SF Giants’ bats come up small vs. Padres as losing skid hits four games

SAN FRANCISCO With the Oracle Park crowd roaring after Dominic Smith lined a single to right and extended his MLB-best -game hit streak San Francisco had runners at every station with one out in the sixth inning Mired in a three-game losing skid and trailing by a trio of runs the Giants just needed one hit one member to create a spark against the Padres Instead as they have often done during a miserable post-All Star break stretch the bats came up empty when it counted Patrick Bailey and Heliot Ramos each popped up to end the threat San Francisco fell - the band s fourth consecutive defeat and th loss in its last home games The Giants who had hits were just for with a runner on second or third on Tuesday night with the company also coming up empty with runners on the corners in the fifth inning It was another instance of offensive ineptitude for a organization that entered the match for with runners in scoring position over their last dozen home games Robbie Ray made his th start of the season entering the day ranking in the Top in innings pitched ERA batting average against and strikeouts He had a shaky first inning though allowing a single albeit one that was lost by in recent times called-up Tyler Fitzgerald playing his first MLB inning in right field a double and bringing Manny Machado home from third on a balk It was Ray s first balk since his rookie season as a member of Detroit in Ray - finished with seven hits allowed four strikeouts and one walk issued in six innings throwing a season-high pitches Wilmer Flores infield single slow roller didn t make it out of the infield but stayed fair and away from Padres fielders long enough to tie the competition in the bottom of the first But Jose Iglesias entered the contest with zero home runs on the season and answered in the top of the second with a -run homer That became a - Padres lead in the fourth inning when Jake Cronenworth lined a single to right and scored Ramon Laureano Jackson Merrill slugged his ninth home run of the season in the eighth inning to put the finishing touches on the Giants - defeat San Diego improved to - Kai-Wei Teng who won Saturday after pitching five innings of scoreless relief is expected to start against San Diego s Nick Nick Pivetta on Wednesday in the series finale as the visitors look to complete the sweep