Successful Replay Challenge Helps San Francisco Giants Beat Padres 4-3
By Phil Watson
Taking a run off the board in the third inning ultimately helped the San Francisco Giants snap a three-game losing streak Sunday, as they salvaged the final game of a three-game series with a 4-3 win over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park in San Diego.
The Padres thought they had a bases-clearing double by Chase Headley with two outs in the bottom of the third. Headley’s ball into the right-field corner had already scored Will Venable and Seth Smith and Xavier Nady charged toward the plate and slid as Giants catcher Buster Posey was applying the tag. He was initially called safe, but Giants manager Bruce Bochy challenged the call and Nady was found to have been tagged out before his hand touched the plate.
Here’s a video of the play:
In what wound up being yet another one-run game for the Giants, that was huge.
The Giants (11-8) scored four runs in the first two innings and then hung on for the win, with Tim Lincecum (1-1) getting his first win of the year, working six-plus innings and allowing three runs on seven hits with three walks and seven strikeouts.
Posey started the scoring in the top of the first with his fourth homer of the season, a two-run blast to left-center off starter Robbie Erlin (1-2) that came after Hunter Pence walked.
In the second, Brandon Hicks drew a one-out walk, Brandon Crawford grounded a single up the middle and Lincecum worked a walk to load the bases before Angel Pagan rifles a single up the middle to score Hicks and Crawford for a 4-0 San Francisco lead.
The Padres (9-10) put two—not three—on the board in the third and got to within a run when Nick Hundley led off the bottom of the seventh with a homer to left off Lincecum, ending the day for the Giants’ starter.
Jeremy Affeldt worked the remainder of the seventh, Javier Lopez got an out and walked a man in the eighth, Santiago Casilla retired both men he faced in the eighth and Sergio Romo worked around a walk in the ninth for his fifth save.
The Giants won despite getting only three hits and are hitting just .162 (25-for-154) in their last five games. Nine of their last 10 games have been decided by one run.
San Francisco heads to Denver to open a series with the Colorado Rockies on Monday at Coors Field. Ryan Vogelsong (0-0, 5.40 ERA) gets the ball for the Giants for the 5:40 p.m. Pacific start, with lefty Jorge De La Rosa (0-3, 7.58 ERA) scheduled to go for the Rockies.