Padres Continue Playoff Push With 7-5 Win Over Giants

The San Diego Padres continued their winning ways against bad teams with a 7-5 win over the San Francisco Giants, as the Padres piled up a big lead early and held off a Giants comeback. 

The Giants scored first off Robbie Ray in the first inning on an RBI single from Bryce Eldridge to make it 1-0, but the lead didn’t last long at all. The Padres got two runs in the second off opener Anthony Molina, then broke the game open in the third with a five-run outburst. 

This was one of those nights when everybody hit for the Padres. Dustin Harris singled home the first run, with Freddy Fermin getting an RBI double to bring home the second. 

The key hits in the third included an RBI double from Luis Campusano that scored a run, and another double from Xander Bogaerts brought home two more. Harris tripled to score Bogaerts, and Fermin double to bring home Harris. 

At that point the game looked like a San Diego cruise, but Rafael Devers had other ideas. His grand slam off Ray closed the gap to 7-5, but after that the Padres bullpen stepped in and did what they usually do, which in this case was shutting down the Giants. 

Ray’s final line was mediocre, as he gave up five runs in five innings on four hits and four walks to go with five strikeouts. He ran his record for the season to 12-8, but he hasn’t given the Padres nearly as much as they thought he would when they traded for him at the deadline. 

The conga line of relievers included Yuki Matsui, Adrian Morejon, Bradley Rodriguez and closer Mason Miller, in that order. All four pitched scoreless frames, with Miller getting his 35th save of the season. 

The hidden star offensively was Jackson Merrill, who continues to be on a tear. He had three hits and scored two runs in this one, and Harris also had a big game after a quiet stretch when he first came over to the Padres. 

San Diego has now won five straight, with this win helping them stay a half game ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the race for the third wild card as the Dbacks also won with a 9-1 trouncing of the Texas Rangers. 

But the Padres are now just 2.5 games behind the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies for the top two wild card spots, two in the loss column, which could make things even more interesting down the homestretch.