Ramon Laureano blasted a two-run homer while Nick Pivetta yielded only one hit in five shutout innings Wednesday as the San Diego Padres avoided a series sweep by the visiting San Francisco Giants’ with a 7-1 win.
Bouncing back from a frightful outing in an 8-2 Opening Day loss to Detroit on Thursday, Pivetta (1-1) fanned eight and walked two. Former teammate Luis Arraez accounted for San Francisco’s one hit off Pivetta with a leadoff single in the second.
San Diego used its top three relievers to handle the game’s remainder. Jeremiah Estrada pitched a scoreless sixth and Adrian Morejon handled 1 2/3 innings before Mason Miller worked the final 1 1/3 innings for his second save.
The Padres led 3-1 entering the bottom of the eighth, but Laureano provided insurance when he followed Manny Machado’s leadoff double with a two-run homer to left, his second of the year. The ball traveled an estimated 393 feet.
San Diego worked reliever Jose Butto over for two more runs in the inning. Fernando Tatis Jr. legged out an infield single to make it 6-1 as Jake Cronenworth crossed the plate and Xander Bogaerts coaxed a four-pitch bases loaded walk to close the scoring.
Adrian Houser absorbed the loss in his first start of the year. He lasted 5 1/3 innings, permitting seven hits and three runs, one of them earned. Houser walked one and struck out four.
Poor defense victimized Houser when the Padres scored single runs in the first and fifth. After Jackson Merrill singled with two outs in the first, Machado reached on an infield single. First baseman Casey Schmitt dropped the throw from third baseman Mark Chapman and the ball rolled into right field, enabling Merrill to score.
Chapman was charged with a throwing error in the fifth on Bogaerts’ two-out bouncer that allowed Gavin Sheets to score. Sheets ripped his second double in as many innings in the sixth, plating Laureano for a 3-0 advantage.
Harrison Bader’s two-out RBI single in the seventh scored Arraez with San Francisco’s only run. Arraez collected three of the Giants’ four hits and added a stolen base.
It marked the first time in six games that San Diego scored more than three runs.
