SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The San Francisco Giants provided a glimpse of the opportunistic offense they thought they had coming into this lost season.
Buster Posey hit three RBI doubles, Brandon Crawford drove in three runs and had three hits, and the Giants beat the San Diego Padres 8-0 on Friday night to ensure they won’t finish with a 100-loss season.
Joe Panik added a run-scoring double among his four hits to back Chris Stratton (4-4). The Giants needed one victory in this final series to avoid their first 100-loss year since 1985.
“It was great. It’s nice to see even this time of the year guys are still battling and not giving away at-bats,” Panik said.
Posey and Pablo Sandoval hit RBI doubles in the first inning and Crawford had a run-scoring single as San Francisco jumped on Jordan Lyles (1-5). He was done after 3 2/3 innings.
Crawford hit a two-run single as the Giants added four more runs in the fourth, all with two outs. Posey’s third double came in the sixth.
“Those are the timely hits that win ballgames for you,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “We were missing a lot of them this year.”
Stratton struck out seven over 6 2/3 innings and walked two, allowing seven hits. The Giants have won six of his nine starts since Aug. 5.
He will compete for a spot in the rotation come spring training.
“It’s always nice to end on a good note,” Stratton said. “I hate that our season’s ended up the way that it has and we don’t have that playoff taste. I would love to kind of get that in me.”
The Padres lost their fifth straight game, shut out for the second straight contest after a 10-0 loss to the Dodgers on Wednesday. San Diego has been outscored 36-5 over its past four games.
“It’s a frustrating game,” manager Andy Green said. “I think it’s kind of been a theme of the last four games, you get down early and you get down big relatively early.”
San Diego has won all five previous series with San Francisco this season and owns a 7-0-1 series record against the Giants dating to the 2016 All-Star break.
WILLIE MAC AWARD
Hall of Famer Willie McCovey presented Nick Hundley with this year’s “Willie Mac” award, voted on by Giants players, coaches and training staff to recognize the team’s most inspirational player both on the field and in the clubhouse.
“Wow, this is pretty overwhelming to be standing here with Giants legends and mentioned in the same company as Willie McCovey,” Hundley said.
Matt Cain tipped his cap when announced among former winners, as the 2009 recipient. Cain will make his final start Saturday afternoon before retirement.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Giants: Rookie OF/2B Austin Slater underwent core muscle surgery earlier this week, Bochy said. Slater’s recovery time is estimated to be six to eight weeks.
UP NEXT
Padres: RHP Jhoulys Chacin (13-10, 3.98 ERA) pitched six shutout innings in his last start against Colorado on Sept. 23. He is 4-1 in seven career outings at AT&T Park.
Giants: Cain (3-11, 5.66) pitched the only perfect game in franchise history on June 13, 2012. The right-hander, who turns 33 on Sunday, will make his first appearance of September and is slated to throw about 60-70 pitches.
“Strange, because it’s probably the first one - we’ve had other guys obviously retire - but this is more (Juan) Marichal-like, this is more (Gaylord) Perry-like, I mean this is a big deal for Giants fans and anybody that grew up a Giants fan,” pitching coach Dave Righetti said.
Cain is 8-14 with a 3.20 ERA in 38 games with 37 starts against the Padres.
He has spent his entire 13-year big league career with the Giants.
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