The Padres kept adding. Then they needed every run. San Diego beat the San Francisco Giants 7-6 Saturday at Oracle Park, extending its winning streak to six games after a three-run Giants eighth turned a comfortable lead into a save situation.
Michael King supplied the length. The right-hander allowed three runs on five hits across seven innings, struck out four and did not walk a batter. He left with a 7-3 advantage after San Diego had scored in six consecutive innings from the second through the seventh. That run of pressure gave the bullpen just enough room when San Francisco's power arrived late.
The Giants opened the scoring against King. Rafael Devers hit a two-run homer in the first, and Shay Whitcomb added a solo shot in the second. San Diego erased the early deficit with contact rather than one swing: Dustin Harris lined a two-run single in the second, bringing home Austin Hays and Xander Bogaerts. Jackson Merrill tied it with his 25th homer in the third.
From there, the Padres moved ahead one run at a time. Harris drove in Samad Taylor with a fourth-inning sacrifice fly. Jake Cronenworth bunted home Hays in the fifth, and Fernando Tatis Jr. hit his 21st homer in the sixth. In the seventh, Tatis reached on Whitcomb's fielding error as Bogaerts scored the unearned run that became the final margin.
San Diego finished with 13 hits and six walks, forcing San Francisco to cover traffic in nearly every inning. The Padres also stole three bases and did not ground into a double play. Their offense left 13 runners on base, but it repeatedly converted enough of that traffic to prevent the Giants from taking another lead.
Bogaerts went 4-for-5 and scored twice, the fullest individual line in the Padres' attack. Tatis reached five times with two hits and three walks, while Hays had two hits and scored twice. That distribution meant the Giants could not escape by pitching around one hitter; the traffic kept returning ahead of Harris, Cronenworth and the middle of the order.
The eighth changed the temperature. Drew Cavanaugh hit his first major-league homer, then Drew Gilbert followed with a two-run shot that cut the deficit to one. San Francisco produced six runs on eight hits, and all six came on four home runs. The lineup did not draw a walk, a sharp contrast to the Padres' longer innings.
Mason Miller handled the ninth and protected King's win. The save completed a tight finish after San Diego had won the series opener 7-5 on Friday. Saturday's victory moved the Padres to 80-68, while the Giants fell to 62-87. The record gives San Diego 14 games remaining in the regular season, so each late lead now carries standings weight beyond the night itself.
The sequence also shows the useful difference between building a margin and protecting it. Merrill and Tatis supplied the loudest swings, but Harris drove in three runs and the seventh-inning error mattered as much as any clean hit once the Giants rallied. King kept the bases empty enough that four San Francisco homers produced only six runs. The Padres' sixth straight win was not tidy. It was secured because their earlier innings kept paying after the game tightened.