San Diego Padres topple San Francisco Giants 7-5 – MLB Update
The San Diego Padres continued to impress with their late revival of form as they overcame the reigning World Champions San Francisco Giants 7-5 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California on Tuesday, August 23.
The Padres started the game impressively, adding four runs as early as the third inning to put the pressure on the Giants. Mat Latos was impressive for the visitors as he leaked just three hits and two runs in his six innings to bring his earned-run average
for the season down to 3.74. Although he did not earn a decision, he was effective enough to keep the home team at bay until the fifth inning. It was not until a fielding error by first baseman Jesus Guzman in the sixth inning allowed Pablo Sandoval and Aubrey
Huff to add the first two runs for San Francisco.
Earlier in the game, Guzman played an important part in completing the first run for the Padres in the first inning when his single to the left field allowed Jason Bartlett to complete the run. The Padres cashed in on this momentum in the second inning where
Kyle Blanks’ two-run homer took the Padres to an imposing three-run lead before Will Venable added the fourth run in the subsequent inning.
The Giants are renowned for their formidable pitching but Matt Cain failed to live up to the reputation and leaked five expensive-runs in seven innings of ordinary-pitching. Although the starter struck-out five batters in this stretch, the five runs were
a bit too much to chase, given the pitching depth of the Padres.
The Padres, on the contrary, seemed nervous at one stage when the Giants produced three runs in the eighth inning to level the score at 5-5. Erik Hamren, however, threw a composed spell to restrict the Giants from taking a lead and winning his first game
in the process. Heath Bell then reiterated his authority on the mound in the last inning when he pitched a perfect inning in a situation where the Giants needed just two runs to draw level. This was Bell’s 35th save this season.
The Padres are now on a five-game winning streak and lead the two-game series 1-0.
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