Padres back on track after sweep of Giants

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Apr 30, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SAN DIEGO — Just a tiny two-game series.

That changed everything.

Not really. It just seemed like it.

What the San Diego Padres did the past two days did set the season back on a winning course, but it was in actuality merely a representation of the ebbs and flows of a long season.

The Padres completed a two-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday afternoon with a 5-3 victory at Petco Park.

Winning the first game of the series ended a four-game losing streak that dropped the Padres from having the best record in baseball — a perch they held for two weeks — to being third in the National League West.

Now they are 19-11, second in the NL West, having swapped spots with the Giants (19-12).

For a second straight night, the Padres were back to their formula of relentless at-bats and relying on the back end of a bullpen that has been as reliable as any in the majors — though there was a little more drama than is usually involved when those relievers work.

The Giants scored a run off starter Michael King in the sixth, another off reliever Jeremiah Estrada in the seventh and the run that got them to 5-3 against Jason Adam in the eighth before Robert Suarez closed out his major league-leading 12th save.

The run against King and run against Adam did not turn into more, in part thanks to defensive plays made by Manny Machado and Jason Heyward.

The Padres led almost from the start, as Tyler Wade reached out and down for a curveball on the outer third and lined it softly into right field with two outs in the second inning to bring in Gavin Sheets from second base. Sheets had walked and moved up on a groundout by Iglesias.

Elias Díaz doubled the lead on the first pitch of the third inining by jumping on a sinker in the heart of the zone thrown by Giants starter Landen Roupp (2-2, 5.10). The home run had to survive a crew chief review, as a fan in a Giants T-shirt and cap reached over the wall into the field of play to try to catch the ball. The ball, however, cleared the fan’s gloved hand and hit off his wrist, which was above the wall.

Two runs in the fourth inning made it 4-0 when Fernando Tatis Jr., Luis Arraez and Machado hit successive one-out singles and Iglesias dribbled a two-out RBI single 20 feet down the third base line.

The Giants got a run and ran King (4-1, 2.09) from the game with two outs in the sixth inning.

He had retired 10 straight batters when a 92 mph sinker ran in and hit Tyler Fitzgerald just above his left knee. The next pitch was lined into center field by Mike Yastrzemski.

King got a boost toward possibly finishing six innings when Machado made a fantastic play on a grounder by Willy Adames, diving into the hole to grab the ball and, from his rear, throwing out Yastrzemski at second.

But a grounder by Jung Hoo Lee off the glove of a diving Arraez at first base scored Fitzgerald and brought manager Mike Shildt from the dugout.

Estrada was brought in to replace the starting pitcher with runners on in the sixth inning for a second straight day. Unlike Tuesday, when he allowed the inherited runner plus his own runner to score, Estrada struck out Matt Chapman to end the inning.

Estrada also began the seventh after the Padres added a run in the bottom of the sixth on a single by Díaz and triple by Arraez.

The run came in handy, as Heliot Ramos launched a one-out home run 419 feet to left field.

For a second consecutive day, left-hander Adrián Morejón followed Estrada. Morejón retired both batters he faced to end the seventh.

Adam was called on to work the eighth inning for a second straight day. This one did not go as smoothly as that 13-pitch, 1-2-3 effort.

After Adam retired the first batter in the eighth, a homer by Yastrzemski got the Giants within two. Adam then walked Adames before Lee sent a high fly ball to shallow left field. Heyward, who had been playing back. Ran 102 feet and slid to make the catch at the dirt cutout just inside fair territory. Adam struck out Chapman to end the inning.

Suarez, who took six pitches to close out Tuesday’s ninth inning, issued a one-out walk before striking out LaMonte Wade Jr. and Patrick Bailey.

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