SAN FRANCISCO _ Bye bye, baby? Better believe it.
Christian Arroyo cannot grow a beard. He never lived in a world without smartphones. He walked up to San Francisco Giants teammate Matt Moore in the spring and told him how cool it was to watch him pitch with the Rays while he was growing up in Tampa. Moore is 27.
And yet, youth continues to serve the Giants. Arroyo hit a solo home run in the eighth inning that snapped a tie and unleashed closer Mark Melancon, and the Giants escaped last place in the NL West with a 4-3 victory over the San Diego Padres.
The Giants might have hit Ctrl-Alt-Desperation when they promoted Arroyo from Triple-A Sacramento, but after five games, there is no denying the spark that their top hitting prospect has provided.
In five games, Arroyo has collected his first big league hit against Clayton Kershaw, started a stirring comeback with a two-run homer off Sergio Romo, recorded the first multi-hit game of his career, made the Dodgers pay for intentionally walking Buster Posey and batted second and fifth in the lineup.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy had no reservations about moving Arroyo from third base to shortstop Friday while Brandon Crawford remained on the bereavement list and slumping Eduardo Nunez received a day off.
"For him to have that much trust from the (coaching) staff, sure, it should give him confidence," Bochy said. "This is a tough kid."
And he's been worthy of Will Clark's old No.22.
Arroyo jumped on a 1-0 fastball from right-hander Ryan Buchter and sent a screamer down the line that easily cleared the left field fence. He already has more RBIs this season (four) than Posey (three).
Second baseman Joe Panik made a diving catch of a blooper to help Melancon record his fifth save of the season, and the Giants hopped a half-game in front of the Padres for the worst record in the division and the National League.
There is more than one issue with the Giants offense in this season's opening month, but their difficulty to jump on an opposing pitcher is one the more troubling trends. Bochy mentioned it after his team came out whiffing again while scoring just eight runs in the four-game series with the Dodgers.
The club was looking at ways to adjust batting practice and other pregame routines to ensure that nothing was hindering them from taking an early lead. Entering Friday night, they had scored just four runs in the first inning all season.
So when the Padres showed them charity in the first inning Friday, the Giants did not let their pride get in the way. They only scored because of shortstop Erick Aybar's two-out error on Arroyo's ground ball. Conor Gillaspie, getting a rare start, followed with an RBI single as the Giants took a 2-0 lead.
It was just the third time in their 24 games that the Giants scored in the first inning.
Jeff Samardzija didn't allow a hit through the first four innings, which is always notable when the Padres are in town. The Giants have no-hit them three times (Jonathan Sanchez, and Tim Lincecum twice) since 2009.
But Samardzija lost the bid and the lead on one swing in the fifth inning. He hit Yangervis Solarte with a pitch and gave up a home run to Ryan Schimpf, who entered with a .125 average.
Even with the advantage of pitching at AT&T Park against one of the league's lightest lineups, Samardzija paid for the mistake pitch. He has allowed at least one home run in four of his five starts, and six in all.
The Padres took a 3-2 lead when Cory Spangenberg followed Schimpf's homer with a line single and ended up on third base when it scooted past Brandon Belt in left field for an error. Austin Hedges followed with an RBI single when his blooper fell in front of center fielder Drew Stubbs, who was playing deep for some reason.
The Giants tied it in the bottom of the fifth. Belt hit a leadoff double to the outer reaches of right-center, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Michael Morse's sacrifice fly.
Samardzija couldn't hold the early lead and he did not squander the tie, but a hanging slider forced him to work hard in the seventh. After Spangenberg doubled on a fat pitch to put two runners in scoring position, Samardzija struck out Austin Hedges and broke Jabari Blash's bat on a ground out.
The bullpen did not stir the entire inning. Bochy was going to trust his starter to dictate the outcome.
After Samardzija was lifted for a pinch hitter, Derek Law pitched a scoreless eighth to get the victory.
