San Diego Padres Eric Hosmer makes it into first coasting as San Francisco Giants first baseman Wilmer Flores can’t find the handle on the ball as Giants pitcher John Brebbia watches the play unfold at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Sun May 22, 2022 (AP News photo)
San Diego. 10. 17. 0
San Francisco. 1. 4. 1
Sunday May 22, 2022
By Lewis Rubman
SAN FRANCISCO–Hoping to salvage one game of what had been ahard fought three game series against the San Diego Padres, the 22-17 San Francisco Giants sent veteran left hander Alex Wood (3-2,3.93) to battle against the 26-14 friars.
When the game was over, the Giants stood at 22-18, the Padres at 27-14, and Wood at 3-3, 4.82. He had lasted a scant three innings plus and was charged with five runs on eight hits and two walks. He threw 73 pitches, 50 of which were strikes. Of course, every batted ball from a weak foul through a home run counts as a strike. But he did strike out four opponents.
The Giants’ starter, who features a four seamer, change up, curve, and slider, was matched against fellow southpaw MacKenzie Gore (2-1,2.17 at game time), the third overall pick in the 2017 draft, This was the first time he pitched against an NL West rival.
He threw three shutout innings against the Phillies last Tuesday, the first and only time he pitched out of the bullpen in his professional career. He has the same inventory of deliveries as Wood, although he uses them in a different order of frequency.
The San Diego prospect left, assured of his third victory, after six brilliant innings in which he surrendered one run, earned, on three hits a walk, striking out a half a dozen Giants. He threw 90 pitches, 54 for strikes and reduced his ERA to 2.06.
Before the game, the Giants announced that they had placed Brandon Belt on the 10 day injured list effective May 19 as a result of the inflammation of his right knee.They recalled third baseman Kevin Padlo from the PCL, where he was hitting a combined .238 for Tacoma and Sacramento.
The visitors jumped out to an early lead. The Manny You Love to Hate laced into Wood’s first pitch to him, a sinker, for a one out double to left center and came around to score on Jurickson Profar’s infield single and Wil Myers’ single to left.
They doubled down on that one run in the second on a leadoff double by Ha-Seong Kim, a double to left center by Austin Nola, and Jake Cronenworth’s sac fly to center.
Wood managed to hold the Padres to a single in the third, but he couldn’t resist their onslaught in the fourth. Nola led off with a full count walk and moved up to second on Azocar’s single to center.
After smacking a splash foul, Jake Cronenworth brought Nola home with a single to center that moved Azocar to third and ended the day for Wood. Mashing Manny greeted John Brebbia, Wood’s successor, with a double that would have been a single if Darin Ruf hadn’t attempted a diving catch in left.
That brought in both runners, and it was 5-0, Pads. Profar grounded out to third, and Hosmer hit an in offensive grounder to first that Flores bobbled for an error.
San Diego’s first sacker advanced to second on a passed ball. Both he and Machado then crossed the plate on Myers’ rule book double to left. At last, Nola, who had walked to start the inning, struck out to end it.
The long wait in the dugout for the top of the fourth to end seemed to affect pitching. He walked Ruf on four pitches, and Yaztremski drove an 87 mph slider against the wall in right center for a double, sending Ruf to third. He scored on Flores’s sac fly to right.
It took only three pitches for Gore to fan Longoria, so when Azocar corralled Crawford’s drive in the deepest part of centerfield, it was the third out and the end of the Giants’ micro rally.
Jack Littell, replacing Brebbia in the fifth, became the third San Francisco hurler to be scored upon. He managed to retire the first two men he faced, but the third was Machado, who bettered his earlier double by a base with a triple to right center. He waltzed home on Profar’s single to right, and San Diego was up 8-1.
One inning later, and Littell still was on the mound. Myers hit a grounder to short that ate up Crawford and wound up as a single in left center. Then Luke Voit lifted a fly to left. Ruf went back for it, then came in for it, then looked at loss, and finally picked it up after it fell for a single that allowed Myers to score the Pad’s ninth run.
Voit went to third on Kim’ double to left and took San Diego’s run total into double digits on Azocar’s RBI groundout to short.
It was the turn of Mauricio Llovera, starting the seventh, to be bedeviled by Machado, who lashed a ground ball at Crawford, who once again was just a fraction of a second late in gathering in the ball, which skipped by him into left center field while Manny motored into second with a leg double. But Llovera held firm and escaped unscored upon.
Craig Stammen relieved Gore in the seventh and set San Francisco down in order. Luis Gonzalez in a reprise of his performance against Albert Pujols pulled a Pablo, and pitched a perfect top of the eighth.
He then hit a one out single in the home half of the inning. The Padres managed one hit, a Cronenworth two bagger off the right field wall in the ninth, but González closed out his line with two scoreless innings.
Steven Wilson set the Giants down 1-2-3 to close out the dismal game and series.
The NL East leading Mets come to town tomorrow to test the meddle of the faltering orange and gold. Game time is 6:45. David Peterson (1-0,1.89) will throw for the New Yorkers, and Alex Cobb (3-1,5.61) will take the mound for the Giants.
