Hernandez’s HR in 12th is winner
SAN DIEGO — Still waters really do run deep. Some of Brian Sabean’s biggest trades in his more than two decades helming the front office were not predicted nor even speculated beforehand.
So there could be news before Tuesday’s 1 p.m. nonwaiver trade deadline. Or maybe the lack of buzz actually reflects a wait-and-see stance the front office had to take as it waited to see how the team performed out of the break.
One game probably will not make a difference, but for what it’s worth, the Giants found a way to win at Petco Park on Monday night, 5-3 in 12 innings, a rare accomplishment. The Giants were 6-14 here since the 2016 All-Star break.
They have won two games in a row for the first time since the 2018 break.
Gorkys Hernandez broke a nine-inning Giants scoring drought with a leadoff homer in the 12th off lefty Matt Strahm. The Giants then used singles by Kelby Tomlinson and Andrew McCutchen to set up another run on a Buster Posey pop-up that fell in short center field. Tomlinson scored as McCutchen was forced at second.
Will Smith, who got the
final out of the 11th with two Sam Dyson runners in scoring position, struck out the side in the 12th to finish it.
With two-thirds of their schedule complete, the Giants are 54-54.
It was not clear whether news of Johnny Cueto’s likely Tommy John surgery or the club’s 4-6 run out of the AllStar break changed front office thinking on whether to buy, sell or hold. One source said the Giants had mostly a “neutral” stance for much of July, suggesting they were not leaning one way or another as they judged the market for bigleaguers they could acquire or move. Another said they actively were seeking starters and outfield help to help them win this year, but that information might have been days old.
As the front office worked the phones, the Giants bolted ahead 3-0 on Chase d’Arnaud’s three-run homer in the second inning, but they stopped scoring and the Padres tied a 3-2 game in the eighth inning when Mark Melancon failed for the third straight time in this setup spot. Eric Hosmer’s one-out single and Christian Villanueva’s double tied the game.
Derek Holland allowed two runs in five innings and Reyes Moronta pitched scoreless ball in the sixth and seventh. Though manager Bruce Bochy loves what Moronta can do in those critical middle innings, he will have to consider moving Melancon down and Moronta and Ray Black up on the late-inning depth chart.
Bochy returned from Cooperstown, where he helped celebrate Trevor Hoffman’s Hall of Fame induction, then attended the Hoffman dinner party of about 30, before hopping a ride on a private jet to San Diego on Monday morning.
The Giants offense came alive under Hensley Meulens in Bochy’s absence Sunday. Bochy took some credit for “talking to the baseball gods” when he visited their shrine.
“It must have worked,” Bochy said, smiling. “We got eight runs.”
The gods smiled on Bochy in the second inning Monday. Either that, or the Giants had three good at-bats against lefthander Eric Lauer to start the inning.
Brandon Crawford and Austin Slater singled before d’Arnaud turned an inside cutter and rifled it over the left-field wall for his third homer and a 3-0 lead.
The gods then must have flipped the channel, because the Giants let the Padres creep back in the game.
Hunter Renfroe homered off Holland to start the fourth inning, and the Padres closed to 3-2 in the fifth after Austin Hedges’ leadoff double off the center-field wall.
Joe Panik rejoined the Giants after a groin injury and popped out as a pinch-hitter in the ninth. He completed a rare “doubleheader,” having gone 1-for-2 for Triple-A Sacramento on Monday afternoon.