Baseball gods shine on Padres, who win Petco Park opener 6-4 over Giants
With late owner Peter Seidler on the minds — and their jerseys — the Padres rally to beat San Francisco in true home debut The Padres beat the Giants 6-4 at Petco Park, marking the team's first game since the death of their late owner Peter Seidler. The Padres, who missed the playoffs due to lack of ability to battle back or get runners home in big situations, took the lead with two runs in the fifth and seventh innings. Despite falling behind in the third inning, the team took control for good in the bottom of that inning. Neither of the starting pitchers, Yu Davrish nor Brandon Webb, allowed a runner through two innings. Xander Bogaerts and Jake Cronenworth scored runs for the Padres and the Giants. Robert Suarez saved the game with a home run in the ninth.
Published : 4 weeks ago by Kevin Acee in Sports
Stretching across the center field grass and painted on the front of the press box and sewn on the back of the jacket his widow wore as she threw out the ceremonial first pitch were the initials “PS” inside a heart that will represent a franchise’s tribute to their late beloved owner.
“I can feel his presence here today,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said Thursday, referring to Peter Seidler, who died in November. “He’s clearly with us in spirit memory. We’re gonna honor him today, of course, and he’ll be in our hearts all season.”
And so it was perfect that the morning haze that hovered over downtown burned off in time to make for a magnificent view from above. And it was maybe fitting, then, that the Padres beat the Giants 6-4 at the brimming Petco Park.
Seidler “always preached about baseball gods shining down on us, and he’s one of those guys now,” Manny Machado said before the game. “He’s gonna be looking down on us seeing the tremendous thing that we’re gonna be doing here. We’re going to continue his legacy at the highest level.”
Something was working in the Padres’ favor Thursday.
A team that missed the playoffs in large part because it could not battle back or get runners home in big situations did both on Thursday.
After falling behind in the third inning, they took the lead with two runs in the fifth, fell behind in the top of the seventh and took the lead for good in the bottom of that inning.
Xander Bogaerts drove in a run with a single, and Jake Cronenworth had a two-run double in the seventh.
Robert Suarez surrendered a home run in the ninth before closing out his second save of the season.
Neither of the starting pitchers — the Padres’ Yu Davrish nor the Giants’ Brandon Webb — allowed a runner through two innings.
Darvish had struck out four of the six batters he had faced when Michael Conforto lined the second pitch of the third inning down to the corner in right field for a double.
With one out, Nick Ahmed reached up to yank an 0-2 fastball well above the strike zone just inside the bag and down the left field line to bring in Conforto and give the Giants a 1-0 lead.
Darvish again faced trouble after the Giants began the fourth inning with successive singles before he retired the next three batters, the first and third of them with his fifth and sixth strikeouts of the afternoon.
Bogaerts led off the bottom of the fourth inning with the Padres’ first hit before being eliminated on Fernando Tatis Jr.’s double-play grounder.
Manny Machado led off the fifth with a walk, and three consecutive singles and a dribbled grounder put the Padres up 2-1.
Machado moved to third on Ha-Seong Kim’s line drive to right-center and scored on Jurickson Profar’s grounder up the middle. A flared single by Luis Campusano loaded the bases before Tyler Wade’s slow grounder to the right side resulted in the first out but brought in the second run.
The Padres failed to capitalize on Tatis reaching third base with one in the sixth inning, his having run from first to third on a groundout by Cronenworth, and the Giants made that hurt even more in the seventh.
Tom Cosgrove had relieved Darvish with a runner on first and no outs in the sixth and gotten three straight outs. Jhony Brito relieved Cosgrove at the start of the seventh, and his Petco Park debut resulted in the Giants retaking the lead.
Brito was greeted with ground ball singles up the middle by Thairo Estrada and Conforto. Patrick Bailey moved the runners over with a sacrifice bunt, and Estrada scored on Ahmed’s single through the left side.
That brought Shildt out to replace Brito with Yuki Matsui, who got a fly ball from center fielder Jung Hoo Lee that scored Conforto and ended the inning when Cronenworth cut off Jackson Merrill’s throw and threw to Kim at second base to double up Ahmed.
The Padres did not waste their next prime opportunity, taking the lead back in the bottom of the seventh.
Campusano led off the inning with a single, went to third on Tyler Wade’s single and scored when Wade drew an errant throw stealing second base. After Jackson Merrill walked, Bogaerts’ single drove in Wade. With Merrill and third and Bogaerts on second after a groundout by Tatis, Cronenworth lined a double to right field to provide what stood as the final margin.
Matsui worked a quick eighth before Suarez entered in the ninth. After two quick outs, Conforto capped his first game with the Giants with a homer over the wall in right field before a grounder by Bailey ended the game.
Topics: Baseball, San Diego Padres