It was the third time in three nights that the San Francisco Giants sent out an All-Star pitcher to the mound, and unfortunately it was the third straight loss for the G-Men. The offense was rolling early while Pablo Sandoval extended his hitting streak to 16 straight games, but Matt Cain's rough sixth inning was enough to lift the Padres to a 5-3 victory at AT&T park Tuesday night.
Brandon Crawford's RBI single in the first started the game off right, followed by an Aaron Rowand RBI single a few batters later gave Cain a nice 2-0 cushion to work with. But the Padres struck back in the bottom of the first, taking advantage of an error by Crawford and an RBI groundout to tie the game at two a piece.
Cain would help his own cause in the fourth with an RBI single up the middle, and was settling into the game nicely, hanging three straight zeros on the scoreboard. Then Cameron Maybin hit a triple in the sixth scoring two Padres, followed by an Anthony Rizzo RBI single to give San Diego the lead 5-3. Cain (L 7-5) would last through the seventh, allowing five earned runs on seven hits with one walk and six strikeouts.
The Giants got eight hits off of Tim Stauffer (W 5-5), but only three runs to show for it. Stauffer lasted for six innings, walking one and fanning one. Heath Bell earned his 26th save of the year, working his way out of a unfruitful Giants rally in the ninth with men on second and third.
Miguel Tejada and Aubrey Huff both had multi hit games, while the only starter for the Giants not to get a hit was Eli Whiteside. Pablo Sandoval singled to right field in the third to extend his hit streak, but went 1-4 on the day. As a team the Giants left 8 runners on base and were only 2-9 with runners in scoring position.
With the loss the Giants move to 48-39 on the year. Full box score can be found here.
The third installment of the series will have Madison Bumgarner (4-9 3.65 ERA) on the bump to take on Dustin Moseley (2-8 3.07 ERA) for the Padres. First pitch is at 7:15 p.m. PT with coverage on CSN Bay Area and KNBR 680 AM.
For more on the Giants, head over to McCovey Chronicles.