In Wednesday’s 7-1 loss to the Giants, Padres interim manager Pat Murphy called on outfielder Will Venable to pinch-hit leading off the bottom of the fifth. Brandon Crawford hit a three-run home run and Sanchez made the San Diego Padres unhappy on two fronts on an eventful night in the Gaslamp District.
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Giants manager Bruce Bochy said he expected some ups and downs from Cain upon his return from elbow surgery and a strained flexor tendon.
Jedd Gyorko homered off Cain leading off the second inning, his fifth.
Sanchez admired his second career grand slam as it soared into the right field stands in the sixth inning, and might have displayed a little extra panache while dropping his bat. He has looked good in his last seven games hitting.
Kelley might have gotten his dander up because he said the Giants dugout was barking at him after the inside pitches to Sanchez.
The Giants are just 3.5 games back of the first place Los Angeles Dodgers.
But he agreed with Cain’s comments from over the weekend in Arizona, when he said he can not give himself the leeway of a settling-in period.
“You can’t help but do it. It wasn’t that long ago he threw one”, Bochy said. “We’re not in a position where we can get a guy ready here”.
“I think that’s coming back”, said Cain, asked about the mental side. Just to be talked about in the same sentence with these guys is really cool. While James Shields kept San Francisco off the board in his five innings this afternoon, he had paltry run support and a bullpen ill-equipped to finish the job. Right fielder Matt Kemp reached in the fourth after getting hit by a pitch in the left arm, the only San Diego runner through five innings. “I was falling behind in the count, a lot of walks, a lot of hitters’ counts, having to pitch out of a lot of traffic pretty much from the first inning on”. “I’ve been in that situation plenty of times in my career and I definitely had more in the tank”.
“A certain part of the order coming up that I knew (Marcus) Mateo could get out of”, Murphy added.
Tempers flared during Tuesday night’s game between the Giants and Padres after Hector Sanchez hit a grand slam off of Dale Thayer and flipped his bat.
“I guess that’s part of the game now”, Kelley said. “A baseball decision. I still felt after the sixth it was a good one”. It was Belt’s 10th.
Angel Pagan singled, Duffy drew a two-out walk in the seventh and Posey scored them both when Matt Kemp couldn t cut off his line drive down the right field line for a double.
And then, for reasons unknown, Murph turned to Dale Thayer again in the eighth. Brandon Crawford hit a leadoff homer into the Jack Daniels’ party deck atop the wall in right field, his 14th. Panik had singled and advanced on third baseman Matt Duffy’s base hit. He allowed 3 runs and 5 hits in 4-plus innings, struck out 3 and walked 4. He was tagged for six runs on seven hits and two walks. To make room, LHP Josh Osich was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento.
Giants: San Francisco is off Thursday.
Padres: RHP Tyson Ross (6-7, 3.38) is scheduled to start the opener of a four-game series against Miami.
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Tyson Ross will try to stop the skid as he opens a four game series against the Marlins tomorrow at 7:10 PM.
