San Francisco Giants manager Bob Melvin (left) and pitching coach Bryan Price (right) watch the Giants and San Diego Padres in the ninth inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Sun Sep 15, 2024 (AP News photo)
Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024
Oracle Park
San Francisco, California
San Diego Padres 4 (85-65)
San Francisco Giants 3 (72-78)
Win: Robert Suarez (9-3)
Loss: Camilo Doval (5-3)
Save: Adrian Morejon (2)
Time: 2:42
Attendance: 33,043
By Stephen Ruderman
SAN FRANCISCO–The Padres completed their sweep of the Giants with a 4-3 win in 10 innings, as the Giants have dropped four straight to tie their season-low six games under .500.
Prior to the game, the Giants held a celebration of life for the late hall-of-famer, Orlando Cepeda on a gorgeous and windy partly cloudy fall day on the shores of McCovey Cove. The ceremony was emceed by Giants’ broadcasters Erwin Higueros and Mike Krukow. Numerous guests spoke, including fellow Hall-of-Famer Juan Marichal, Dusty Baker and Cepeda’s granddaughter.
Before it was over, Krukow read a statement made by Willie Mays, who passed ten days before Cepeda. Mays considered Cepeda a little brother and told the story of how Cepeda was a bat boy when Mays played winter ball in Puerto Rico in 1954.
Sunday was Roberto Clemente Day around Major League Baseball, and all uniformed personnel wore a special patch to commemorate the occasion. Players throughout the league also had the option of wearing Clemente’s number 21. Heliot Ramos wore number 21 for the Giants. Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and David Peralta wore number 21 for the Padres.
Mike Yastrzemski, who did not wear number 21 Sunday, was honored prior to the game in a short ceremony as the Giants’ nominee for the 2024 Roberto Clemente Award. The award is given annually to the player who best represents the game of Baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.
Anyway, the Giants had been shutout in three-straight games, marking the first time they suffered through that humiliation since June 23-25, 1992. The Giants were also looking to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Padres.
Melvin held a team meeting following Saturday night’s loss and made clear that the way they were playing was not cutting it. Prior to the game Sunday, Melvin had his players go through infield practice, something that happens more in spring training, to try and fix some of their defensive miscues.
The ceremonies delayed the start of the game to 1:35. Once the game started, Landen Roupp took the ball for the Giants and set down the first six men he faced. Likewise, Padres’ starter Martin Perez set down the first nine men he faced,
Roupp was really supposed to be the opener, but he ended up throwing five shutout innings, and allowed just two hits. The only time he ran into trouble was in the top of the third inning, when he gave up a pair of hits and walked a guy. What helped him get out of that jam was a double play he induced off the bat of Elias Diaz.
Spencer Bivens came in for the Giants in the top of the sixth, and the Padres immediately had him on the ropes. Luis Arraez led off the inning with a base-hit to left, and Donovan Solano reached on an error by second-baseman Mark Canha.
Jurickson Profar moved the runners over to second and third with a sacrifice bunt, and Manny Machado got Arraez in with a sacrifice fly to left. Erik Miller then came in and struck out Jackson Merrill to end the inning.
Like Roupp, Perez had also thrown five shutout innings, which extended the Giants’ scoreless innings streak to 32. However, Padres Manager Mike Shildt let Perez back out for the bottom of the sixth, and Donovan Walton led off the inning with a home run to right-center to tie the game and finally snap the streak.
It was Walton’s first big league hit since July 2, 2022, and it also ended the day for Perez. Perez went five-plus innings, while allowing a run and two hits.
Jeremiah Estrada came in and survived a two-out double by Matt Chapman, and left-hander Taylor Rogers pitched a one, two, three top of the seventh for the Giants. Tanner Scott came in for San Diego in the bottom of the seventh, and while he walked Marco Luciano with one out, Luciano was caught trying to steal second to end the inning.
Submariner Tyler Rogers came in for his brother in the top of the eighth. Fernando Tatis led off, and he took the first pitch from Rogers and hit a bomb to left-center to put the Padres back ahead.
Rogers retired the side in order after the home run by Tatis, and Jason Adam came in to throw a one, two, three inning for the Padres in the bottom of the eighth. Ryan Walker then pitched through a two-out walk for a scoreless top of the ninth.
The Padres brought in their closer, Robert Suarez, for the bottom of the ninth as they tried to finish off the sweep. The first batter for the Giants was Heliot Ramos, and on a 3-2 pitch, he hit an opposite-field home run to right that went into the water for the first-ever splash hit by a right-handed hitter in the 25-year history of Oracle Park.
It was the 105th splash hit by a Giant, and the 166th home run into McCovey Cove overall. Until Sunday, not a single one had been hit by a right-handed hitter. Buster Posey nearly became the first with his two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning in Game 1 of the 2021 National League Division Series between the Giants and the Dodgers, but it ended up hitting the water cannon.
Most importantly, Ramos’ splash hit tied the game 2-2. Suarez then retired the side in order, and that sent the game into the 10th.
With extra innings came the automatic runner at second. The home team used to have the advantage in extra innings, as they had the last at-bat and the chance of a walk-off. However, with the road team having a runner at second with nobody out in a tied game, they had the real advantage now.
That advantage would pay dividends for the Padres in the top of the tenth. Melvin brought in Camilo Doval with Jake Cronenworth at second. David Peralta led off the inning with an RBI base-hit to left, which scored Cronenworth to put the Padres back ahead. (I know, “led off the inning with an RBI base-hit” makes no sense, but neither does baseball Sunday.)
Arraez doubled with one out to put runners at second and third, and Solano grounded out to third to knock in Peralta and make it 4-2.
Adrian Morejon was summoned by San Diego for the bottom of the tenth, and Yastrzemski was the runner at second for the Giants. Yastrzemski got to third on a ground out by Luciano, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Conforto.
However, having a runner at second with nobody out down by two is nothing like having a runner at second with nobody out in a tied game. Patrick Bailey grounded out to third, and the Padres won it 4-3.
Robert Suarez picked up the win despite blowing his fifth save; Camilo Doval took the loss; and Adrian Morejon got the save. The Giants fall back to their season-low six games under .500 at 72-78.
The Giants will now embark on their final road trip of the season, and if you think their 72-78 record right now is bad, just wait until they have to go through Baltimore, Kansas City and Arizona to play three teams destined for the playoffs.
The Giants will have a day off in Baltimore Monday, and then they will begin a three-game series against the mighty Orioles on Tuesday at Camden Yards.
The Giants will have a chance to play spoiler in the American League East race. The Orioles trail the New York Yankees by three games, but the Giants would be doing a major favor to the Orioles by beating them since it would make it more likely that Baltimore would be a wild card team and not have a week off.
Blake Snell (3-3, 3.52 ERA) will take the ball for the Giants on Tuesday, and he will be opposed by former Giant Albert Suarez (8-5, 3.39 ERA), who is back in the big leagues this season for the first time since 2017. First pitch will be at 6:35 p.m. in Baltimore, and 3:35 p.m. back home in San Francisco.
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