SAN FRANCISCO -- Sometimes all you need is one.
Kicking off a seven-game road trip in San Francisco, the San Diego Padres outlasted the Giants on Monday 1-0 after a sac fly by Jose Iglesias in the 10th inning to score Jake Cronenworth.
Looking for that singular run, San Diego (34-24) switched their approach to their style of play by only going for the one run. Tyler Wade led off the tenth with a well executed bunt to move Cronenworth from second, setting up a near probable opportunity to jump ahead.
"When you're on the road in that extra inning with the runner on second, you don't typically bunt guys over," Padres manger Mike Shildt said. "But it leads into Suárez being able to go back out and some of the calculus there. So we took a shot with Wadey bunting him over for Iglesias. And just a professional at. (Ryan Walker) gets people on the ground, but (Iglesias) was able to get the ball up in the air and get us the run we need."
Starting at third for Manny Machado, who was the designated hitter, Iglesias’ superb night not only featured him driving in the winning run, but he also made a handful of impressive plays at the hot corner including a backhanded 110 MPH one hop grab in the tenth on Matt Chapman.
"That was great contact," Suarez said about the ground from Chapman. "But he was able to make that good play. It was fortunate for us that they didn't score the run."
A full day after their motivating 6-4 win on Sunday against the Pirates, the Padres could not emulate the offense they found the previous evening.
That isn’t surprising as this team hasn’t been able to consistently click on all cylinders since their scorching hot 14-3 start to the season. Since beating the Rockies 21-0 during the early half of May, the Padres have scored five or less runs 15 times over the last 20 games.
The Padres lack of offensive firepower continued to wear down the lineup, even though they had six different batters register a hit. Not as awful as the Giants 1-for-12 with RISP, the Padres finished going 1-for-5.
As unacceptable as it was offensively tonight, the Padres played lights out defensively. The seven fielders behind Stephen Kolek and the bullpen were fast on their jumps, and they provided some security for their pitching department by getting out a few jams, including the second and seventh inning when the Giants had bases-loaded.
Going back to their last meeting in September of the 2024 season, the Padres have won the last six meetings against the Giants including a sweeping two game series back in April.
Riding the momentum from his last start at Petco Park against the Marlins last week, Kolek distributed another scoreless outing on the mound through 5.2 innings. On 98 pitches, the right-hander silenced San Francisco batters, allowing three hits and three strikeouts.
Dealing with similar offensive struggles over their recent stretch, the two NL West foes also have the league’s best bullpens with the Padres in fifth (3.20 ERA) and the Giants in the first place spot (2.39 ERA).
The Padres used four different pitchers (Adrian Morejon, Jeremiah Estrada, Jason Adam and Robert Suárez) from their bullpen. The unit only allowed two hits, no runs and seven strikeouts.
Delivering with saves on Friday and Sunday, Suárez threw the final two innings to record his first recorded win of the season.
"It was a great baseball game," Iglesias said. "Those are the type of games that create teams and boundaries and pushing one to each other. It was a great win for us as a team."
The only player that had a more convincing performance is Giants starting pitcher Logan Webb. Webb pitched eight scoreless innings, allowing only six hits and seven strikeouts with a 102 pitch count.
Webb improved from his April performance against the Padres, where he was coughed up five earned-runs on nine hits through five innings.
In 16 appearances against the Padres, Webb is 4-4 with a 2.98 ERA with 78 strikeouts.
To accompany the lack of offense, there were a few moments that garnered some frustration for the Padres.
During the second inning, it was called on the field that Willy Adames was safe at second base after a pick-off attempt. However, with a clear replay, Adames’ foot slid off the bag while being tagged by Xander Bogaerts, but the original decision was upheld.
The umps called this tag by Bogaerts safe after review #ForTheFaithful pic.twitter.com/F0pI9bWUL4
— James Newell (@JamesNewell96) June 3, 2025
The Giants decided to use their coaches' challenge in the bottom sixth on Jung Hoo Lee’s stolen base, which ended up being overturned.
Tempers also flared in the third inning after Wilmer Flores was plunked in the hands, which transitioned into him exchanging some words to Kolek. Before Flores, Kolek hit LaMonte Wade by pitch in the inning prior and Elias Díaz was labeled by a pitch by Webb in the earlier frame.
With the win, the Padres are a game behind from the Dodgers (36-24), who lost to the Mets 4-3 in extra innings, for the lead in the NL West. The team holds the second wildcard spot by +1.5 over the Cardinals, while also behind the Phillies by +1.5 for the leading wildcard spot.
"Fun, man. Two good teams in this division," Wade said. "This division is super competitive. Koley that was ballsy, man. Bases loaded, nobody out (in the second inning). Coming out of that with no runs. Iggy doing his thing. And then obviously, Webb on the other side was doing his thing. He was nasty tonight. He was making good pitches. But that's fun. You come to this place with a good energy, and you know it's going to be a dog fight. And we caught a dog fight tonight. And it's always nice to come out on the other side on that."
San Diego will look to win the series and to extend their winning streak against San Francisco on Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. Making his first career start, the Padres will turn to 25-year-old right-handed pitcher Ryan Bergert (1-0, 0.00 ERA), while right-hander Landen Roupp (3-4, 3.54 ERA) will get the starting bump for the Giants.