For most of Saturday evening, all eyes were on Giants’ ace Madison Bumgarner.
But at the end of the night, the attention turned to San Diego Padres’ catcher Hector Sanchez, who stole the show with a walk-off two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to spoil Bumgarner’s return from injury.
After Padres’ catcher Austin Hedges was scratched from the lineup before Saturday evening’s ballgame, Sanchez –a former Giants’ catcher– took over in the seventh slot in the order, and it was his two-run missile off of reliever Steven Okert that helped San Diego even the series in a 5-3 win.
After winning the first game of the series in dramatic fashion on Friday evening, San Francisco received the post All-Star break boost it had anticipated for the last three months when the club activated Bumgarner on Saturday afternoon.
Pitching for the first time since April 19, Bumgarner began the first inning with the type of showing only he’s capable of, as the Giants’ ace struck out the side in his return from the disabled list.
Bumgarner’s near three-month stint on the DL marked the first time in his career he’s been sidelined due to injury, and it took an off-the-field dirt-biking incident to rob him of half of the season. Though Bumgarner has expressed plenty of frustration for his actions, a certain part of him likely couldn’t begin the coping process until he returned to his natural habitat: the pitcher’s mound.
Even though Bumgarner allowed nine runs in his second-to-last rehab start for the A San Jose Giants, the left-hander insisted he would be ready to go and back on the mound for San Francisco by the end of the All-Star break. Whether it was a smart decision for the Giants to allow their top hurler back on the hill so quickly after such a significant injury will remain uncertain for the rest of the season, but on Saturday, Bumgarner was in action, and for the most part, he looked like the Bumgarner of old.
After retiring the first seven hitters he faced, Bumgarner hung a 2-2 curveball to Padres’ left fielder Matt Szczur who launched a solo shot into the second deck of the left field seats at Petco Park. The Giants had bestowed upon Bumgarner a 2-0 lead early, so the Szczur home run hurt the lefty’s bottom line, but San Francisco remained in control.
However, in the fourth inning, another 2-2 curveball –this one to San Diego right fielder Jabari Blash– landed 422-feet beyond home plate and in the bushes beyond the center field fence. Blash’s blast gave the Padres a 3-2 lead, and helped San Diego take control of a game that San Francisco nearly led 6-0 just two innings earlier.
By the time Bumgarner’s night concluded, though, he had tossed seven innings of four-hit ball, while racking up five strikeouts. Even though he’ll remember the pair of mistakes to Szczur and Blash, the Giants will take comfort in the fact he pitched deep into the game and for the most part, looked like the perennial All-Star he’s become.
In the top of the first inning, San Francisco unsettled San Diego right-hander Jhoulys Chacin on a two-out, two-run single off the bat of right fielder Hunter Pence. The Giants nearly added on, but on the 34th pitch of the inning, second baseman Joe Panik grounded out to end the frame.
Chacin continued to struggle in the second inning, as a Denard Span double, an Eduardo Nunez single and a Brandon Belt walk loaded the bases for All-Star catcher Buster Posey. Chacin then grooved a first pitch slider to Posey, who rocketed what looked like a Grand Slam off the bat to left field, but the flyball fell a few feat shy of the bleachers and Chacin escaped unscathed.
Despite needing nearly 60 pitches to get through the first two innings, Chacin could have exited the game after six innings in line for a win, but a solo home run from Panik to lead off the sixth tied the game and set the stage for another climactic finish.