Much like the day before, the San Diego Padres jumped out to a lead against the San Francisco Giants and needed their back-end bullpen arms to lock down the 7-6 win at Oracle Park on Saturday.
Michael King took the mound for San Diego and was hurt by the home run over the first two innings but settled in over the next five to earn the win. Rafael Devers gave San Francisco the lead with a two-run home run to right field, which was his second homer in as many days to give the Giants a 2-0 lead. After the Padres responded with two runs in the top of the second, Shay Whitcomb connected on a one-out solo home run in the bottom of the inning to put San Francisco up 3-2.
Jackson Merrill stayed hot and hit his 25th home run of the season when he connected on a one-out solo home run in the top of the third inning, which tied the game at 3-3. San Diego took its first lead of the game in the top of the fourth inning when Samad Taylor and Fernando Tatis Jr. reached on back-to-back singles. Dustin Harries, who was batting second for the Padres, hit a sacrifice fly which allowed Taylor to tag up and score from third to make the score, 4-3.
San Diego scored a run in the fifth and an emphatic run in the sixth when Tatis hit a 421-foot leadoff home run to left field which pushed the Padres’ lead to 6-3. San Diego tacked on a run on a San Francisco error in the top of the seventh inning to give the Padres a comfortable four-run lead at 7-3 after their half of the seventh.
Bradgley Rodriguez replaced King on the mound to start bottom of the eighth inning and had a disappointing outing. The rookie right-hander was tagged for a leadoff home run, a single and a two-run home run, which allowed the Giants to get back in the game at 7-6. Adrian Morejon was called on to stop the San Francisco scoring after Rodriguez was unable to record an out while allowing three runs. Morejon recorded back-to-back strikeouts and got a groundout to end the eighth.
Mason Miller came on for the bottom of the ninth and had a much better outing than he did in Game 1. He needed just 17 pitches to retire the final three batters to get the win and earn his 36th save.
King was solid outside of the first two innings. He pitched seven innings, allowed three runs on five hits and struck out four without allowing a walk. King had four innings where he faced the minimum number of batters and two of his five hits allowed came in the seventh inning, his final inning of work.
The Padres will go for the road sweep of the Giants and look to extend their winning streak to six games when they meet today at 4:20 p.m.
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