Giants edge Padres by a run; A’s tip Rays by a run
It would have been embarrassing if the Giants had lost Tuesday night’s game on a comebacker.
That’s where things were heading on a gorgeous evening by the bay before the Giants got aggressive in the seventh inning to take command of their 6-5 victory over the Padres.
Before a gathering of 28,535 short-sleeved customers, Evan Longoria’s two-run double and Pablo Sandoval’s sacrifice fly and took the spotlight off a wacky fifth inning.
How wacky? The Padres scored three runs without an outfield hit, two scoring on the comebacker that had the Giants throwing around the horn in vain.
“It looked like we were taking infield there for a second,” quipped manager Bruce Bochy.
San Diego cleanup hitter Eric Hosmer hit a sharp one-hopper to reliever Trevor Gott, who took an instinctive backhanded stab, but the ball yanked the glove off his hand. Gott raced to the ball, on the grass off the third-base line, and made an off-balance throw to first.
Safe.
Sandoval, playing for injured first baseman Brandon Belt, tried throwing home to catch Fernando Tatis Jr., who was trailing Chris Paddack, who already had scored. Safe. Catcher Stephen Vogt fired to third, where Manny Machado was heading. Safe. Three throws, none of them on time.
“I was just glad I got the next guy out and kept the game close,” said Gott, who later saw the replay and determined shortstop Brandon Crawford could have gotten to the ball and made an inning-ending play. “We’re baseball players. We’re taught to catch the ball.”
No worries. The Giants answered two innings later. Belt entered as a pinch-hitter two days after he hurt his neck taking swings in the indoor cage. He was preparing to pinch hit Sunday in a game he didn’t start because of stomach sickness. His neck still bothered him Tuesday but not enough to keep him out.
Belt drew a walk and raced to third on Joe Panik’s single to left. Mike Yastrzemski hit a loud liner to right, but Belt didn’t try scoring. Right fielder Hunter Renfroe already had thrown out Vogt earlier in the game trying to stretch a single.
With one out, Longoria doubled to left. Belt scored, and third-base coach Ron Wotus aggressively waved home Panik, who scored ahead of the relay that short-hopped catcher Austin Hedges.
“We had to hold up a couple of guys. They had pretty good arms out there,” Wotus said. “If I stopped another one, I think I would’ve gotten booed out of the place. Honestly, it was the right time to take a chance.”
Sandoval’s sacrifice fly scored Longoria for a 6-4 Giants lead. Ian Kinsler’s eighth-inning homer off Tony Watson made it a one-run game, but that’s as far as the Padres got.
Taking the mound with the temperature 85 degrees, starter Tyler Beede immediately gave up a homer to Tatis. The Padres had two more hits in the inning, but Beede retired 11 in a row and got help in the fourth when Tyler Austin hit an RBI single and Steven Duggar followed with a two-run homer.