Photo courtesy of sbnation.com: San Francisco Giants Gorkys Hernandez admires his 12 inning home run that would be the game winner at Petco Park in San Diego on Monday night
By Morris Phillips
Needing somebody to do something–anything, for goodness sakes–the Giants had the call answered by Gorkys Hernandez on Monday night.
Hernandez’ majestic home run in the 12th inning off San Diego’s Matt Strahm broke a 3-3 tie and propelled the Giants to a 5-3 win over the Padres. The win brought the Giants’ record to 54-54, the 19th time they’ve stood exactly at .500 in 2018.
The Giants took the early lead on Monday with Chase d’Arnaud’s three-run homer off starter Eric Lauer in the second inning. On Twitter, Padres beat writer Dennis Lin astutely pointed out the irony of d’Arnaud’s third home run as a Giant, on the second pitch of his first at-bat against his former team, the Padres. That after D’Arnaud homered once in his 49 career at-bats as a Padre.
But as has happened so many times this season, the Giants’ offense took a siesta after d’Arnaud connected, and their early lead evaporated. While the Padres came up with the tying run off reliever Mark Melancon in the eighth, the Giants somehow survived innings six through 10 on one hit, Buster Posey’s infield single in the 10th.
With the game in extras, and the Giants’ offense possibly done for the evening, Hernandez stepped up and seized the game for the visitors, and in doing so seemingly bucked every negative trend the Giants have been forced to bear this season.
GAME NOTES: Johnny Cueto, who had complained recently of discomfort in his elbow, was placed on the 10-day disabled list. Cueto has been on the list twice previously this season, the first time in April, when the issue again was also his elbow. Both Kelby Tomlinson and Joe Panik were recalled from Triple-A Sacramento and were available on Monday. Pablo Sandoval landed on the disabled list, hobbled by a hamstring injury that ended his afternoon prematurely on Sunday against the Brewers.
UP NEXT: The Giants and Padres will close out their series Wednesday afternoon at 1:05 pm PDT.
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