Padres Survive SF Eighth-Inning Surge, Escape 7-6
San Diego built a 7-3 lead and then watched San Francisco rip off two home runs in the eighth inning to make it a one-run game — but the Padres held on, 7-6. Six home runs flew out of the park on September 12, and somehow the most important play of the night was a bunt single.
San Francisco jumped out fast. Rafael Devers hit a 389-foot shot to right center in the first, scoring Drew Gilbert, and the Giants led 2-0 before San Diego had even settled in. The Padres answered hard in the second — Harris singled to left, scoring Bogaerts and Hays to tie it at 2-2, and that two-run single was the decisive moment of the game: San Francisco's win probability dropped from 59% to 39% on a single swing. Shay Whitcomb answered immediately with a 406-foot homer to center to put the Giants back up 3-2, but the damage from that Harris single was already done.
From the third inning on, San Diego took control and didn't let go — until they nearly did. Jackson Merrill tied it with a 405-foot shot to center in the third. A Harris sacrifice fly in the fourth put the Padres ahead 4-3. A Cronenworth bunt single in the fifth scored Hays to make it 5-3. Then Fernando Tatis Jr. went deep to left in the sixth — 421 feet — to push it to 6-3. The seventh was the knockout blow that looked like it: Bogaerts scored on a Whitcomb fielding error at third, and suddenly it was 7-3 San Diego. The story of the night looked like it was going to be San Diego's methodical dismantling of Cesar Perdomo, who lasted just 4.2 innings and allowed 10 hits and 5 earned runs.
Then the eighth happened. Drew Cavanaugh hit a 355-foot homer to right to make it 7-4. Two batters later, Gilbert — who had scored on the Devers homer in the first — crushed a 370-foot shot to right that scored Koss and suddenly made it 7-6. The Giants had life. They didn't get any more of it. Adrian Morejon and Mason Miller combined for the final two innings for San Diego, each throwing a scoreless frame with two strikeouts apiece and not allowing a hit. Michael King had already done the heavy lifting — 7.0 innings, 5 hits, 3 earned runs, zero walks, 4 strikeouts — and the bullpen finished what he started. Gilbert went 2-for-4 with a homer, 2 RBI, and 2 runs scored in a losing effort, which appears to be the most complete individual performance on either side. It just wasn't enough.