The San Diego Padres have had the San Francisco Giants number the last two seasons, especially at AT&T Park. And in true NL West fashion these two clubs scratched at clawed all game long, eventually leading to extra innings in China Basin. It took until the 14th inning, but was well worth it for Giants fans as Nate Schierholtz hit his second home run of the game to walk off on the Pads by a score of 6-5 in one of the most exciting games of the season thus far.
San Diego was getting to Madison Bumgarner early and often, notching all five of their runs off of him on nine hits in only six innings. Bummy struck out six and only walked one, but it was enough to make it seem like another insurmountable lead for these Giants.
The Giants bullpen was sensational as well, using five pitchers in eight innings of work, with all of them working at least one inning, notching at least one strikeout, while keeping the Padres scoreless throughout. Brian Wilson, Sergio Romo and Javy Lopez (W 4-1) all pitched two full innings, fanning 10 Padres between them. As a team the Giants had 19 strikeouts on the night, tying a team record at AT&T Park.
The Padres pitching staff was stellar as well, striking out 17 Giants along the way. Starter Dustin Moseley lasted seven and 1/3 innings tonight, allowing four runs on five hits with one walk and nine strikeouts. But unfortunately it was all for naught for San Diego as reliever Pat Neshek (L 1-1) took the loss.
The Giants offense was lead by two men, Pablo Sandoval and Nate Schierholtz, notching all six of the teams RBI's on the night. Pablo extended his hitting streak to 17 straight games going 2-5 with 3 RBI including a game tying double in the eighth that scored Andres Torres and Brandon Crawford to make the game 5-5. Pablo also made a game saving diving stop in the ninth that kept the Padres from scoring with runners on the corners, likely saving the game for the G-Men. Schierholtz blasted his first homer of the game in the fourth, a two run shot that bounded into the Cove, then his sixth of the season in the 14th that gave the Giants the most thrilling of wins.
Andres Torres was 3-6 on the night with a double, Brandon Crawford was 2-6, while Aaron Rowand was 1-5 with a double as well.
Tonight was the first walk off homer since for the Giants since 2009 when Juan Uribe took Guillermo Mota deep when he was still with the Dodgers. It also was the 10th walk off win for the Giants this year, the most of any team in the league.
With the win the Giants move to 49-39 on the year, cushioning their NL West lead over the D'backs to 2 games. Full box score can be found here.
The Giants will look to close out the series with a win Thursday night as Barry Zito (2-1 3.81 ERA) is set to take on Cory Leubke (2-2 2.52 ERA) for the Padres. First pitch is scheduled for 7:15 pm PT with coverage on CSN Bay Area and KNBR 680 AM.