Buster Posey

Ross strikes out 11; big night is wasted in 4-2 loss

Published Sep. 23, 2015 11:59 a.m. ET

foxsports

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Tyson Ross had a big night for the San Diego Padres and walked away with a loss.

Ross struck out 11 to tie his career high in Tuesday night's 4-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants, who pulled within six games of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West. That gave him a career-high 205 for the season. His previous high was 195 last year.

"Tyson once again pitched well enough to win," interim manager Pat Murphy said. "I though Tyson was great."

Ross (10-11) allowed two runs and four hits in six innings, with two walks. He's the sixth pitcher in franchise history to reach the 200-strikeout plateau. Jake Peavy, scheduled to start for San Francisco against San Diego on Wednesday night, did it for the Padres each year from 2005-07. Ross and James Shields (208) are the first teammates in Padres history to record 200-plus strikeouts in a season.

"I got my two-seamer going and my slider was biting hard and I kind of missed a lot of bats," Ross said. "It's pretty cool that it is the first time we have had two in the rotation get that."

Rookie Trevor Brown's RBI double was his first major league hit and Angel Pagan had a two-run home run for the Giants.

Time's running out for the defending World Series champion Giants, who have only 12 games left. They trail the Chicago Cubs by 9 1-2 games for the second wild card spot. The Giants have beaten the Padres six straight times and eight of nine.

Brown got the start after Buster Posey was a late scratch. Brown made his big league debut starting at catcher on Saturday. He was 0 for 5 with a walk in two games coming in. He struck out looking in the third inning, giving Ross 200 strikeouts. After Kelby Tomlinson grounded into a double play in the fifth, Ehire Adrianza walked and Brown hit a fly ball that one-hopped the fence in center field for a 1-0 lead.

Brandon Crawford hit an RBI single off Ross in the sixth and Pagan homered off the top of the wall in right field off Kevin Quackenbush with two outs in the seventh. It was his third.

George Kontos (4-2) got the win after pitching 1 2-3 innings in relief of rookie Chris Heston, who struck out seven and allowed two hits 4 1-3 scoreless innings. He was lifted after loading the bases with one out in the fifth. Kontos came on and got Matt Kemp to foul out and Justin Upton to fly out to center.

"We couldn't get the big hit. It is frustrating," Murphy said. "We had some balls hit hard that went right to the fence and maybe on a different day they would have gone out. It just seemed like whenever we did connect it wasn't quite far enough.

"We punched out 16 and the Giants had a bunch of starters missing. Punch out 16 and lose -- that is pretty unusual."

Santiago Casilla pitched the ninth for his 35th save in 40 chances.

San Diego's Cory Spangenberg hit a solo homer in the sixth, his fourth, and pinch-hitter Brett Wallace had a leadoff shot in the seventh, his fifth.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Giants: Posey (hip) is expected to play Wednesday night. ... OF Juan Perez (strained side muscle) isn't likely to play again this year, manager Bruce Bochy said. ... 1B Brandon Belt wasn't with the team; he's scheduled to see a concussion specialist in Pittsburgh on Thursday.

Padres: RHP Shawn Kelley (forearm), who last pitched on Sept. 1, was available. ... RHP Josh Johnson has yet to decide when to have his third reconstructive elbow surgery.

UP NEXT

Giants: Peavy (7-6, 4.08), who was the unanimous NL Cy Young Award winner in 2007 while with San Diego, is scheduled to start Wednesday night against the Padres.

Padres: RHP Andrew Cashner (6-15, 4.25) has two wins in his last 10 starts.