Padres take opener against Giants

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Aug 12, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SAN FRANCISCO — Monday night was progressing toward a familiar finish between the Padres and Giants at Oracle Park.

And then it wasn’t.

The Padres turned things around quickly against Logan Webb with three runs in the seventh inning and held on for a 4-1 victory.

Now they might be on the verge of something truly rare.

With the win, the Padres could move to within a game of the Dodgers in the National League West, a division the Padres have not won since 2006 and have not led this late in a season since 2010.

The Dodgers, who entered Monday two games up on the Padres, were trailing the Angels in the eighth inning when Robert Suarez got the final out against the Giants.

Monday was the first of 13 consecutive games against the Giants and Dodgers, who they play this weekend in Los Angeles before hosting them next weekend.

This stretch represents an opportunity to pass the Dodgers and all but extinguish any playoff hopes for the Giants, whose 59-60 record has them 4½ games out of the final wild-card spot with the Reds and Cardinals between them and that spot.

Neither the Padres not Giants scored for five innings Monday. Both did in the sixth.

The Padres went up 1-0 on doubles by Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill in the top of the inning. The Giants tied it on Rafael Dever’s two-out homer in the bottom of the inning halted a streak of 10 consecutive batters retired by Yu Darvish in the bottom.

Seven pitches into the seventh, the Padres led by three runs.

Gavin Sheets began the inning with a double lined to right field on an 0-2 pitch. With Bryce Johnson pinch-running, Jake Cronenworth broke the 1-1 tie with a single. And on the first pitch he saw Freddy Fermin drove a sweeper left in the heart of the strike zone down the left field line and just over the wall.

Jeremiah Estrada took over for Darvish and worked a scoreless seventh. Mason Miller struck out the three batters he faced in the eighth. Suarez retired the side in order in the ninth.

The three-run margin made for the relatively rare game not decided by one run when the Padres visit Oracle Park.

Of the 43 previous games between the teams here since 2020, 21 were decided by a single run. That included all four games they played in June.

Both starting pitchers did their part to make it close.

Of Webb’s first 12 outs, 10 were groundballs. The other two were strikeouts.

It took 15 batters for the Padres to put a ball in play that was not on the ground.

That was Xander Bogaerts’ pop fly caught by Giants shortstop Willy Adames for the first out of the fifth inning.

That followed a single grounded up the middle by Merrill, and it was followed by Sheets blooping a single that fell between second baseman Christian Koss and right fielder Drew Gilbert.

A fielder’s choice grounder by Cronenworth and a groundout by Fermin ended the inning.

The Padres immediately got a runner in scoring position again in the sixth when Tatis led off by driving a double to the gap in right-center field.

A groundout by Luis Arraez and strikeout by Ryan O’Hearn , sandwiched around a Manny Machado walk, brought Merrill to the plate. And his third hit of the night, a double lined through the right side of the infield, broke the scoreless tie before Bogaerts grounded out to second base to strand Machado and Merrill.

It was the first run the Padres had scored against Webb at Oracle Park this season.

He had shut them out over eight innings on June 2 in a game the Padres won 1-0 in the 10th.

Darvish did not immediately match Webb’s dominance, but his seventh start of the season was a gem.

He got through the first inning in eight pitches.

He threw nine to the first batter in the second and 34 in all before stranding runners at first and second after a pair of singles.

Darvish got out of the third with help from Merrill throwing out Drew Gilbert at third base after a stolen base and a throw into center field by Fermin, the Padres’ catcher.

A seven-pitch fourth inning followed for Darvish, and he struck out the three batters he faced in the fifth on 16 pitches.

That put him nine shy of his season high, thrown in his second start back on July 12.

He would need just 10 to finish the sixth inning, though his ninth pitch of the inning was the one Devers launched over the wall in left-center field.

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