Hunter Pence delivers two-run hit in 11th to lift Giants past Padres

SAN FRANCISCO – Hunter Pence reached out and tapped the game-winning ground ball down the right-field line. He looked like he was playing pepper.

It was the bottom of the 11th inning Sunday during the Giants’ 3-2 win against the San Diego Padres. There was one out and the bases were loaded. The Giants were losing 2-1, and Padres closer Brand Hand, who has 21 saves, was pitching.

The count was 0-2. Pence, who was hitless in the game, was down to his final strike.

“I just wanted to put a good swing on whatever he threw up there,” Pence said. “Tried to lay off the high fastball and be ready for his really nasty slider.”

Hand threw the really nasty slider down and away. Pence leaned over the plate, swung a slow, controlled stroke and gently guided the ball down the foul line. The ball bounced past first base, leisurely rolled into the Padres’ bullpen and stopped before reaching the warm-up mound.

“I found a hole,” Pence said. “You’ve got to trust your hands.”

Andrew McCutchen scored the tying run from third base, and Buster Posey, whom the Padres walked intentionally, scored the winning run from second. Ty Blach was the winner, throwing six pitches to record the Padres’ final out in the top of the 11th.

As Pence rounded second base in the bottom of the 11th, he jumped into the arms of Brandon Crawford as McCutchen and Posey crossed the plate, and they danced with their teammates on the infield like they’d won the World Series. Pence was so excited, he tore his shirt open during the celebration.

Pence is batting a buck 96. Or, as Giants TV commentator Mike Krukow said during the broadcast, Pence is on the interstate, driving down I-96. Not where any baseball player wants to be.

Pence has missed 40 games with a sprained thumb, and has used two different batting stances. He started the season with a new stance, holding his hands low by his chest. Now, he’s back to his old stance, wrapping the bat around his head. He’s searching for something that will keep him in baseball a little while longer. He’s 35.

“It has been a tough road for him,” Bruce Bochy said after the game. “He went down and rehabbed. He has been trying to find his game. He finds a way, though, at times. And he did today. It wasn’t a great start for him in the early go, but he comes up with the game on the line and he put it in play. Good things happen when you do that.

“The thing we had to stay away from there was a strikeout. He battled his tail off and put it in play, put it in a good spot. This was probably his biggest hit just with what has been going on this year for him. We’re all happy for him.”

No one needed that hit more than Pence.

Except for maybe Giants reliever Reyes Moronta. He was the reason the Giants were losing in the 11th. It was all his fault.

The pitching was outstanding until he came in. Rookie Dereck Rodriguez worked seven innings and gave up only one run – a solo home run to the first batter of the game, Manuel Margot. Rodriguez was excellent the rest of the afternoon. The Giants are developing quite a kiddie corps of young starters.

And the bullpen is strong. Mark Melancon, Will Smith and Sam Dyson all pitched scoreless innings on Sunday.

But, Moronta got the Giants in trouble. In the top of the 11th, he walked the leadoff hitter. A hit-and-run play sent Margot to second base with one out. Then, Moronta made things worse. He threw a slider in the dirt on an 0-2 count to Hunter Renfroe, the ball bounced away from Posey and up the first base line. A wild pitch. Margot ran to third base, and there still was only one out.

That’s when Blach replaced Moronta to face the next batter, Cory Spangenberg. He hit a line drive toward Brandon Belt, who dove to his right and almost caught the ball, but it tipped off the webbing of his glove and Margot scored. And the Padres took a 2-1 lead. And the Giants were staring at another defeat.

Belt led off the bottom of the 11th and struck out swinging. Then McCutchen hit a one-hopper off the left-center wall and jogged into second base.

The next batter was Posey, who is batting only .203 after the sixth inning of games this year. They walked him intentionally. Invited the winning run on base.

The next batter was Crawford, the hottest hitter in baseball. Crawford is batting .370 since May 1. That’s the guy the Padres chose to face - not Posey.

Hand’s first pitch to Crawford hit him on the left shoulder and loaded the bases. The Padres’ plan backfired. But, they still had the lead. And Hand was facing Pence. The Padres still were in control.

Then, Pence won the game.