Giants 10, Padres 3
SAN FRANCISCO -- Right-hander Mike Leake helped out his own cause with his sixth career home run Sunday afternoon, a three-run shot that propelled the San Francisco Giants to a 10-3 victory over the San Diego Padres and a three-game series sweep.
Catcher Buster Posey drove in two runs with a double and a single as the Giants rang up eight runs or more for the third consecutive game and finished the series with a 27-4 scoring advantage over the Padres.
The win allowed the Giants (75-68) to remain 7 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers (82-60) in the race for the National League West title with 19 games remaining.
The Padres have lost four in a row and eight of 10.
Leake allowed three runs in the first two innings, including a career-first homer by Padres center fielder Travis Jankowski, before turning things around with his bat in the bottom of the second.
Posey and first baseman Brandon Belt got the inning going with successive singles off Padres right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne (5-9), who was making an emergency start in place of injured righty Colin Rea (soreness in right forearm).
Two outs later, shortstop Ehire Adrianza singled in Posey to get the Giants within 3-1, before Leake connected on the first pitch he saw for a three-run homer to left field, giving San Francisco the lead for good.
The home run was Leake's second of the season.
The Giants pulled away from there, scoring twice in each the fifth and seventh innings to break the game open en route to the 19th win in their last 24 home games.
Center fielder Angel Pagan scored runs in both innings after stealing a total of three bases. Posey contributed RBIs to each uprising, doubling in third baseman Matt Duffy in the fifth and walking with the bases loaded, forcing home Pagan, in the seventh.
Pagan capped his productive day with an RBI single, his second hit of the game, in a two-run eighth. He later came around to score for the third time on Duffy's second hit, an RBI single.
The Giants out-hit the Padres 10-5 in the game and 35-10 for the series.
Leake (10-8) was tagged for two triples and a double in a two-run Padres first inning and Jankowski's homer to right field with one out in the second before settling down.
He allowed neither another run nor another hit before leaving one batter into the seventh inning. He walked two and struck out two in his first win as a Giant in six starts.
Third baseman Yangervis Solarte and left fielder Justin Upton had the first-inning triples for the Padres, after which first baseman Brett Wallace drove in Upton with his two-out double.
Despaigne, who pitched two innings of relief in the series opener Friday, lasted 3 1/3 innings. He gave up four runs on five hits, walked one and struck out four.
NOTES: Giants RHP Mike Leake took the mound Sunday having received a total of six runs of offensive support in his first five starts for San Francisco. ... Padres RHP Odrisamer Despaigne also started a game (April 20) and pitched in relief (April 23) in the same series against the Colorado Rockies earlier this season. ... Before Despaigne accomplished the feat, the last pitcher to pitch in relief and as a starter in the same series twice in the same season was RHP Sun Woo Kim of the Montreal Expos in 2004. ... The Padres have not announced a starting pitcher for Sept. 19 at Colorado. They are hoping injured RHP Colin Rea (soreness in right forearm) will be healthy enough to return to the rotation by then.