Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants are used to the holes they found themselves in Thursday.
They no longer are used to not be able to find a way out.
The Giants were down three runs after five Padres hitters, sinking themselves and not getting back afloat in a 6-1 loss to the Padres at Petco Park that snaps a five-game winning streak and was not the way they wanted to start a big, four-game set against top competition.
The Giants’ offense has been overwhelming, getting hotter with the weather and entering having scored at least four run in 11 straight games, the longest such streak since 2003. That streak, too, is over, the Padres’ bullpen repeatedly baffling Giants hitters while extending their own win streak to five.
The Giants have been able to wear pitchers down, but the Padres kept hitting them with fresh arms after star Chris Paddack left early with a sprained ankle. He went just two innings and gave way to a relay of arms San Francisco could not figure out.
The Giants finished with eight hits, the only meaningful one a Wilmer Flores homer coming in the second. (He has nine dingers this year in 41 games; he had nine last year in 89 games.)
A team with as much power as the Giants have assembled will strike out too often, though. They struck out 14 times in the game, Joey Bart looking overmatched in an 0-for-3-with-three-Ks night. Mike Yastrzemski had three punchouts while Evan Longoria and Darin Ruf added a pair.
Trevor Cahill was better after he escaped the first, but the first was all San Diego would need. Two singles and two RBI doubles, one apiece from trade-deadline-pickups Mitch Moreland and Austin Nola, created the ditch the Giants would be in all night. Cahill settled and went three, four-run innings, though if he loses his spot in the rotation, it would be more because of the Giants’ next reliever than his own outing.
Drew Smyly made one mistake but otherwise was dominant. Apart from Jorge Ona’s first career homer, in the fourth, Smyly looked better than he did pre-IL stint, when he was a pretty darn good pitcher.
He struck out eight in four innings, in which he allowed two hits and a walk. The Padres swung at 25 of his 59 pitches, and 11 were whiffs. His fastball, which averaged 93.4 mph in his 8 1/3 innings in July and early August, averaged 94.6 mph, maxing out at 95.9 mph, his left arm apparently fresh and showing no signs of the finger strain that kept him out six weeks.
He was the first Giants pitcher to enter a game in relief and strike out at least eight batters since Scott Garrelts struck out 9 on May 13, 1984, against Montreal, which we’re sure you remember.
It was a nice step toward either reclaiming a rotation spot or presenting himself as a fascinating bullpen arm, but it was not a gamechanger.
The Giants’ offense never came around, San Diego the ones to tack on a late run with a Fernando Tatis bullet that center fielder Mauricio Dubon tracked down, going for a sacrifice instead of extra bases.
The Giants’ best rally came in the sixth, when they had second and third with two outs after Donovan Solano’s double, but Brandon Belt (0-for-4) bounced out. The offense had to cool off at some point, but they hope it’s not in the San Diego heat against the NL West’s second best team.