Padres bats silenced in 3-2 loss to Giants
MLB.com
The San Diego Padres made the trip up to the Bay Area to take on the San Francisco Giants for a three-game weekday series. San Diego came into the series off a 2-4 homestand vs. the Chicago Cubs and the White Sox. The Giants just came back home from a road trip consisting of trips to Philadelphia, where they’d get swept in both of those series.
Monday night’s starters included the 27-year-old right-handed Randy Vásquez for the Padres, and San Francisco’s #16 prospect in their system, righty Trevor McDonald. In Vásquez’s previous three starts combined, he has an ERA of 5.06 in 16 innings pitched, with 15 strikeouts. McDonald’s last outing came with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats on April 24th. He tossed five shutout innings while surrendering just two hits and two walks while striking out three.
Tatis Jr. back into the lineup
Fernando Tatis Jr. was inserted back into the lineup Monday night as he sat on Sunday. This series vs. San Francisco could be huge for search for Tatis’ slug, as he’s launched 18 home runs against the Giants in his career.
May the 4th Be With You. pic.twitter.com/MzI15Ho6br
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 4, 2026
Scoring started early
Jackson Merrill began the scoring in Monday night’s action with a 436 ft shot over the center field wall. This was Merrill’s fourth homer of the year.
Moonshot for Merrill. pic.twitter.com/DgCinAKdmm
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 5, 2026
Eastlake High School alum Casey Schmitt took Vásquez deep for his fifth homer of the year, and to tie the game at 1.
After a one-out double by Luis Arraez, he’d advance to third on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Heliot Ramos. Arraez came in to score the next batter on a Rafael Devers single to center field to put the Giants up 2-1 early.
Giants extend their lead
Arraez hit another double to put himself in scoring position with no outs in the sixth. A Ramos groundout would get Arraez to third. Devers knocked in his second RBI of the night with a sacrifice fly to Tatis Jr. This made the score 3-1 Giants in the sixth.
Randy solid into the sixth
Vásquez settled down after his 23-pitch first inning, where two Giants scored. On the night, he tossed 5 2/3 innings and allowed three earned runs on five hits, while walking two and striking out two. Vásquez got just seven whiffs on the night. He’d throw just 88 pitches, 58 of which were for strikes.
Vásquez’s outing came to an end in the bottom of the sixth when Willy Adames reached on a two-out infield single. Kyle Hart came in to face the lefty Bryce Eldridge. Hart struck out Eldridge on a sweeper to keep Adames stranded.
McDonald’s seven shut-down innings
The Padres’ hitting had no answer for Trevor McDonald through his seven extremely strong innings. McDonald allowed just three base runners. Merrill got on twice with his first-inning blast and his fourth-inning single. Jake Cronenworth reached base as well when he got hit by a pitch in the third. McDonald racked up eight strikeouts across the 21 outs he recorded. As for the other 13 outs, 10 came via groundouts, and the other three were from flyouts. McDonald retired the final 12 Padres he faced on Monday night.
Padres’ pen does its job
Bradgley Rodriguez was called upon in the bottom of the seventh to get some crucial outs. Rodriguez all four batters he faced, three via the ground ball and one via the air. He’d go 1 1/3 innings in his clean outing, throwing just 16 pitches, nine of them for strikes. Rodriguez lowers his ERA on the season to 1.62 in his 16 2/3 innings pitched.
After Rodriguez retired Schmitt in the bottom of the eighth, Wandy Peralta entered the game to face Arraez. Peralta induced a ground ball out for the second out of the inning. Ramos would then triple to right field to bring up Devers, who’s been cold to start 2026. Devers walked on four pitches. This would bring up Adames, who struck out on an elevated 95.7 mph fastball for the third out of the inning.
Not going out quite
With the Giants currently in a “close by committee” situation, it was Caleb Kilian who entered the game in the ninth. Kilian received the loss in the Rays’ walk-off win against the Giants on Sunday. Ramón Laureano hit his fifth of the year, a solo shot to narrow the Giants’ lead to just one.
Ramon Laureano makes it a 1 run game for the #Padres with a home run pic.twitter.com/4zTGSAw9T9
— Carlos (@LFGPads19) May 5, 2026
Tatis Jr., Merrill, and Machado would all go down in order in a disappointing way to finish the game. Tatis and Machado both went down on strikes on breaking balls down and out of the zone.
Wrap-up
McDonald and his seven strong innings would receive the win in his first appearance of the season. Vásquez, who was 3-0 coming into Monday night, would receive his first loss of 2026. Killian secured the win for the Giants, as well as his first save of the year.
The Giants snapped a six-game losing streak, and they advance to 14-21 through 35 games. San Diego falls down to 20-14.
Tuesday night in the Bay
San Diego and San Francisco will face off on Tuesday for the middle game of this three-game set. The pitching matchup will be Padres’ Walker Buehler, with the Giants yet to announce a starter at this point. Tuesday’s first pitch is slated for 6:45 PM PT.
Angel grew up a San Diego sports fan, following the Padres, SDSU athletics, San Diego FC, as well as the Chargers. He is currently a third year community college student, and will transfer to SDSU to pursue a career in Journalism.