SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Chris Paddack is aware that the San Diego Padres will soon shut him down for the season in order to limit the wear and tear on his pitching arm.
For now, Paddack, a 23-year-old rookie, is trying to put together as strong a finish as possible.
Paddack rebounded from his worst start of the season, throwing one-run ball over seven innings and leading San Diego to a 5-3 win over the San Francisco Giants on Thursday night.
“I know here soon I’ll probably be getting some news I don’t want, but they haven’t told me yet so I’m looking forward to my next start,” Paddack said after his best outing in nearly a month. “If I could go out and pitch every day, I would, but the reality is they have some standards and rules that they told me at the beginning of the year that they were going to hold to. Whenever that time comes, I’ll accept it.”
The Padres won after arriving in San Francisco around noon Thursday. San Diego lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in extra innings on Wednesday night and missed curfew to make their flight at the airport.
That didn’t seem to bother Paddack (8-7). He had eight strikeouts and gave up five hits, six days after getting tagged for six runs in 2 1/3 innings in a loss to Boston.
“We all believed it was coming,” Padres manager Andy Green said. “The type of work he put in between his starts was really good. Very focused, very determined. You saw some of it come to life on the field today.”
Paddack retired the first 10 before Brandon Belt homered into McCovey Cove with one out in the fourth. It was Belt’s ninth career home run into the water beyond the right field arcade, second-most in Giants’ history behind Barry Bonds.
“I made one mistake tonight, and it wasn’t the pitch. It was just the wrong side of the plate,” Paddack said.
San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy praised San Diego’s rookie pitcher.
“He’s got a big fastball and good command of it,” Bochy said. “We couldn’t mount much against him. He’s a young kid with good stuff and he was on top of his game tonight.”
Manuel Margot and Austin Hedges homered for San Diego, which had lost seven of eight against San Francisco. Josh Naylor added two hits and scored a run.
Matt Strahm retired three batters. Andrés Muñoz gave up a two-out RBI double to Stephen Vogt in the ninth before getting Donovan Solano to ground out for his first career save.
Paddack also sparked San Diego’s offense with an infield single in the third. Margot followed with his 11th home run of the season, a two-run drive off San Francisco starter Dereck Rodríguez. Three batters later, Eric Hosmer nearly matched Margot with a high drive that bounced off the top of the fence in center field for an RBI double.
After Luis Urias tripled in the fourth, Hedges delivered a two-run drive into the left field stands to make it 5-0.
Rodríguez (5-7) allowed five runs on eight hits in five innings. Rodríguez has lost 10 consecutive home starts, matching the longest streak by a Giants pitcher in the San Francisco era.
DUBON’S DEBUT
Mauricio Dubon made his first major league start a memorable one. San Francisco’s rookie second baseman turned a double play on Manny Machado’s grounder in the first inning, then made a diving stop behind the bag to rob Ty France of a hit in the second. In the fifth, Dubon collected his first hit when he singled off Paddack.
SCOREBOARD GLITCH
The large video scoreboard in center field had a glitch and didn’t show the lineups for both teams until the ninth inning. The crowd cheered, then booed moments later when the lineups were taken down.
TRAINERS ROOM
Giants: Pablo Sandoval is expected to begin swinging a bat and could make an appearance as a pinch-hitter before undergoing right elbow surgery next week. Sandoval has been sidelined since Aug. 11 because of inflammation.
UP NEXT
San Francisco lefty Madison Bumgarner (8-8, 3.71 ERA) faces San Diego for the third time this season. Bumgarner owns a 3.00 ERA in 17 career starts against the Padres at Oracle Park. San Diego right-hander Dinelson Lamet (2-2, 4.30) has allowed three or more earned runs in seven of nine starts. Lamet has had five or more strikeouts in all nine.
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