Martinez Tribune The website of the Martinez Tribune.
BY DANIEL GLUSKOTER
San Diego rode an 11 strikeout performance from Joe Musgrove and a three RBI day from Manny Machado to jump out to a five run lead against Alex Wood and Zach Littell before holding on to score a 5-4 win over the Giants Wednesday afternoon.
The loss was the seventh in a row and eleventh in their past thirteen games for the sinking Giants, who will enter September with their postseason prospects already over just a year after posting the best record in the Majors while posting an All-Time franchise record of 107 wins.
Joe Musgrove delivers a pitch during San Diego’s 5-4 win over the Giants Wednesday afternoon. The Padres starter struck out 11 in 6 2/3 innings to improve his record for the season to 9-6 and help complete a three game sweep.
The Padres three game sweep also dropped San Francisco 10.5 games behind San Diego for the final wild card spot in the National League, and into a third place tie in the NL West with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Musgrove (9-6, 3.01) struck out five of the first six batters he faced on the way to a season high 11 for the game. San Diego got on the board first when an RBI single by Manny Machado plated Ha-Seong Kim in the fourth. An inning later Machado’s ground rule double would score two to stretch the lead to 4-0.
San Francisco continued a recent trend of fighting back to make it interesting but still falling short. Austin Wynns’ drove in Luis Gonzalez to break up Musgrove’s shut out in the sixth, Thairo Estrada and Gonzalez had RBI’s in the seventh, and Joc Pederson singled in Austin Slater in the eighth to close the gap to one run, but the Giants could get no closer.
“Despite a pretty good fight in all three games, it wasn’t enough,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “Admirable effort, no quit. A lot of grind at the end no matter the situation. But the only thing that matters in this league is wins and losses and we weren’t able to get it done.”
Joc Pederson argues a call with home plate umpire Adrian Johnson after being called out on strikes in the fifth inning of the San Francisco’s 5-4 loss to the Padres Wednesday afternoon, the Giants seventh loss in a row.
The bewildered Josh Hader (2-5, 6.35), who’s struggled since the Padres acquired him from Milwaukee at the trade deadline, came on to pitch a scoreless ninth to record his first save for the Padres and Major League leading 30th overall.
Giants starter and loser Alex Wood (8-12, 5.10) gave up four runs on five hits over 4 2/3 innings. “Obviously, we haven’t played up to our expectations and the brand of baseball that we’re accustomed to and what we’re trying to build here. It’s just really hard to put into words,” Wood said after the game.
After a day off to lick their wounds, the Giants return to action Friday night for the start of a three game weekend series with the Philadelphia Phillies. Alex Cobb (4-6, 3.81) is scheduled to take the mound for the Giants against Kyle Gibson (9-5, 4.08) in the opener.
GAME NOTES:
The Giants dropped to 24-41 since June 19, the third lowest winning percentage in the Majors in that stretch ahead of only the Pirates and Nationals.
San Francisco dropped to 5-11 overall against the Padres this season with three games remaining between the two clubs. It was the second consecutive sweep for the Padres at Oracle Park this season, marking the first time the Giants have ever been swept by the Padres at home in consecutive series in a single season.
Wood entered the game with a 13 1/3 scoreless inning streak against San Diego.
