Padres win late again, take series from Giants

SAN FRANCISCO — This is who the Padres are.

They are eventually. They are find a way.

They are virtually nothing — and then they are what is necessary.

“When it’s time to go, we’re ready to go,” Gavin Sheets said Wednesday afternoon after another typically untypical victory. “And we’ve got guys to do it, and we’ve got guys that are ready in any moment.”

Ty France was the one who encapsulated that ethic in a 5-1 victory over the Giants at Oracle Park.

Sent to the plate as a pinch-hitter with two outs in the seventh inning with one strike against him, France worked the count full and then lofted the seventh pitch he saw down the right field line.

As the ball fell, right fielder Jesus Rodriguez dove to try to make what would have been an inning-ending catch, but the ball bounced off his glove and rolled into the corner.

“I knew I didn’t hit it great, so I was hoping that it was going to get down,” France said. “He made a great effort, and fortunately for me, it kicked away.”

Yes, that is how it has gone for the Padres.

As the ball bounced off the side wall and died in the dirt, two Padres baserunners raced home and France ran all the way to third base.

Some deliberation in the dugout regarding personnel had resulted in France getting late word he would be hitting and his being assessed a strike for a pitch clock violation not of his own doing.

“Great at-bat by Ty,” manager Craig Stammen said. “I don’t know if the manager put him in the greatest position to succeed, but we got him out there and he came through and made me look good.”

That France went up and delivered one of the more clutch at-bats of the season was entirely on brand for the Padres of 2026.

His hit was the third by a Padres substitute that gave them a lead in the final three innings of a game. It provided the edge for the Padres in their 11th victory (of their 22 total) earned in the seventh inning or later. It required some good fortune, and it masked the fact that they had three hits to that point and had the 17th quality start thrown against them in 36 games.

What they don’t do just doesn’t seem to matter. It has so far been outweighed in great measure by what they do.

“We’re a resilient group,” France said. “It’s going to be someone different every day. We’ve got to keep putting good at-bats together. When we do put those big innings together, it’s because we’ve had, one after the other, just consistent, good at-bats.”

So it is that a riddle of a season continued, as the Padres won for the third time in four games. This comes after they lost five times in six games, which came after a 16-3 stretch, which followed a 2-5 start.

Xander Bogaerts, who entered the game at shortstop after France pinch-hit for Sung-Mun Song, hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning.

In all, 69 of the Padres’ 162 runs have been scored after the sixth inning. That is the second most in the major leagues.

They are batting .283 after the sixth inning in games in which they are leading by a run, tied or at least have the tying run on deck. That compares to a .227 batting average in all other situations.

Their formula for Wednesday did vary on the pitching side.

The Padres began the game with an opener for the first time this season, and it worked magnificently.

Bradgley Rodriguez retired the Giants in order in the first inning. Matt Waldron took over and allowed one run on two hits while striking out seven batters in his five innings.

Adrian Morejón began the seventh and allowed one hit over the next two innings before Mason Miller worked a 1-2-3 ninth.

A solo home run for each side — Gavin Sheets into the bay in the fourth inning; Rafael Devers the other way and just over the wall in left field in the fifth — had the game tied 1-1 when France came to bat.

Giants’ starting pitcher Adrian Houser had allowed three hits and walked one while throwing just 73 pitches through six innings.

He appeared to get the first out of the seventh when Fernando Tatis Jr. grounded a ball toward third base, but Matt Chapman had the ball go off his glove and into left field.

With that, Giants manager Tony Vitello went to reliever Keaton Winn, who began his day by walking Ramón Laureano before retiring Nick Castellanos and Freddy Fermin.

With the left-handed-hitting Song due up, Vitello made another change, bringing in left-hander Matt Gage.

The Padres, meanwhile, were trying to figure out how to handle their substitutions, given that France was serving as the backup catcher with Luis Campusano unavailable after fouling a ball off his toe Tuesday, shortstop Xander Bogaerts was getting a day off and various other players not working at their usual positions.

When Gage completed his warm-up pitches quicker than Stammen anticipated, Song walked to the plate and got in the box before France emerged from the dugout.

Home plate umpire Tripp Gibson assessed the Padres a pitch clock violation, and France faced an 0-1 count.

After fouling off successive 2-2 pitches, he watched a ball in the dirt and then went the other way with a fastball left up and in.

“Luckily, Ty is such a pro,” Stammen said, “he went out there and did his job and it worked out for us.”

It has not always. But it has an inordinate amount of the time.

Because that is who the Padres are.