Since San Francisco’s disaster of an Opening Day which spiraled into a 1-5 start to begin the season up until a Sunday afternoon matchup against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park, 24 players on the team’s current 25-man roster have entered a ballgame.
The one man who remained idle in that stretch was none other than thea team’s $62 million investment Mark Melancon, who has waited for his opportunity to make a redeeming second impression after serving up two runs to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the bottom of the ninth in his first appearance, costing San Francisco a win.
Melancon could do nothing but hope for the ninth inning save opportunity which never came to fruition, but on the final game of San Francisco’s seven-game road trip before heading back to the Bay Area for its home opener, Bruce Bochy brought in his closer to finish off the Padres and avoid a series sweep.
The newest member of the Giants bullpen certainly evoked some familiar feelings, putting two men on base with one out in the bottom of the ninth with Wil Myers, San Diego’s All-Star and the winning run, at the plate. Melancon’s first outing in San Francisco South as a Giant felt eerily familiar to the Wilson era, and just like the former beard-enthusiast turned closer, he got the job done even with a bit of torturous drama mixed in for nostalgia sake.
Melancon’s save, which secured a 5-3 victory, was one of many “firsts” for the Giants. Chris Marrero broke the left fielder hitless dry spell by muscling a single into right field and driving in a run in the process.
Hunter Pence and Buster Posey connected on back-to-back home runs in the third for their first of the season. Derek Law, like Melancon, battle through a raucous inning to preserve San Francisco’s lead and record his first hold of the season before handing the ball of to the bullpen’s newest closer.
On this day of firsts, Johnny Cueto shimmied and shook his way to his second win of the season, holding the Padres to two runs over seven innings while fanning out seven. Both Giant wins to start the season have come during Cueto starts.
Cueto’s solid outing was not without an ample supply of drama. After neutralizing Manuel Margot with a strikeout to kick off the sixth, Cueto walked Travis Jankowski before serving up a two-run bomb to Wil Myers, who threw his bat down and yelled after connecting for his second home run of the season. Myers allegedly yelled “finally” in response to his history of struggles against Cueto.
San Diego continued to threaten San Francisco’s lead in the sixth by loading up the bases, but Cueto induced an Erick Aybar pop out to end the frame and keep San Francisco’s lead still intact. The Padres squeezed 28 pitches out of the Giant starter in the sixth, but Cueto successfully lobbied for another inning. He hit for himself in the seventh, then retired the Padres 1-2-3 following a leadoff walk.
San Francisco’s extravaganza of drama continued into the eighth inning with Law on the mound. The blown lead omens began to slowly creep in after Law allowed a leadoff home run to Yangervis Solarte, then walked Ryan Schimpf the very next at-bat, but Law showed tremendous resolve and finished the inning with only the one run to his name.