SAN FRANCISCO — Jesus Rodriguez’s first six innings in right field as a major leaguer had gone off without a hitch. So, of course, with the score tied and two on and two out in the seventh, the ball came his way.
The multipositional 24-year-old playing his third career game gave chase to the fly ball from Ty France cutting toward the right field foul line. He dove, outstretched his glove but couldn’t make the play.
The ball glanced off his glove and rolled to the wall as France chugged into third base and the two go-ahead runs scored in the Giants 5-1 loss to the Padres on Wednesday.
Rafael Devers supplied the Giants’ only offense with a solo shot to left off Matt Waldron in the fifth. Devers’ third homer of the year tied the score at 1 after Gavin Sheets opened the scoring in the fourth with a Splash Hit — San Diego ’s only damage off Giants starter Adrian Houser .
Houser turned in his best outing with the Giants but came away with nothing to show for it. He held the Padres to three hits over six-plus innings in his longest start of the season.
The seventh inning started in the same way the Giants’ fate was sealed: With a misplay in the field. The first batter of the inning, Fernando Tatis Jr. , reached when Matt Chapman couldn’t handle his hard chopper to third and scored when Rodriguez wasn’t able to corral France’s fly ball.
Not for nothing: Rodriguez contributed the only two hits the Giants’ got besides Devers’ home run. They struck out 13 times as a team and failed to draw a walk for the second straight game.
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San Francisco dropped two of three to the Padres to fall to 14-23, the furthest below .500 the franchise has been since it was 39-48 on July 5, 2019.
After winning the first game of the series and pulling ahead 4-1 early Tuesday, the Giants were outscored 14-2 over the final 15 innings of the series.
Devers far from squared up an outside fastball from Waldron, but the high fly ball carried just far enough to clear the wall in left field for his first home run since April 8. He’s hit safely in his past seven games, batting .318 with an .833 OPS over one of his most productive stretches this year.
Luis Arraez was held out of the lineup for a second straight game with soreness in his left thumb. The Giants are hopeful he’ll be back Friday after the team’s day off.
Chapman’s hitless streak extended another three chances to his past 24 at-bats, while Jung Hoo Lee went 0-for-3 to drop his OPS below .700 for the first time since April 23.
Called on in a lower-leverage situation, onetime closer Ryan Walker served up a two-run homer to Xander Bogaerts that extended the Padres’ lead to 5-1 in the eighth, raising his ERA to 5.52.
The Giants are off Thursday before they host the Pirates for three games. They at least catch a break and won’t see Pittsburgh ace Paul Skenes or its No. 2, Mitch Keller .
