SAN FRANCISCO -- The Padres rolled into San Francisco red hot.
They left the Bay Area even hotter.
After riding timely hits and their stellar bullpen to a pair of close victories in the first two games, that was the recipe again in Sunday’s 6-4 win after the Padres came out and blitzed Giants ace Logan Webb for five runs across the first two frames.
San Diego wrapped up a weekend sweep in extending its winning streak to seven games, ending the night in sole possession of the third National League Wild Card spot, 2 1/2 games ahead of the Diamondbacks and just 1 1/2 games behind the Phillies and Cubs atop the Wild Card standings.
It wasn’t an easy sweep, though, with the Padres having to fall back on their trusty relief corps in order to avoid a slip-up against the Giants, who may be buried in the standings but are still a “scrappy young bunch,” as described by starter Nick Pivetta.
“Credit to them, they’re playing hard,” said manager Craig Stammen. “They're playing their tails off. They run the bases really well. They're pesky at-bats, fouling a lot of pitches off. They're dangerous. All those players are fighting for their time in the Major Leagues, and there's something to be said about that. But yeah, it was three tough games that we squeezed out in the end. The bullpen finished the games really well all three days.”
Jackson Merrill fell a few feet short of a grand slam in the first, settling for a two-run double. Fernando Tatis Jr. singled home Samad Taylor in the second and scored on Manny Machado’s 27th home run, which settled deep into the left-field seats.
This early offense backed Pivetta, who was lifted after four innings and 69 pitches, limiting the Giants to five hits and two runs with five strikeouts. Pivetta was making just his sixth start of the season after a lengthy stint on the injured list due to a flexor strain in his right elbow.
“I just want to contribute the best way I possibly can,” said Pivetta, “[However many] innings that is, it is what it is. That's what I got tonight, and that's what I'm happy with.”
Along the way, top prospect Ethan Salas tripled for his first Major League hit, leading to a fourth-inning run that proved important when the Giants picked up a pair of their own in the fifth and sixth, both charged to lefty Kyle Hart.
A trio of relievers navigated the latter third of the game to get it to the finish line: Wandy Peralta fired 1 1/3 scoreless before Randy Vásquez got into and out of trouble with two walks in the eighth. Left-hander Yuki Matsui navigated the ninth to close things out with his first save of the season.
The Padres intended to turn to Matsui late in the game as a result of both Mason Miller and Adrian Morejon being unavailable due to recent workloads. Through interpreter Ike Ogata, Matsui expressed that knowing that plan ahead of time helped in the moment.
“They were planning on [having me pitch] toward the tail end of the game, and that's something I obviously wanted to do,” Matsui said. “That's the role I wanted to take, and I was able to contribute to the win, and I was so excited about that.”
It was just Matsui’s second Major League save, though he racked up 236 saves during his 10 seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball -- so it wasn’t totally uncharted territory.
Neither is being part of a team that leans on its relievers as heavily as these Padres.
“Actually, the team I played in Japan was kind of like this,” said Matsui. “Heavy reliance on the bullpen. But we are at the point of the season where it doesn't really matter … we’re just all in to get 27 outs.”
The Padres (81-68) have 13 games remaining, and for the most part they control their own postseason destiny.
That isn’t lost on Machado.
“Just take it team by team, day by day, and play our best baseball every single day and try to leave it out there,” Machado said. “If we do that, we control that, we’ll put ourselves in a good spot. We're in a good spot now, but you know, it’s baseball. Things change rapidly. So just control what we can control today, and control the controllables.”