SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 30: Thairo Estrada #39 of the San Francisco Giants high-fives Nick Ahmed #16 after hitting an RBI sacrifice fly in the first inning during a game against the San Diego Padres at PETCO Park on March 30, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Brandon Sloter/Getty Images)
On Friday night Joe Musgrove gave the Padres a chance to win but the Giants beat up on San Diego's bullpen in an 8-3 win. On Saturday night Dylan Cease gave the Padres a chance to win but the Giants beat up on San Diego's bullpen in a 9-6 win. However, this time we have something to be encouraged about because the Friars flirted with a historic comeback.
Down 9-1 in the 9th inning the Padres scored five times, three of them coming on a 3-run homer from rookie Graham Pauley (his first Major League hit) to show this team will have a lot more late-inning fight in it than last year's edition did.
The Padres knew Cease was a strikeout master when the traded for him at the end of Spring Training. He gave the Friar Faithful a glimpse of that in his San Diego debut. Cease struck out six in 4.2 innings, only allowing three runs and a couple of them were kind of flukes.
In the 2nd inning Michael Conforto popped up down the left field line. It just happened to find a little hole between Jurickson Profar and Ha-Seong Kim to land in for a bloop double. Thairo Estrada followed with a sacrifice fly to score Wilmer Flores and Tom Murphy doubled to bring in Conforto to put San Francisco up 2-0. Had the duck snort been caught no runs would have scored but this night just was not kind to the Padres.
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Offensively the Padres had all kinds of trouble with Jordan Hicks. The longtime Cardinals reliever who joined the Giants for a chance to start tossed 3.0 no-hit innings but the Friars started to figure him out in the 4th. Jake Cronenworth, Manny Machado, and Jurickson Profar singled to load the bases with one out. But, unlike Thursday where San Diego strung together enough hits to do damage, the timely knocks were nowhere to be found.
Tyler Wade struck out and Jackson Merrill's soft liner up the middle landed in the glove of shortstop Nick Ahmed to end the threat. The Padres only run off Hicks came in the 5th inning on an RBI double by Profar to bring home Cronenworth.
But, any thought of a come-from-behind win washed away in the top of the 8th. Tom Cosgrove allowed only 10 earned runs in 51.1 innings as a rookie. He coughed up six earned runs and got just one out on Saturday night. After striking out Ahmed to lead off the inning here's what happened, in order:
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Jung Hoo Lee = HR
Jorge Soler = 1B
Austin Slater = BB
Matt Chapman = 1B
Wilmer Flores = 1B, RBI
Michael Conforto = Grand Slam
All of a sudden it was 9-1 and hope seemed lost. But, at least the final inning was interesting. Eguy Rosario hit a 2-run homer before Pauley unloaded on a drive that clanged off the right field foul pole to make it 9-6 and, even if just for a fleeting moment, put the idea of the largest 9th inning comeback in franchise history into the minds of the Friar Faithful. Alas, Cronenworth and Machado grounded out to end the game.
San Diego will try to salvage a series split on Sunday afternoon when Michael King makes his first start for San Diego ... weather permitting, as another round of rain is expected on Easter.
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