Giants sweep Padres behind Crawford’s go-ahead single
SAN DIEGO — Shortly after the San Francisco Giants began Tuesday’s game in San Diego, vice president of baseball operations Brian Sabean and general manager Bobby Evans spoke with reporters regarding the team’s inactivity at the trade deadline.
Sabean and Evans said the Giants pursued deals for young, controllable pitchers, but weren’t willing to gut their farm system or overpay to complete a transaction.
While the duo from the Giants’ front office balked at high prices on the trade market, a young, controllable pitcher who barely cost the club a dime led San Francisco to a 3-2, 10inning victory over the San Diego Padres.
Rookie Dereck Rodriguez, the son of Hall of Fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez, signed as a minor league free agent with the Giants this offseason after spending six seasons in the Minnesota Twins organization and has burst onto the scene as a legitimate Rookie of the Year candidate.
“That would be one thing my dad never got, so that would be nice,” Rodriguez said of the award. “He got everything else at some point.”
For the second straight day, though, the Giants needed extra innings to down the Padres as Brandon Crawford brought in Evan Longoria with a two-out single in the top of the 10th to give San Francisco the lead. After Longoria led off the inning with a triple, the Giants avoided a catastrophic failure at the plate thanks to Crawford’s first pitch laser into right field off of Padres reliever Phil Maton.
“We’ve been looking for that big hit in a lot of these games,” Longoria said. “We’ve played a lot of close games in the last week.”
While Rodriguez was brilliant, the Giants’ offense didn’t provide much run support Tuesday, as the club failed to convert with the bases loaded and no one out in a disastrous eighth inning. After Crawford struck out, Joe Panik hit into a fielder’s choice and Gorkys Hernandez flew out to end the threat.
Armed with a 2-1 lead, manager Bruce Bochy turned to rookie reliever Reyes Moronta in the bottom of the inning, but Moronta walked the leadoff man and allowed a game-tying fielder’s choice. Despite throwing 30 pitches over two innings in Monday’s game, Moronta entered with the game on the line as the Giants were short on options in their bullpen.
A day after the Giants taxed their pitching staff in a 12-inning win over the Padres, Rodriguez set a new career-high with 112 pitches in another
dominant performance. The converted outfielder hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in a start since June 19 and lowered his ERA to 2.59, which is the best mark among any National League rookie with at least 60 innings pitched.
Rodriguez picked up seven strikeouts and allowed just three hits against San Diego and left the game in line for the win, but the Giants couldn’t reward him for his efforts.
“Seven solid innings,” Bochy said. “He gave up a run in the first inning and then he just pitched outstanding. We got him pretty far up there in the pitch count, he hasn’t been up there, but he’s done such a great job and gave us what we needed.”
The Giants scored their first run on a sacrifice fly from the hero of Monday’s game, Hernandez, who powered the team to a victory with a 12th inning home run into the second deck of the left field bleachers.
On Tuesday, it was the Giants’ right fielder who hit a tiebreaking home run, as Andrew McCutchen launched a solo shot to right field in the top of the fifth. The Giants’ failure to add on was once again an issue, though, leading to another tense late-inning situation.
With six straight quality starts, Rodriguez has compiled a 1.49 ERA since June 24, which ranks as the third-best mark in baseball behind Chris Sale of the Red Sox and Zack Greinke of the D’backs.
“That’s a good group of guys, I guess,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t think about that stuff. I just go out there and try to put on a good performance for my team and try to give our guys a chance to win and try to get back into this race.”
The only run Rodriguez allowed came in the bottom of the first after Wil Myers extended the inning with a twoout infield single. Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer followed with an RBI double, bringing Myers home and pushing San Diego ahead 1-0.