Belt, Posey gang up on Padres’ pen in 7-1 Giants win

The Giants won two of three in San Diego and five of six on their trip following the All-Star break.

The San Diego Padres already were trailing the San Francisco Giants by five runs in the sixth inning when Giants catcher Hector Sanchez launched a grand slam into the right field seats and punctuated the blast with a celebratory bat flip.

Heston (10-5), who threw a no-hitter earlier this year, was sensational through 7 1/3 innings.

Padres starter Odrisamer Despaigne (3-7) was lifted before recording an out in the fifth. Affeldt, who had been on the disabled list since June 11 with a shoulder strain, faced two hitters Wednesday and allowed a hit and a walk…. “If he gives you one more inning, you’ve still got to go seventh, eighth and ninth”.

Otherwise, Heston shut down the Padres, ending their season-high, five-game winning streak under interim manager Pat Murphy. “He made some great pitches, quality pitches”.

So ended lofty thoughts of Heston becoming just the sixth pitcher in major league history to throw two no-hitters in the same season.

The Giants piled on with three more runs against Dale Thayer in the eighth. It was his second career slam and the sixth by the Giants this season.

“He really hit his spots much better than the last outing, where he had trouble getting the ball where he wanted”, Bochy said. “The long ball isn’t something you don’t expect here”. Thayer didn’t like it and threw gum in Sanchez’s direction when he circled the bases. Matt Duffy hit a single and Buster Posey scored Panik with another single, tying the game. Later in the game the benches cleared after Padres reliever Shawn Kelley had some choice words for Sanchez. No one was ejected.

Murphy said it was a combination of pitch count and Shields laboring in a few innings. “There were words exchanged”. The Padres are tied for 3rd in the NL West with the Diamondbacks, as both teams are 9.5 games behind the Dodgers.

Heston s lively stuff was reminiscent of June 9 in New York, when he no-hit the Mets while hitting three batters.

Shortstop Brandon Crawford extended the Giants’ cushion to 5-0 in the fourth when he hit a three-run homer off Despaigne. Duffy singled home the final run.Gyorko put the Padres on the board first with a 378-foot line drive that hit off the lower scoreboard on the second deck in left.

Gyorko’s homer was his fifth. Belt and Crawford followed with singles, and Belt scored when left fielder Gregor Blanco hit into a double play.

“I guess that’s part of the game now”, Kelley said. “I hadn’t pitched in 11 days and it was 17 days since my last start and I think that was the difference today”.

The post Chris Heston almost makes history, Giants and Padres almost come to blows appeared first on Giants Extra. Heston threw 116 pitches before being pulled.

His time on the DL “turned out to be more of a rest than anything”, Hudson said.

Kelley might have gotten his dander up because he said the Giants dugout was barking at him after the inside pitches to Sanchez.

NOTES: Padres LF Justin Upton (oblique) was out of the lineup again Tuesday.

“That’s the Matt Kemp we used to play against, ” he said.

But San Diego wasn’t done with Sanchez.