Giants take walk-off win at Home Opener over Padres
San Francisco Giants team during home opener, Friday, April 5, 2024, at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
2024.04.05 – Thairo Estrada doubled home Matt Chapman for the walk-off winning run, and the San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres 3-2 on Friday at Oracle Park.
Bob Melvin allowed himself to become nostalgic ever so briefly during his first home game managing the Giants. A former player for the franchise who grew up in the Bay Area, he had longed to one day wear the orange and black once more.
The Giants earned him a victory on a day it meant so much to their new manager, who appreciated being recognized but is ready for the focus to be on his team.
“I think it’s a special moment for him but I think that narrative is kind of getting a little old for him,” outfielder Mike Yastrzemski said. “I think he’s ready to just be the manager here and have it be normal for him and it doesn’t have to be that big story about coming back and doing all this.”
2024.04.05 (SD Padres vs. SF Giants) See Full Highlights
Giants third baseman Matt Chapman (front right) scores the winning run in the ninth inning against the Padres at Oracle Park on Friday. Thairo Estrada’s line-drive double scored Chapman.Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle
2024.04.05 (SD Padres vs. SF Giants) See Full Highlights
2024.04.05 (SD Padres vs. SF Giants) See Full Highlights
“I was just hoping it stayed and didn’t bounce over the fence. If it stayed in he was going to score,” Melvin said, noting that third base coach “Matt Williams was going to send him pretty much regardless at that point in time.”
Standing on second base, Estrada threw his arms into the air and pumped his arm when Chapman slid safely into home and beat the throw. It was Estrada’s second career game-winning RBI and first since Aug. 14, 2022, against the Pirates.
Enyel De Los Santos (0-1) replaced Wandy Peralta and plunked Chapman. Estrada then hit an 0-1 fastball into left-center.
Camilo Doval (1-0) worked out of a jam for the win. He allowed a one-out single in the ninth to Jake Cronenworth, who advanced on a passed ball before Manny Machado walked. But Doval escaped by striking out Ha-Seong Kim and Jurickson Profar.
Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a go-ahead single in the third inning but Chapman evened the game at 2-all with an RBI groundout in the sixth.
In the top of the eighth, leadoff hitter Graham Pauley swung and missed on a high, inside offering from Giants submariner Tyler Rogers. It appeared the ball hit Pauley first in the shoulder then the face, but he apparently claimed he had tipped the ball, which replay confirmed — but it is not a reviewable play so he was out on strike three.
2024.04.05 – SD Padres vs. SF Giants – (NBC Sports Post Recap)
Giants starter pitcher Jordan Hicks delivers a pitch in the first inning. He lasted a career-best seven innings against the Padres at Oracle Park on Friday. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle
2024.04.05 – SD Padres vs. SF Giants – (NBC Sports Post Recap)
2024.04.05 – SD Padres vs. SF Giants – (NBC Sports Post Recap)
A sellout crowd of 40,645 helped welcome Melvin for his home debut after departing the Padres last October. One of the assistants on his staff, Alyssa Nakken, coached her first regular-season game since becoming a mother in January.
The Padres missed chances again a day after San Diego went 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position but avoided a sweep by St. Louis with a 3-2 win.
Facing the Giants for his second straight start, Padres right-hander Dylan Cease struck out seven over six innings with a pair of walks, allowing two runs and four hits.
“I loved the way Dylan competed the whole game,” manager Mike Shildt said. “I liked the way he go through six and gave us … more than a chance to win.”
Cronenworth hit an RBI single in the first for San Diego before Michael Conforto’s double tied it in the bottom half.
2024.04.05 – SD Padres vs. SF Giants – (Kruger post game)
San Francisco Giants’ Thairo Estrada is congratulated by Giants team mates after Matt Chapman scores the winning run on a hit by Estrada against the San Diego Padres, Friday, April 5, 2024, in the home opener at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
2024.04.05 – SD Padres vs. SF Giants – (Kruger post game)
2024.04.05 – SD Padres vs. SF Giants – (Kruger post game)
Will Clark was recognized on the big screen during the middle innings and home run king Barry Bonds drew cheers, while former third base coach Tim Flannery and pitcher Jake Peavy of the 2014 World Series winners — both accomplished musicians — jammed for fans beyond right-center before the game.
Xander Bogaerts opened the game with a double against Jordan Hicks, giving the Padres at least one extra-base hit in 28 straight games in the series — San Diego’s fifth-longest active streak against any opponent.
Hicks could have called it a day after six innings, having thrown 80 pitches, he neutralized the Padres’ lineup, holding it to two runs, just one earned. Between innings, manager Bob Melvin extended his hand and told Hicks he was ready to shake it — take the starter out — if he was ready.
“I said, ‘I got another and I wanted to go back out there,’ ” Hicks said on Friday afternoon at Oracle Park.
Hicks was already in unfamiliar territory, an inning deeper into a game than the 27-year-old had ever gone in his MLB career. The converted reliever once pigeonholed to a bullpen role because he could mow down hitters with a 100-plus mph fastball had pitched as many as five innings once with the St. Louis Cardinals — against the Giants in 2022, no less.
But after six, Hicks’ legs felt spry and his arm felt livelier than it had to start. So Melvin didn’t shake Hicks’ hand just yet.
After getting Manny Machado out on a first-pitch slider and besting Ha-Seong Kim, Jurickson Profar doubled to represent a go-ahead run. That’s when Hicks let himself slip back into closer mode — a switch he has in arm’s reach — and dug in for 99, 98 and 97 mph sinkers to Luis Campusano, ultimately getting him to fly out on a 3-1 slider to end the threat.
“I felt like he had a lot left and he was throwing harder later in the game,” Melvin said.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Padres: 3B Machado, who has solely been designated hitter so far as he recovers from right elbow surgery in early October to repair the extensor tendon, is thrilled he will “soon” be throwing across the diamond again. “It’s going great,” he said.
UP NEXT
RHP Michael King (1-0, 6.14 ERA) pitches the middle game Saturday for San Diego opposite RHP Keaton Winn (0-1, 5.40) for the Giants.
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