SAN FRANCISCO — The Padres did not wait to score Wednesday.
Then they built a sizable lead.
But their payback for two improbable victories was a loss that had seemed highly unlikely.
A Giants team that had not scored more than four runs in a game since mid-May scored six of them between the fifth and seventh innings to beat the Padres 6-5.
“No lack of drama, another one-run game,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “A 5-0 lead, and wasn’t able to bring it home.”
Jason Adam took the loss after letting the two runners he inherited from Nick Pivetta with no outs in the seventh score and also allowing his own runner to score.
“Everybody that played tonight did what they needed to do to come out on top, except for me, really,” Adam said. “So it hurts a little bit.”
The game did not end without more late drama, as singles by Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado gave the Padres runners at first and second with one out in the ninth before Jackson Merrill struck out and Gavin Sheets popped out to end the game.
Sheets had driven in the Padres’ first two runs and their last two. Merrill had driven in their middle run.
It was the Padres’ first loss in five games against the Giants this season. All three games in this series have been decided by one run and were tied in the seventh inning or later.
“That’s what happens when it’s division baseball,” Sheets said. “It’s what happens when good teams play. No quit. Everybody knows the importance of these games. First two wins, obviously, extremely gritty, huge wins. Tonight, they came out and swung the bats. … All three games have been extremely competitive and good, good baseball games.”
The Padres won Monday and Tuesday despite not scoring in the first eight innings of either game. They were the first team in 24 years to accomplish that in successive road games.
Monday was their first 1-0 victory in extra innings since 2006. Tuesday’s game involved them scoring twice with two outs in the ninth and again with two outs in the 10th.
They went to work trying to avoid the need for such theatrics right away Wednesday.
Tatis led off the game with a ground ball through the hole on the left side of the infield that hit off shortstop Willy Adames’ foot, slowing and redirecting it enough to allow Tatis to turn the hit into a double. After Machado drew a one-out walk, Sheets came up with two outs and launched a ball off the tall brick wall in right field that bounced back on the grass far enough that Sheets was able to run all the way to third for his second career triple.
Tatis also started the scoring in the fifth by beating out a slow roller to the left side. He got to second on Arraez’s bunt single and scored on Merrill’s double down the left field line that moved Arraez to third.
Sheets then lined his second two-run hit of the game, which also bounced into right field. This time it did so after caroming off Giants’ starting pitcher Kyle Harrison’s throwing arm.
That brought in Arraez and Merrill and drove Harrison from the game.
It was Sheets’ fourth game this season with at least four RBIs, and it gave the Padres one more run than they had scored while winning the first two games of the series here.
It also seemed it would be enough for them to win a third.
The Giants’ comeback Wednesday was their major league-leading 13th win in a game they trailed by multiple runs. But they had been scuffling, averaging two runs over their previous 16 games and failing to score more than four runs in any of those games.
And Pivetta was dealing.
He had retired 11 consecutive batters on 39 pitches when the bottom of the fifth inning began, and he got the first two outs in that inning before a flared single by Daniel Johnson and Patrick Bailey’s double got the Giants on the board.
Two balls just out of left fielder Brandon Lockridge’s reach got the Giants two more runs in the sixth.
With one out, Jung Hoo Lee skied a ball down the line to shallow field that Lockridge ran 97 feet and dove for but could not catch. With Lee on second, Pivetta got Wilmer Flores on a pop out before Matt Chapman hit a 1-2 sweeper left in the middle of the strike zone to left field, where it sailed beyond a leaping Lockridge and bounced off the top of the wall.
Pivetta was at just 81 pitches and went back out to start the seventh but did not record an out, as a walk to Adames and a single by Johnson ended his night.
“The mistakes that I made, they kind of capitalized,” Pivetta said. “They put some good ABs on late. … Just allows them to kind of get back in the game and then kind of feed off their energy. (Didn’t) really do my job and put Jason in the best position to come in.”
Adam struck out the first batter he faced before surrendering a single to Tyler Fitzgerald that loaded the bases and a double by Heliot Ramos that tied the game 5-5 and moved Fitzgerald to third. Lee followed with a sacrifice fly that gave the Giants the lead.
“Came in, got the first out, so I felt like I was in a good spot — especially, still first and second, so you still have the double play in order,” Adam said. “Just not executing the pitch to get them on the ground or put them away. … So didn’t get the job done. That sucks.”
