SAN FRANCISCO _ They observed the grind.
They witnessed his struggles.
And above all, they experienced the challenges he faced alongside them.
So when Hunter Pence hit a dribbler past Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer to send the Giants home with a 3-2 walk-off win in the bottom of the 11th inning Sunday, the Giants raced out of the dugout like they had just won a playoff game.
They embraced Pence, a .193 hitter entering Sunday's contest, with the biggest bear hugs imaginable and wore smiles brighter than the sun that shined down on AT&T Park for the matinee affair.
There might not be many of these moments left for the elder statesman of the Giants club, but Pence and his teammates enjoyed every second of it as San Francisco clinched a series victory.
After the first-place Diamondbacks and the second-place Dodgers both swept their opponents this weekend, the Giants couldn't afford to fall another game back in the National League West standings by splitting a series against the last-place Padres.
The difference between a 5-2 start and a 4-3 start to a homestand that began with series against the Marlins and Padres is gigantic, especially for a Giants club that hasn't finished a day over .500 in two weeks.
With Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija poised to return to the Giants rotation within the next two weeks, manager Bruce Bochy acknowledged the club's decision-makers have begun discussing how to navigate an upcoming roster crunch.
The pitchers on the Giants' staff with minor-league options know that each outing is an audition to remain on the big-league roster, and on Sunday, Dereck Rodriguez's performance was worthy of a call back.
The rookie right-hander began the day by laying a 3-2 fastball over the plate to Padres center fielder Manuel Margot, but Margot's leadoff home run was the only damage San Diego inflicted on Rodriguez. Despite needing 26 pitches to retire the side in the top of the first, including eight in Margot's at-bat, Rodriguez settled in and played the part of a seasoned veteran on the mound.
After fellow rookie Andrew Suarez tossed 52/3 innings of one-run ball against San Diego in Saturday's 5-3 win, Rodriguez lasted a career-best seven frames against the Padres in a sharp and largely dominant effort Sunday.
In the midst of his 99-pitch outing, Rodriguez induced 10 swings and misses and allowed just four hits. The righty ramped his fastball up to 95 miles per hour and spun off 23 curveballs, including 10 that landed in the zone for called strikes.
As Samardzija closes in on a return to the rotation that's scheduled for the middle of the Giants' upcoming road trip, the front office is watching every inning of every start Suarez and Rodriguez make and evaluating their potential to sustain success.
Like Suarez on Saturday, Rodriguez was forced to pitch under pressure because the Giants' offense struggled against a Padres starting pitcher. Rodriguez opposed San Diego rookie left-hander Eric Lauer on Sunday, who carried a 5.47 ERA into the contest but started his day with three hitless innings of work.
Lauer flummoxed the Giants with a fastball-curveball combination and didn't allow a runner to advance past second base until the bottom of the sixth inning.
With the Giants trailing 1-0, center fielder Gorkys Hernandez stepped to the plate and drove a 2-0 fastball to left-center field. Hernandez's blast bounced off the top of the outfield wall and into the bleachers, tying the score at 1-1 and giving Hernandez his ninth home run of the year.
Hernandez has played professional baseball since 2006, but the 30-year-old outfielder never hit more than eight home runs in a single season until he surpassed that total Sunday. His solo shot moved him into sole possession of third place on the Giants' 2018 home run leaderboard, behind middle of the order fixtures Evan Longoria and Brandon Belt.
The Giants were fortunate Hernandez struck against Lauer, considering the Padres' bullpen has emerged as the team's obvious bright spot during the first half of the season.
