Darvish good, Hill grand as Padres hold on to beat Giants
Tim Hill #TimHill
The grand slam that wasn’t nearly unraveled Yu Darvish’s best start yet as a Padre.
Thank Tim Hill, for sure.
But give a hat-tip to those second and third opinions.
With a season-high 12 strikeouts already on his ledger, Darvish watched helplessly from the dugout in the seventh inning as the umpiring crew talked about Darin Ruf’s would-be, pinch-hit grand slam near the right-field foul pole. He breathed a bit easier when the replay crew in New York upheld the reversal. He was flat out elated when Hill replaced the slam with two punchouts to help the Padres to a 3-2 win over the first-place Giants on Friday night at Petco Park.
Darvish has allowed exactly one earned run in each of his last five starts, all at least six innings long.
Maintaining that streak was not easy, either, after Buster Posey homered with two outs in the first inning, nor after loading the bases in the seventh inning after Jurickson Profar singled in a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Darvish dismissed the first hiccup — the Posey homer and an ensuing walk to Brandon Belt — with 11 straight outs. The second jam was left to Hill, who looked like his run of clutch relief work had come to an end when Ruf lofted a fly ball that sailed over the wall near the right-field foul pole.
First base ump Ryan Additon originally ruled it had hooked inside the pole. The rest of the crew changed his mind. Then the replay crew upheld Giants manager Gabe Kapler’s challenge.
Instead of trailing 5-3 on a grand slam, Hill was still protecting a 3-1 lead and responded with strikeouts of both Ruf and Mike Tauchman.
He screamed after the latter as he hopped off the mound to complete his team-high 15th appearance.
Eight are considered high-leverage, making Hill’s 1.42 ERA and 17-to-4 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 12 2/3 innings that much more impressive.
The Giants also loaded the bases in the eighth off left-hander Drew Pomeranz, but he traded a run for a double-play ball from Evan Longoria and stranded the tying run on third base with a groundout from Austin Slater.
Mark Melancon struck out two in a perfect ninth to convert his ninth save.
Like with Hill, punchouts helped Darvish out of a couple dicey spots, too.
With runners on second and third in the fifth in a 1-1 game, Darvish struck out pitcher Logan Webb and got Tommy La Stella to bounce out to first.
What he did to strand Tauchman’s leadoff double in the sixth was even more impressive: Posey, Belt and Alex Dickerson all went down on strikes.
The Giants did not hold their first-inning lead for long, either, as Trent Grisham doubled with one out and scored from second base with two outs when La Stella tried to charge and barehand Eric Hosmer’s tapper to the right side of the infield.
He could not, allowing the Padres to reset the game at 1-1 as Darvish took the mound in the second inning.
Darvish had not given up more than one run in a start since allowing four runs in 4 2/3 innings on opening day.
This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.