Padres Win Again, Take Series From Giants

San Diego gets a great start and timely hits to beat one of the best pitchers in the game

In 2016 the Giants beat the Padres the first nine times they played. But after the All-Star Break San Diego went 8-2 against San Francisco.

That has absolutely nothing to do with anything since this Friars team is completely different but it’s kind of fun to say the Padres have beaten the Giants 10 out of their last 12 meetings.

The Friars topped the Giants 2-1 on Saturday night at Petco Park. San Diego starter Jhoulys Chacin rebounded from his disastrous Opening Day start at Dodger Stadium with a fantastic outing: three hits, five strikeouts and one walk in 6.2 shutout innings to get his first win in a Padres uniform.

Chacin was staked to an early lead thanks to the youngsters. For the second straight game Manuel Margot led off with a big hit. In Friday’s home opener it was a leadoff home run. Saturday night the 22-year-old rookie doubled off Bumgarner and scored on a double by fellow rookie outfielder Hunter Renfroe to put San Diego on top 1-0.

The very next inning Margot doubled again, this time pushing Allen Cordoba across for a 2-0 lead. Cordoba, the rookie Rule 5 draftee who had never played above rookie ball, got his first big league hit against Bumgarner, a former World Series MVP.

That turned out to be enough for the Padres staff. Brad Hand relieved Chacin and worked a perfect 1.1 innings before handing the ball to Ryan Buchter for the 9th inning. Buchter gave up an RBI single to Brandon Crawford before getting Eduardo Nunez to fly out to end it.

The Padres are back to the .500 mark at 3-3. They can move above .500 for the first time since June of 2015 with a win on Sunday in the series finale. Clayton Richard will try to build off his 8.0 shutout innings against the Dodgers on Tuesday. The Giants will throw Johnny Cueto, who started the All-Star Game for the National League at Petco Park last year.

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