The SF Giants lost to the San Diego Padres 7-3 on Friday night. While Wilmer Flores gave the Giants a brief 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning by hitting his 20th home run of the season. However, rookie starting pitcher Tristan Beck had his worst outing of the season, allowing six runs in 2.2 innings on nine hits (two home runs).
Flores' home run in the top of the first inning against Padres starter Michael Wacha gave him his first 20-homer campaign of his career. It was one of the few highlights for the Giants in a game they will likely want to forget quickly.
Beck, who grew up in Southern California, was hit extremely hard throughout the Padres lineup. San Diego's hitters were jumping on Beck early in pitch counts and capitalized. In fact, there was a suspicious level of dominance. One that seemed to suggest he might be tipping his pitches.
Beck technically has a four-pitch mix, but his arsenal is primarily comprised of two-pitch shapes. His straight mid-90s fastball and a trio of variations on a breaking ball with traditional right-to-left movement. Padres' hitters seemed locked into both. They only swung and missed once during his entire outing. They swung 12 swings times against his sweeper (10 in play, one foul, one miss) and ten times swings against his fastball (six foul and four in play).
Veteran southpaw Alex Wood replaced Beck in the bottom of the third inning and allowed one unearned run across 3.0 innings pitched. Wood did allow three hits and a walk and only recorded one strikeout. Nevertheless, he gave Giants manager Gabe Kapler some much-needed length after Beck's rough outing.
Trailing 6-1, the Giants scored another run in the top of the fourth inning thanks to a single by Patrick Bailey and a double by Thairo Estrada. Brandon Crawford drove in Bailey with a sacrifice fly, but that was the final run the Giants would score against Wacha. Wacha allowed two runs on six hits and two walks with six strikeouts in six innings pitched.
San Francisco had a couple of rallies throughout the rest of the game, including one more against Wacha in the top of the sixth inning. However, it was somewhat thwarted by a third strike call against Estrada that was well out of the zone.
In the ninth inning, trailing by five runs, Padres manager Bob Melvin turned to Scott Barlow to end the game. Barlow struggled with command, allowing a run on two hits and two hit by pitches, but he induced a game-ending double play from Flores.
After splitting the first two games of the series, the SF Giants will return to Petco Park tomorrow looking for a win. It will be top pitching prospect Kyle Harrison's first outing since his magical Oracle Park debut on Monday. The Giants are now 70-65 on the season and tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the third (and final) National League Wild Card.
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