SAN DIEGO _ It's finally time for baseball at Third and King. It's finally time for garlic fries. But try to keep them out of the rain.
The Giants are set for their home opener on Monday against the Arizona Diamondbacks, and although a 2-5 road trip wasn't the way they envisioned beginning the season, they will not arrive on the shores of McCovey Cove with sagging spirits to match the weather forecast.
Johnny Cueto brought his usual magic to the mound over seven innings at Petco Park, Hunter Pence and Buster Posey hit back-to-back home runs, Mark Melancon recorded his first save and the franchise that once gave you Barry Bonds even enjoyed a rare, run-scoring hit from a left fielder in a 5-3 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday.
The Giants' only two victories on the trip to Arizona and San Diego came in Cueto's starts. It was a trip that might have exposed a few roster flaws. It was a trip that definitely showed them that, as much as the NL West might be a two-tiered affair, the Dodgers won't be the only division foe that will gladly try to put them in a choke hold.
The Diamondbacks' relentless lineup proved it could rally against anyone. And although the Padres are thin on experience, and perhaps talent, they did not look the least bit intimidated even when facing Madison Bumgarner on Saturday.
The Giants were able to escape Petco Park without getting swept, but there were some touch-and-go moments in the eighth inning when Derek Law had to serve as a three-out bridge between Cueto and Melancon. There were some splintering sounds when Law began his afternoon by serving up a home run and issuing a walk.
But Law got out of it and Melancon, who hadn't pitched in a week since blowing a save chance in the season opener, came through his own shaky inning that could have come straight out of the Wilsonian era. He gave up a single and walked light-hitting Travis Jankowski to bring Wil Myers to the plate as the winning run. Then he got Myers to ground into a double play.
The Giants awoke from their weeklong nightmare in left field just in time to hand Cueto a lead in the second inning, and a throwing error made it a two-run rally.
Their left fielders were 0 for 22 with 11 strikeouts when Marrero stepped to the plate with one out following Posey's walk and Brandon Crawford's single. Marrero hit an outside slider nearly off the end of his bat and poked it to right field for his first hit since 2013 with the Washington Nationals.
Posey scored, and so did Crawford when right fielder Hunter Renfroe's throw went offline and first baseman Myers accidentally kicked it into the Padres dugout.
The Giants took a 5-0 lead in the third when the middle of the order touched left-hander Clayton Richard for back-to-back home runs. Belt walked in front of Pence's first home run this season, and Posey followed with an opposite-field shot that snuck over the fence.
Meanwhile, Cueto kept churning quick outs, using his inside fastball to generate jammed pop-ups and expanding the zone with two strikes. He had retired 11 consecutive when Travis Jankowski drew a one-out walk in the sixth, and then the Padres put him to work.
Myers made it 5-2 when he found the left field seats with his second home run of the season, and he made little effort to hide his excitement. Myers threw down his bat, let out a yell, and appeared to look back toward the mound as he ran up the first base line.
The inning got weird from there. Cueto sliced off a sliver of Yangervis Solarte's bat, but the contact resulted in a dribbled single up the third base line. A walk and a hit batter loaded the bases before Cueto jammed Erick Aybar on a pop-up to third base to end the inning.
Cueto had to throw 28 pitches in the sixth, his count for the day was at 95, and nobody in the Giants bullpen had thrown a pitch since Friday because of Bumgarner's complete game Saturday.
But Bochy had Cueto hit for himself to lead off the seventh, and asked his All-Star to go a little deeper. Until this bullpen starts to settle into dependable form, Bochy might keep asking a bit more from his rotation.
Matt Moore gets the start for the Giants in their opener against the Diamondbacks on Monday. Nobody needs a refresher on what happened when Moore dazzled in the last game of 2016 at AT&T Park in the NL Division Series against the Cubs _ and the bullpen couldn't get three outs before handing back a three-run lead, and the last bit of their playoff lives.
