
The San Francisco Giants claimed a 12-0 win over the San Diego Padres on Sunday. Alex Wood and Wilmer Flores gave impressive performances after Carlos Rodon showed a strong play a day prior.
Wood received a no-hit in the sixth, and Flores scored two home runs between his four hits and four RBIs in the match on Sunday.
Wood said he took inspiration from Rodon’s overpowering performance on Saturday when Rodon scored 12 strikeouts in a three-hitter. Rodon was backed up by Flores’ first three home runs in the last two games. Rodon left for the initial National League All-Star team, announced on the same day.
“There’s always friendly competition, right?” Wood said. “Somebody goes out there the day before and dominates. You want to follow that up with a really good quality start the next day.”
Wood allowed All-Star Manny Machado to walk with one out in the first inning. He did not allow another baserunner to run until rookie C.J. Abrams scored an opposite-field single hit on the left-hander’s second pitch of the sixth inning.
“It was a good day today,” Wood said. “It was the best my slider has been all year, for sure. Yesterday you get just an incredible start by ’Los, great defense. The boys came out banging today and played good defense.”
Giants manager Gabe Kapler said he was pleased with how his team performed. He commended Wood’s pitching skills.
“Good pitching performance yesterday, good pitching performance today by Alex, obviously,” he said.
Flores and Thairo Estrada each hit a two-run homer-off rookie MacKenzie Gore, who only lasted for 3 1/3 innings. Flores also homered in the ninth inning off Matthew Batten, who started for the Padres at third base.
Flores had an out-of-the-field home run in the third. Both he and Estrada came with no strikeouts against Gore, who allowed eight runs and eight hits. Flores also drove in a run in the seventh inning when he lined a ball off the back of reliever Dinelson Lamet.
The Giants had a 12-run differential, which was their widest margin of the season. Their dozen runs were their most scores since winning 12-10 over the Atlanta Braves.
Their consecutive win against the Padres was the first since their victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 17-18. Since then, they had lost 15 out of their past 19 games until Sunday.
Due to their previous losses, several players on the team, including Brandon Crawford, said they needed to “get back to basics”.
On Saturday, third baseman Evan Longoria decided to spread some positivity to the team, who were quite demotivated at the time, by organizing a pregame home run derby. He said it appeared to accomplish everything he hoped. His action gave the Giants the motivation they needed.
“We’ve been looking for a game like that to start to carry some momentum forward,” Wood said regarding the team’s performance against the Padres. “The boys came out banging today and played good defense, and I threw the ball well.”
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