SAN FRANCISCO — The Padres went all 2020 on offense, and they got 2019 Chris Paddack.
An 11-1 victory over the Giants on Sunday (box score) salvaged the finale of a three-game series at Oracle Park and sent the Padres to the hitter’s paradise of Coors Field with the affirmation they actually could get hits and runs in abundance and that Paddack was capable of navigating trouble and getting big outs with his fastball.
The right-hander threw three shutout innings in his first start since April 27 before being replaced by Ryan Weathers, who pitched the next three innings.
The Padres had not led in the first two games here, but they never trailed Sunday after Jake Cronenworth and Fernando Tatis Jr. hit 899 feet of home runs to put the Padres up 4-0 in the second inning.
The Padres added a run in the third, four more in the eighth and two in the ninth. The 11 runs were their second most this season. After beating the Diamondbacks 12-3 on April 28, they had scored a total of 22 runs in their eight games leading up to Sunday.
Paddack, who spent a week and a half on the injured list following two failed COVID tests despite his being vaccinated, came back from his isolation looking like the pitcher who was frequently dominant in his rookie season.
His fastball was jumping, and he used it to get himself out of a jam in the third inning.
After the Padres extended their lead to 5-0 but wasted a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the top of the third, Paddack found himself with runners at the corners and one out in the bottom of the inning with the Giants’ third and fourth hitters coming up.
After falling behind 2-1 to Buster Posey, Paddack blew fastballs at 97 mph and 96 mph past the player whose 1.089 OPS was the best in baseball over the previous two weeks. Paddack then threw five straight fastballs to Brandon Belt, the last of them at 97 mph that Belt swing through.
Weathers, who five days earlier had allowed one run in three innings after replacing starter Dinelson Lamet in the third inning, rode piggyback again Sunday. He retired the first seven batters he faced and stranded runners at first and second with a strikeout of Brandon Crawford to end the sixth inning. The rookie left-hander has allowed one run in six innings of relief since he departed his April 28 start with inflammation in the upper portion of his left forearm.
The Giants entered the game with the best record in the National League and a 2½-game lead over the Padres in the NL West. No one is imagining the division race will be decided imminently, but this one was important to the Padres for more than a solitary victory in May.
Their confident talk that their struggling bats would eventually come around was sounding increasingly wistful, based on little more than their prowess and power of last season. In fact, manager Jayce Tingler had on Saturday suggested the Padres would soon have to assess their offensive approach.
They had hit .192 over their previous four games and came into Sunday second-to-last in the National League with a .664 OPS.
But after hitting two home runs and a double in the first two games here, they equaled that in Sunday’s second inning. They would finish with seven extra-base hits, a season high. It was something they did four times in 2020. Their 16 total hits were also their most in 2021.
Their four-run burst in the second inning began with Wil Myers’ single slowly rolling 90 feet up the third base line until it hit the bag as if Myers had putted it there.
Cronenworth followed by sending a 1-1 slider an estimated 445 feet into McCovey Cove, after it caromed off the side of a kayak, to give the Padres their first lead of the series.
Victor Caratini belted a one-out double before Tatis sent a 1-1 slider halfway up the bleachers beyond left-center field, an estimated 454 feet from home plate.
Singles by Manny Machado, Eric Hosmer and Myers to begin the third inning made it 5-0. A walk by Cronenworth loaded the bases.
Giants starter Johnny Cueto, having just come back from a lat strain that had sidelined him since April 14, then got Jurickson Profar and Caratini on pop-ups to third base before center fielder Steven Duggar made a diving catch on a sinking liner by Paddack to end the inning.
Having thrown 64 pitches, Cueto was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the third. Matt Wisler (six) and Jarlin Garcia (three) retired nine straight batters before the Padres again loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh and again failed to add on to their lead.
Their first run in the eighth was aided by pitcher Jose Alvarez’s throwing error trying to force Tommy Pham at second on a grounder by Tatis. That allowed Caratini to score. Trent Grisham followed with a two-run triple to the gap in left-center field.
With outfielder Darin Ruf on the mound throwing knuckleballs in the ninth, the Padres scored two more times.
For the 13th time in 13 opportunities to do so, Padres pitching held onto a lead the team took into the seventh inning.
Emilio Pagán escaped trouble in a scoreless seventh. A single, double and sacrifice fly in the eighth off Drew Pomeranz prevented the Padres from getting their fifth shutout of the season, which would have tied last year’s total. Austin Adams pitched a perfect ninth.
