SAN DIEGO – While San Diego pitchers faced traffic on the basepaths like Bay Area traffic, Padres hitters could scarcely string anything together against Giants starter Robbie Ray in a 4-1 loss to San Francisco on Thursday night at Petco Park.
Xander Bogaerts drove in the lone run for the Padres (55-54), who managed only two men in scoring position and four RISP opportunities as their five-game winning streak came to a close. Ray retired 11 of the final 12 he faced, while the Giants (47-62) got three RBI from Daniel Susac and three hits from Rafael Devers.
"It just felt like (Ray) was going to walk a guy here and he just never really did it, he had several guys 3-0, that's what I remember in my head from watching the game. We just felt like we were in a lot of advantage counts and weren't able to punch through on those," manager Craig Stammen said.
The lone San Diego run came after falling behind 3-0 in the second inning. Ty France got hit by a pitch and then Jackson Merrill singled, but Luis Campusano bounced into a six-four-three double play. Bogaerts made sure to get something out of it though, rapping an RBI single into right-center field.
Luis Rengifo was the only Padre to reach base multiple times, as he walked in the third — the only free pass drawn by the Brown and Gold — doubled in the sixth and singled in the eighth. Two of the RISP at bats came following the one-out two-bagger, but Ray got two of his six strike outs to leave Rengifo there.
Ray finished with six innings pitched and allowed four hits and one run. Perhaps most importantly, the MLB’s leader in walks allowed per nine innings conceded only one in his 10th win. Erik Miller would earn his fourth save.
"(Ray's) a good pitcher, he's having a good season. He wasn't... sharp tonight, he was definitely erratic, hew was kind of that 'effectively erratic' thing that we talk about in baseball that makes it tough to hit. It felt like we were in a lot of good counts for a lot of the night, and then he just made pitches to get himself out of it and we weren't able to really finish off the start of good at bats that we had and (he) snuck his way out of it and made some good pitches when we had runners in scoring position, humped up a little bit and got some strikeouts," Stammen said.
JP Sears, coming off a successful bulk role in Miami on July 25, got stung for a run in the first inning as a one-out walk to Heliot Ramos was made to hurt, but could’ve been a whole lot worse.
Bryce Eldredge singled the first pitch back up the middle allowing Ramos to go first to third, then Devers hit a deep fly to right center field that Fernando Tatis Jr. leapt in front of the short wall and robbed the 399-foot shot from being a home run. Still, the long sac fly opened the scoring.
"(Tatis) makes everything look so smooth and easy, it just shows you how difficult that is, but that short wall there, it looked like he was gonna jump over or hurdle the wall and still catch the ball. Just showing off his amazing athletic skills and how he can change a game, and impact the game on many sides of the baseball," Stammen said.
After a promising Padres first where Tatis singled in his first at bat for the third straight game, Tatis got picked off and Ray faced the minimum. Then the SF bats built on the momentum with a single by Willy Adames, then Susac hit his third home run of the season.
After giving up runs in his first two innings, Sears was able to work through trouble in the third as Eldredge and Devers singled back to back with one out and then advanced on a ground out. A fly out by Adames made for the first zero of the game.
It looked tenuous in the fourth, as the Giants got a pair of one-out hits from the bottom of their order, then Sears hit Luis Arraez with a pitch to load the bases. After striking out Ramos, Wandy Peralta came on and dramatically struck out Eldridge on a full-count ABS challenge that turned a potential run-scoring walk into an inning-ending punch out.
Sears faced traffic in all 3 2/3 innings pitched, as he conceded seven hits and three runs while striking out two and walking one to take his fourth loss.
But Peralta allowed a lead off bunt single by Devers and walked Jung Hoo Lee to start the fifth, then uncorked a wild pitch to move both into scoring position. After getting a line out, Randy Vásquez replaced him and allowed a sac fly by Susac before ending the inning with a fly out.
In the seventh Vásquez worked out of a one-out, two in scoring position jam after Lee’s double. Adames hit a bouncer to third that Manny Machado came up with and fired home for Campusano to tag out Devers for the critical second out, then a ground out ended the threat.
Vásquez had the longest relief appearance of his career, going 4 2/3 innings and allowing three hits with a walk and a strikeout.
"We were able to lose in a good manner tonight. It stinks to lose, but sometimes if you lose properly it sets you up better for the next day and the days going forward, so hopefully Randy's outing is that type of outing for us," Stammen said. "For him, I hopefully he goes home and thinks 'yeah, I pitched great, and one is I helped our team win the next two or three games.'"
Neither team has named a starter for tomorrow’s second game of the four-game series, which will have a 6:45 p.m. first pitch on Friday, July 31 at Petco Park. The game will be streamed exclusively on AppleTV.
This story was updated at 10:32 p.m.