SAN FRANCISCO _ Evan Longoria will receive the credit he deserves in Tuesday's box score for hammering a go-ahead, two-run double into the left field corner.
Third base coach Ron Wotus's name never shows up on the stat sheet, but his performance in the San Francisco Giants' 6-5 win over the San Diego Padres was nearly as important as Longoria's.
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, pinch hitter Brandon Belt had no trouble scoring the tying run from third on Longoria's line drive off reliever Trey Wingenter that sailed to the side of Padres left fielder Wil Myers.
For the Giants to take the lead, however, second baseman Joe Panik would need to score all the way from first.
Wotus made sure that happened.
As Myers collected the ball and tossed it to shortstop Fernando Tatis, Jr., Wotus made one of his most aggressive decisions of the season as he waved Panik toward the plate.
An average relay may have stopped Panik in his tracks halfway home, but Myers' throw to Tatis was low and the shortstop's toss to catcher Austin Hedges pulled him well up the third base line.
Wotus' quick decision helped the Giants take a 5-4 lead and also allowed Longoria to advance to third and later score a much-needed insurance run on a Pablo Sandoval sacrifice fly.
The Padres cut a two-run lead in half on a home run from Ian Kinsler off Tony Watson in the eighth, but closer Will Smith picked up his 15th save in 15 chances with a smooth ninth inning.
San Diego initially took a 4-3 fifth-inning lead on a bizarre sequence of events as the Padres scored three runs in the fifth without ever hitting a ball out of the infield.
With the bases loaded and two outs, first baseman Eric Hosmer hit a sharp one-hopper up the middle that took the glove off of reliever Trevor Gott's left hand. The ball and Gott's glove rolled toward the third base side of the field, allowing Hosmer to beat Gott's throw to first and for Tatis to come all the way around from second to score the go-ahead run.
The runs were charged to Giants starter Tyler Beede, who was brilliant in innings two, three and four but shaky in a fifth inning he couldn't escape.
Beede has struggled with command throughout his brief major league career and that issue haunted him on the first pitch of Tuesday's game. Tatis, Jr. demolished a fastball left up and over the plate beyond the left center field fence for his first career leadoff home run.
Two of the next three Padres hitters recorded hard-hit singles, but Beede didn't allow another baserunner until he walked the leadoff hitter, Myers, in the top of the fifth. Beede managed to sandwich a career-high seven strikeouts between the leadoff walk and leadoff home run he surrendered, but he didn't have enough meat to get through five full innings.
Two walks and a pair of infield singles including one that came on the ninth pitch of pitcher Chris Paddack's at-bat unraveled the Giants rookie and marred an otherwise encouraging start.
At times during Tuesday's outing, Beede showcased the dominant form he carried in spring training as he broke down Tatis with a brilliant 3-2 changeup and whizzed a two-strike fastball past slugger Manny Machado. Despite the potential Beede displayed, he followed up a three-run Giants fourth inning with the walk to Myers before he failed to retire Paddack, who was hitless in 14 career at-bats entering the game.
The three-run seventh inning was the second three-run frame of Tuesday's game for the Giants' offense, as Tyler Austin drove in a run with a 108-mile per hour single off Paddack before center fielder Steven Duggar hit his fourth home run of the year with two outs in the fourth inning.
Duggar's homer marked his fsirst since April 17, when he hit a two-run shot in a 9-6 loss to the Nationals in Washington, D.C.
