Yesterday was all about the dominance of Johnny Cueto and James Shields in a classic pitcher's duel in the perfect pitcher's park.
On a beautiful afternoon, the Padres and the Giants decided to change up the pace and combined for 22 runs and 25 hits as San Francisco outslugged San Diego on route to a 13-9 victory to complete the team's first sweep of the season.
Brandon Belt lead the charge on offense, going three for four with a double, triple, and five RBIs. Matt Duffy and Hunter Pence had a couple of three-hit days themselves as well. The team as a whole broke the bad habit of not being able to drive in runners in scoring position, batting 8 for 17 with more than a couple of RBIs to go around.
Although he allowed five runs in the grand scheme of the slugfest, Samardzija was able to finish the day with seven strikeouts over 5.2 innings of work. Javier Lopez showed signs of breaking the horrendous pitching slump he has been in since the year started, retiring the two batters he faced and striking out one.
The Giants capitalized on San Diego mistakes and jumped out to an early lead three-run lead in the bottom of the first. Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford knocked in Denard Span and Joe Panik, respectively, on a pair of sacrifice flies, and Hunter Pence drove in Matt Duffy on a liner just past the outstretched glove of Matt Kemp that turned into a triple.
Based on the stellar performances from Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto, it seemed like the Giants were destined to cruise to the finish line behind the arm of The Shark, who was coming off of 7.2 innings of quality work against the Miami Marlins. The Padres, however, weren't going to go down without a fight.
Following a scoreless second inning on both sides, San Diego put up a four-spot on the scoreboard to take a one-run lead. Jemile Weeks took a 3-2 challenge fastball off the bricks between the fifth and sixth archways and legged out a triple, bringing the score to 3-1. Cashner supported himself, grounding out to drive in Weeks from third to make the score 3-2. With two outs, Matt Kemp hit a no-doubt home run ten rows into the left-field bleachers on a 1-0 fastball right down the heart of the plate, putting San Diego up 4-3.
In the bottom of the third, the San Francisco offense opened up the floodgates Belt drove in Matt Duffy to tie the game at four apiece, and with the bases loaded, Samardzija provided his offense by driving in Belt and Angel Pagan on a single to right, giving San Francisco a 6-4 lead.
The offensive momentum continued into the bottom of the fourth as the Giants put up a four-run inning of their own and began to pull away with the game. Belt drove in his third and fourth runs of the day, driving in Panik and Duffy on his first triple of the year, putting the Giants ahead 8-4. Pence singled home Belt to bring the San Francisco lead to 9-4, and Trevor Brown joined the hit parade by singling home Pence to put San Francisco up by six.
In the bottom of the fifth, Panik joined the RBI club by driving in Denard Span; then Belt racked up his fifth RBI of the day by driving in Panik on a double in the bottom of the fifth, increasing the lead to 12-4.
San Diego finally responded when Brett Wallace drove in Wil Myers on a double in the top of the sixth to cut the deficit to 12-5, but the Giants came right back with a run in the bottom half of the inning as Gregor Blanco knocked in Pence with a single, bringing the lead right back to eight at a score of 13-5.
The Padres was able to bring the score to 13-9 when Wil Myers launched a three-run home run in the top of the eighth and Adam Rosales hit a solo shot in the top of the ninth, but San Diego couldn't rally all the way back from the eight-run deficit as the bullpen held down the fort to complete the sweep.
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