Giants finish at .500 for 1st time, top playoff-bound Padres

Published Oct. 5, 2022 7:30 p.m. ET

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) — David Villar hit two home runs and Austin Slater also connected for the San Francisco Giants, who beat the playoff-bound San Diego Padres 8-1 Wednesday in a regular-season finale.

The Padres head to New York to face the Mets in a wild-card series starting Friday night. San Diego finished 89-73, its first winning record in a full season since going 90-72 in 2010, when it missed the playoffs.

The Giants finished .500 (81-81) for the first time in the franchise’s 140 seasons. The Giants became the eighth team in history to win 100-plus games and then finish .500 or worse the next season. They set the franchise single-season record for wins in 2021, when they went an MLB-best 107-55 and won the NL West.

Mike Clevinger had been scheduled to start for the Padres but was placed on the injured list a few hours before the game with an illness. The team was awaiting results of a COVID-19 test.

Reliever Craig Stammen (1-2) started and gave up five runs and six hits in three-plus innings, struck out three and walked three. He failed to get an out in the four-run fourth, when the first six Giants reached and three scored before they made an out. Villar hit a two-run homer and LaMonte Wade Jr. added an RBI single off Stammen. Mike Yastrzemski added a sacrifice fly off Nabil Crismatt.

Villar homered against Pierce Johnson leading off the eighth. Left fielder Jurickson Profar tried to make the catch but the ball went off his glove and over the fence. Villar finished with nine homers.

Slater homered off Nabil Crismatt with two outs in the seventh, his seventh.

Manny Machado and Jake Cronenworth hit consecutive doubles in the first for a 1-0 Padres lead. The Giants tied it in the third on Yastrzemski's RBI single.

NICE MOMENT

Wil Myers, the longest-tenured Padres player, took his defensive position before the top of the eighth before manager Bob Melvin subbed him out so he could get an ovation from the crowd in what could have been his last appearance at Petco Park. Obtained from Tampa Bay in a three-team trade in December 2014, Myers signed an $83 million, six-year contract extension in 2017.

ATTENDANCE

The Padres drew 32,064 fans to finish with a season total of 2,987,470, the fifth-highest in the majors this year and the second-highest in franchise history behind 3,016,752 in Petco Park's inaugural season of 2004. By comparison, the Padres drew 2,396,399 in 2019, the last season before COVID-19 restrictions.

ROSTER MOVE

The Giants placed OF Joc Pederson on the family medical emergency list and recalled OF Heliot Ramos from Triple-A Sacramento.

UP NEXT

Giants: Open their 2023 spring training schedule Feb. 25 against the Chicago Cubs in Mesa, Arizona.

Padres: RHP Yu Darvish (16-8, 3.10 ERA) is expected to start Game 1 of the wild-card series at the New York Mets on Friday night.

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