In the Giants’ penultimate game of 2022, they scratched across two runs on four hits. From the second to seventh inning, San Francisco didn’t generate a single base runner.
The Giants are now 5-13 on the season against the Padres, including two sweeps. A third could end their season unceremoniously, as Tuesday’s 6-2 loss sends the Giants (80-81) into their season finale.
Alex Cobb, not Carlos Rodón, started for the Giants. Rodón hit the injured list with an unspecified designation shortly before Cobb’s first pitch.
Rodón joined co-ace Logan Webb in the Shut Down club. Without playoff-implicated games, the Giants decided against pitching their two best starters the last week of the season to manage their work loads.
Cobb is under club control through 2024. Webb is just beginning arbitration. But it’s possible Rodón made his last start as a Giant last week against the Rockies.
Cobb is the last remaining healthy starter in San Francisco’s rotation, so he volunteered to take the ball despite being on only three days’ rest. Webb, in the radio broadcast booth with Dave Flemming, called Cobb one of the biggest competitors he knows.
Cobb tossed five one-run innings with seven strikeouts. His splitter had terrific movement, and he fanned the side in the fifth inning.
Most of the seven hits San Diego recorded against Cobb were bleeders through the infield. He finished the year with a 3.73 ERA and a top-10 FIP. He kept the ball in the park, limited hard contact and rarely struggled with command.
But the Giants bats never supported Cobb, who got relieved by Jharel Cotton in the sixth. Sean Manaea allowed just one hit across his six innings. The closest SF got to damage against Manaea were a Mike Yastrzemski flare down the left field line that dropped foul and a would-be home run from Wilmer Flores that also yanked foul.
San Diego, already locked into a wild card spot, similarly approached the game with caution. SD pulled star Manny Machado in the sixth and Manaea at just 66 pitches.
Still, the Padres put up four runs on Cotton, the former A’s starter, in the sixth to go up 5-0.
A late-inning collapse out of San Diego’s bullpen, deja vu from the previous night, allowed the Giants to bring the tying run to the plate in the eighth. But San Francisco’s rally ended after two runs and Wil Myers torched a Cole Waites fastball for an extra insurance run.
Myers, like the Padres, have owned the Giants this year. San Diego has won seven straight games in the matchup. For SF’s fortunes to change next year, it’ll need to handle the division rival much tougher.