring opportunities otherwise. In fact, the second-lowest round on Saturday was turned in by Min Seo Kwak, whose three-under 69 was aided by a hole-out eagle at the ninth.

“I wouldn’t say it was the absolute very best I could’ve played, but I certainly kept control of the golf ball in the wind,” said Pressel, who finished third in the ANA Inspiration three weeks ago and one shot out of a playoff. “I was very, very solid with the putter today as well.”

Playing two groups behind Pressel, Kwak also birdied the 18th to move into a second-place tie and will also play in the final grouping on Sunday.

Meanwhile, after playing with a nice cushion for most of the past two days, Henderson came back to the rest of the group. She bogeyed each of the last two holes, as her once-sizable lead was cut down to just one heading into the final day.

“If someone told me that I would be leading after three rounds, I would have taken it,” said Henderson, the 17-year-old who just graduated high school in Canada this past December.

Henderson’s playing status, however, is a bit interesting. Although she is able to get into tournaments by qualifying on the Monday before a given event, she is currently not an official tour player and is playing on a sponsor’s exemption for the Swinging Skirts.

The way that exemption works is that a sponsor, which has to be sponsoring the event, can exempt a certain group of players so that they don’t have to go through the Monday qualifying.

The LPGA Tour technically has an age limit of 18, which currently prevents Henderson from being on the tour and forces her to either get a sponsor’s exemption or Monday qualify in order to play.

Exceptions are made to that rule, however, as in the cases of Lydia Ko, who just turned 18 on Friday and is in her second year on the tour. Lexi Thompson, who joined the tour at age 17 three years ago, is another example.

According to tour officials, exceptions are only made with a successful petition to the tour’s commissioner Michael Whan, which Henderson’s was not. Henderson, to her credit, took the high road when asked about that on Saturday.

“I mean, a rule is a rule,” she said. “Everything happens for a reason. It just wasn’t my time, and it wasn’t meant to be.

“I respect the decision by the commissioner, and I respect everybody that had a say in it. But I’m hoping to play out here on the LPGA someday, and hopefully sooner than later.”

A Henderson victory come Sunday can completely change that, however. She can re-petition at any time, and seeing her hoist the trophy after 72 holes would logically enter Whan’s thought process if he receives another petition.

That is, if she has to enter one at all.

Meanwhile, Ko shot a one-under 71 on Saturday and is currently three strokes behind Henderson. She had a birdie and a bogey on the front nine, and after a bogey at the 11th, she birdied two of the next three holes but could not make up any more ground.

“Obviously I would love to be closer, but it was tough out there,” Ko said. “Even when you’ve got a two-footer, you’re still thinking about it because of the wind.”

After an opening round of 68 that put her in the thick of things right off the bat, 54-year-old Los Altos native Juli Inkster has leveled off and was not able to make up any ground on Saturday.

She started the day with two straight bogeys, and it didn’t get much better after that. She had a pair of birdies, but she was also victimized by five bogeys that dropped her into a tie for 24th. Inkster will tee off at 11:17 am PST with Thompson and Chella Choi.

By Jeremy Harness

The LPGA Tour has seen its share of teenage stars grab the spotlight, and this week has been no different.

Brooke Henderson, who herself is only 17 years old, roared into the lead on Friday after an eye-opening round of 65 in the second round of the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic.

The round was the lowest in tournament history, and that it was good enough to take a two-shot advantage while fellow teenager Lydia Ko fell toward the back of the pack a bit.

“It’s pretty cool,” said Henderson, who has been on Canada’s national team for the past two years and has split time this year on the Symetra Tour – the minor leagues of the LPGA Tour – and the big tour. “I’ve been focusing on (the fast greens) for the past couple days.

“I was able to do a good job and then capitalize on my opportunities.”

Henderson used her putter to do just that. After hitting 16 greens in regulation in the opening round to shoot a two-under 70, she hit only 12 greens on Friday but only had 25 putts in the process while putting 32 times on Thursday.

As for Ko, she shot an even-par 72 to fall into a tie for fifth place heading into the weekend.

“I really didn’t get anything going,” aid Ko, who celebrated her 18th birthday on Friday. “When that happens, it’s really hard.

“Putts weren’t really rolling in,” she continued. “When they’re close but not falling, at the end of the day, you’re going to have an average score.”

By Jeremy Harness

On the day before she turns 18, Lydia Ko, the world’s No. 1 female golfer, returned to a familiar position in the first round: on top.

Ko, who won this tournament last year, shot an opening-round 67 to grab the early lead at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic at Lake Merced Golf Club on Thursday.

“I hit the ball pretty good where I wasn’t in too much trouble,” she said. “(But) this is a very tough golf course. You need to position yourself well, and even if you’re in the fairway, sometimes it’s really hard to hold it on the green.”

She certainly hit her share of fairways (11 of her 14 tee shots found the short grass), while also hitting 13 greens to maximize her opportunities to score.

Right behind her, however, is 54-year-old Northern California native Juli Inkster, who fired a five-under 67 to go into the second day of the tournament one shot off the lead and tied for second place.

Inkster had a very nice-sized gallery for the opening round, and it is only expected to grow as long as she keeps playing the way she is.

“It’s always nice to be able to sleep min your own bed and drive a little north of (the) 280 (freeway),” said Inkster, who added that she has several fellow players staying at her house for the weekend.

However, while one NorCal native is enjoying one of her finest outings in some time, another had one that she would rather forget very quickly. Pleasanton native Paula Creamer shot a 10-over 82 on Thursday, having a miserable time on the greens – she had 34 putts in the opening round, including a pair of damaging three-putts – and only hit 11 of 18 greens.

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – The Giants, who had looked nothing like the defending World Series champs for the first couple of weeks of the season, have suddenly reverted back to championship form against their hated rivals.

A night after Tim Lincecum shut down the Dodgers in the series opener Tuesday, Joe Panik’s sac fly brought in pinch runner Gregor Blanco to give the Giants a dramatic 3-2 win before a crowd of 42,259 at AT&T Park, after the much-anticipated Madison Bumgarner-Clayton Kershaw throwdown was declared a draw.

Bumgarner had the advantage for much of the game, but he relinquished that after he gave up a two-run homer to Alex Guerrero to tie the game in the seventh inning. He was then taken out of the game, and, since Guerrero had pinch-hit for him, so was Kershaw.

The Giants’ bullpen, which had not been as sharp as it was in key moments last year, was brilliant on Wednesday, as George Kontos, Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla combined to keep the Dodgers off the scoreboard the rest of the way.

The Giants loaded the bases with one out, and even after the Dodgers crowded the infield by inserting an extra player – right fielder Yasiel Puig, in this case – at third. It didn’t matter, as Panik flied to deep right, and Blanco scored easily to give the second baseman his first career walk-off RBI.

“It was a nice piece of hitting,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “He didn’t play around. He hit the first pitch he saw, and it was a pitch he could handle. He’s gotten a lot better at-bats. He’s got great poise.”

As for the starters, Bumgarner surrendered a pair of runs on six hits while striking out six and walking two, while Kershaw also gave up two runs on only three hits while issuing only one walk against nine strikeouts.

“Both of them threw the ball very well,” Bochy said. “I look forward to a matchup like this. I thought it would be a tight ballgame, and we did some little things (to win), and that was the difference in the ballgame.”

For the first two innings, Bumgarner v. Kershaw was shaping up to be the pitching duel that it always seems to be expected, when the completely unexpected happened in the third inning.

Joaquin Arias, who entered Wednesday’s game batting .143, led off the inning with a single, which Brandon Crawford followed by drawing a walk after an epic battle with Kershaw, perhaps the most dominant regular-season starting pitcher in baseball.

Bumgarner himself moved things forward for the Giants’ offense. He seemed to back out completely in his attempt to lay down a bunt – as if he were just trying to just make the slightest contact and then get the heck out of the way – but he was successful in landing the ball down the third-base line and move the runners up.

Arias then scored on Nori Aoki’s grounder, and then Matt Duffy’s single brought in Crawford to give the Giants a 2-0 lead.

In the sixth inning, as a sign that things were going the Giants’ way, Aoki, who led off the inning with a single, was picked off of first by more than five feet. However, he was somehow able to evade the tag of first baseman Justin Turner and make it back to the bag safely.

But that was rendered moot when Aoki was caught stealing second two pitches later, and the Giants could not do any more damage against Kershaw.

That proved to be costly in the seventh, as after a leadoff single, Guerrero crushed a stray Bumgarner fastball and sent it midway into the left-field seats to tie the game up.

Guerrero, who entered Wednesday with a .400 average, is now 3-for-4 in his career at AT&T Park.

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – In his first outing of the year, we were reminded of what Tim Lincecum is still capable of doing. It didn’t take very long to be reminded of what he cannot do anymore.

After throwing seven shutout innings at the Padres Friday night that brought back memories of his Cy Young Award-winning days, Lincecum lost his command – and the strike zone – in the first inning Wednesday night. With his decreased velocity and, thus, inability to get away with the mistakes in pitch location that he once had, he paid dearly for it.

Charlie Blackmon led off the game with a walk and Troy Tulowitzki followed up with a single to put some pressure on. However, Lincecum rallied and was only a strike away from getting out of the jam in when he caught too much of the plate to Nolan Arenado, and the third baseman took him deep to give Colorado a 3-0 lead.

The Giants could not recover from that setback, blowing opportunities to get back into the game as they lost their sixth game in a row, 4-2, before 41,188 disappointed fans at AT&T Park, including the first three home games of the 2015 season. In fact, Wednesday marked the first time that they have been swept in a season-opening home series since 2000, which happened to be the inaugural season at this ballpark.

In other words, it’s not the way the Giants expected to celebrate their World Series title of a season ago, to be sure.

Lincecum (1-1) was able to steady the ship, keeping the Rockies scoreless for the next three innings before being pulled for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the fifth. He finished surrendering those four runs on six hits while walking one batter and striking out four. The deficit is manageable for a lot of teams, but it seems like more of a death sentence for the Giants’ offense.

To their credit, the Giants did show minor signs of life during Wednesday’s game after the Rockies dropped the three-spot on them, but they still drew mostly blanks when it was time to fire the big shot.

Colorado starter Tyler Matzek (1-0) also had something to do with that, as he went six innings and gave up a single run on five hits, walking only one and striking out three others. For the Giants, though, this has been increasingly commonplace.

Down 4-1, Gregor Blanco, for instance, delivered instant excitement with a one-out triple while pinch-hitting for Lincecum in the fifth. That was quickly extinguished when, once again, the Giants failed to bring him in and remained in a three-run hole.

The Giants continued that unpleasant theme in the eighth, after Matt Duffy inched the Giants closer with his first major-league home run, a solo shot that narrowed the Giants’ deficit to two. Pagan then singled and Buster Posey walked right behind him, but the Giants failed to bring either man around, wasting yet another opportunity.

With that, the Giants have now gone 4-for-47 with runners in scoring position in their past seven games, which certainly paints a picture as to why they now sit with a 3-7 record.

NOTES: Nori Aoki entered Wednesday’s game with a 17-game hitting streak that dated back to Sept. 21, but that came to an end against Colorado, as the left fielder went 0-for-3 and getting hit by a pitch in the first inning.

By Jeremy Harness

Despite the hits the Giants have taken via free agency as well as injuries, this season is starting to shape up like the beginning of the 2014 campaign.

Justin Maxwell, who made the Giants out of spring training as a non-roster invitee, came through with a pinch-hot single in the top of the 12th inning to bring in Brandon Crawford and lift the Giants past the San Diego Padres, 1-0, in the Padres’ home opener at Petco Park.

The Giants seemed to catch a break in the third inning, when Padres starter Ian Kennedy, a perennial Giant-killer, had to leave the game after throwing a pitch to Nori Aoki and feeling tightness in his hamstring.

The extent of his injury was not immediately known at press time, and there is no timetable for his return at this time.

However, that was not the case. Four other Padres hurlers kept the Giants off the scoreboard until Maxwell victimized reliever Nick Vincent to ruin the afternoon of a whole lot of fedora-wearing Padres fans.

Meanwhile, Tim Hudson fired zeroes at the Padres and pitched into the seventh inning while giving up only five hits in the process, even though he also surrendered five walks. He gave way to Jeremy Affeldt, who shut down the Padres fir the remainder of the seventh.

The Giants’ bullpen then combined to give up only two hits the rest of the way, and after the Giants grabbed the lead, closer Santiago Casilla pitched a perfect 12th inning to earn the save and give the Giants a 3-1 record.

The Giants have three more games in San Diego before making their home debut on Monday for a three-game series with the Colorado Rockies, to be followed by a four-gamer with Arizona and a three-game set with the defending NL West champ Los Angeles Dodgers.