SAN DIEGO — The Giants rallied, again, against one of the most feared closers in the game to tie Tuesday night’s meeting with the Padres in the ninth after coming up empty for seven straight innings. Manny Machado made it all for naught an inning later.
Machado launched a three-run walk-off home run to the upper deck in left field off Tyler Rogers to send the Giants to a 7-4 loss, negating their three-run rally off San Diego closer Josh Hader a half inning earlier.
Rogers, who owned the second-lowest home-run rate of any National League reliever (0.17 per nine innings), said he was “stick to my stomach.”
“Everyone played a good game, except for me,” Rogers said. “It stinks. … If you miss down and in to Manny, he’s gonna do it.”
Machado, with his fourth home run against San Francisco this season, delivered the deciding blow. But it was Machado’s newest partner in the Padres’ order, Juan Soto, who made the Giants pay for the first eight innings.
Entering Tuesday night, the Padres had gone 25 innings without scoring a run against the Giants, and Alex Cobb was doing a fine job of extending that streak through three innings.
Then Soto happened.
It took only two games for the Giants to feel the impact of losing out on the marquee mover at the trade deadline and, more consequentially, having the superstar slugger land with the team they are attempting to chase down in the National League wild-card race. Any gains made with Monday night’s win to open the series were erased in Tuesday’s walk-off loss, which sent the Giants back to a 6.5-game deficit.
“You’re gonna get hurt in a series like this by Machado and/or Soto,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “From my perspective, you have to execute around those guys. … I think the best way to combat those two guys is ensuring that you’re getting ahead and staying ahead against the guys at the bottom of their lineup.”
Soto, acquired at the deadline from the Nationals, gave the Padres their first hit and tied the score with a rocket to right field in the fourth, then doubled and scored the go-ahead run in the sixth. His homer just might be the rare case where Cobb wished home plate umpire Jeremy Riggs’ was a little less favorable.
Soto started strutting to first base after Cobb fired a high fastball on a 3-1 count that Riggs called strike two. Cobb attacked him above the letters again on the 3-2 pitch, and Soto sent the 96 mph sinker whistling at 107.9 mph to the seats in right.
Cobb’s real issue with the strike zone came long after he exited the game, when Riggs rung up J.D. Davis on three straight called strikes — two on the inside corner, one on the outside corner. Davis was batting with the bases loaded and no outs in the ninth against Hader, who had already issued two walks and hit a batter.
“I really felt bad for J.D. in that situation. He legitimately got the bat taken out of his hands,” Cobb said. “I know umpiring is hard. If anything I felt (Riggs) was a little more on the tighter side. … It changes the whole complexion of the game. If he puts the ball in play, there’s a good chance of us getting a run.”
The pivotal play in the ninth, as the Giants rallied for the second time this season off Hader, could have been Davis’ questionable called third strike. It also could have been the diving grab made in left field by Jurickson Profar, turning Evan Longoria’s potential game-tying or go-ahead single into a game-tying sac fly and the second out of the inning.
“Profar made an excellent play and kind of extended the game,” Kapler said. “You come back against one of the better closers in the game. You kind of feel like you have a chance to win the game right there in that inning.”
Another crucial turning point came after Hader exited, having allowed three runs, three walks, a hit and a hit batter on 37 pitches. The Giants opted not to pinch-hit for Joc Pederson against lefty reliever Tim Hill. Pederson, who hasn’t homered since June, struck out on a meager swing while a right-handed bat, Joey Bart, sat on the bench.
Bart, Kapler said afterward, was unavailable after injuring his right ankle on a swing in Monday night’s game. X-rays came back negative, but Kapler said an MRI was possible for Wednesday and didn’t discuss the extent of the injury.
Kapler also wanted to avoid using Camilo Doval in anything but a save situation, which is why he turned to Rogers against the heart of the Padres order in the ninth. Doval had pitched the past two nights.
In 40 appearances between San Diego and Milwaukee this season, Hader has allowed 19 runs. Nine of them have come in two outings against the Giants, which also amount to two of his three blown saves this season.
Cobb had recorded nine outs without allowing a hit before Soto’s fourth-inning blast, but he would get only six more while surrendering five hits — and two more runs — after it. Soto doubled down the right-field line for the first of three straight hits to lead off the sixth that spelled the end of Cobb’s day and scored from third on Josh Bell’s single with the Giants’ infield playing in.
Machado, who followed Soto with a single, scored on Jake Cronenworth’s sac fly to widen the gap to 3-1, and the Padres tacked on one more in the eighth off Dominic Leone.
On a hot and muggy series here so far, Cobb was the second straight Giants starter to note fatigue was a factor.
“I don’t think I mentally prepared for that in San Diego,” Cobb said. “I had a couple instances where I had trouble gripping the ball, and I did fatigue a little bit after the fifth.”
Cobb was left still searching for his first win since May 17, despite holding a 3.59 ERA — and an even lower FIP (fielding independent pitching) — over that span. He struck out seven Tuesday night, including three two-strike sinkers that perfectly painted the black for called third strikes.
LaMonte Wade Jr. gave the Giants a 1-0 lead three batters into the game with a homer that just snuck over Soto’s glove in right field — his second in his past two starts. The Giants put runners on base in all but two of the following innings but failed to capitalize on any of the ensuing chances until the ninth.
The loss negated some more surprisingly terrific glove work from the league’s worst defensive team.
After winning Monday night on a perfectly executed relay, the Giants got a home-run-robbing catch from Mike Yastrzemski, a slick snag from Thairo Estrada and a sliding grab from Joc Pederson.
Yastrzemski’s leaping catch at the wall in center field robbed Brandon Drury of a second San Diego home run in the fourth. Estrada fell to the ground and threw from his behind for the final out of the fifth after the Padres put runners at the corners. And Pederson robbed Profar of a hit to end the third by charging hard and sliding on a shallow pop near the foul line in left field.
Source: www.mercurynews.com