What we learned as Giants lose Mexico City slugfest to Padres originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
MEXICO CITY -- The first MLB game held in Mexico City was actually the first home run derby held in Mexico City.
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The Giants and San Diego Padres combined for 11 of them, going back-to-back and back-and-forth at record elevation until the Padres pulled ahead late and won 16-11. The score was more apt for a football game, and this one certainly didn't resemble normal baseball at times.
The game was played more than 2,000 feet above the elevation of Coors Field, and felt every bit of that.
Batting practice led to incredulous faces in both dugouts, with pop-ups landing on the warning track and anything hit with any sort of authority finding the seats. But the first runs in Mexico City came on a bizarre two-run single that never left the infield. Nelson Cruz smoked one back to the mound and it hit Sean Manaea's knee and quickly bounced across the turf, reaching the Giants dugout. When the throw to the plate got away, two runs scored.
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After that, it was nothing but fireworks.
The Giants went back-to-back in the third and then scored six runs in the fourth to take an 8-5 lead, with Mitch Haniger hitting his first homer as a Giant. The Padres came right back with back-to-back homers from Juan Soto and Xander Bogaerts, which gave the teams three homers apiece through four innings.
The Padres took the lead with two more in the bottom of the fifth, which put the game over the insanely high over-under of 17 1/2 runs. Two innings later, the score shot into the twenties.
Blake Sabol’s fifth homer of April tied the score at 10-10 in the seventh and David Villar followed with a solo shot, giving the Giants back-to-back homers for a second time. But Manny Machado came right back with his second homer, putting the Padres back on top.
Machado's homer was the sixth allowed by Giants pitchers, tying a San Francisco-era franchise record.
Here are the takeaways from the loss that drops the Giants to 11-15 this season:
Put That Ball in the Hall
Thirteen years into his MLB career, Brandon Crawford experienced a pretty cool "first." Crawford has twice played in Toronto but hasn't homered there, so all 142 of his big league blasts had come in the United States -- until he nearly hit two in one plate appearance.
Crawford lined one down the right field line in the third that was called a homer on the field but was overturned on review. The ball appeared to miss the pole by an inch or two. He stepped back into the box and promptly blasted a curveball halfway up the seats in left-center.
The home run was the highest by elevation in MLB history, and it got the Giants on the board. LaMonte Wade Jr. cut the deficit to a run by following with a blast to right.
The day was not fully a positive one for Crawford, though. He was removed in the fourth with right calf tightness.
Looking For Better Luck
Manaea got hit with two line drives in the first two innings of a start earlier this year and the bad luck continued Saturday. He walked around with trainer Dave Groeschner for a bit after getting drilled by Cruz but ultimately stayed in the game. Manaea was removed in the third and charged with five runs, four of them earned.
Manaea signed a two-year contract in the offseason but has an odd start to his Giants career. He made his first appearance out of the bullpen and then came out of the 'pen again earlier this week because the Giants wanted to run a bullpen game after Alex Cobb's shutout. The end result is a 7.36 ERA, with Manaea having thrown 18 1/3 innings over six disjointed appearances.
Manaea is one of the few Giants who had been to Mexico City before this trip, and he said Friday that it's a wonderful place and he's grateful that he gets to be part of growing the game. Given Saturday's fireworks, he probably wouldn't mind not having to pitch if the Giants ever come back.
RIP, Expansion Destination?
It was such a joyous atmosphere in Mexico City on Friday and Saturday morning that some around the ballpark talked of having more games here, or MLB possibly even having a franchise here at some point. That talking point died at approximately 6:07 p.m., local time.
That's when Fernando Tatis Jr. took this swing and got a two-run homer:
The ball looked like a pop-up and had a hit probability of just seven percent, but with a launch angle of 38 degrees and hang time of 5.2 seconds, it kept floating and floating until it landed just over the right field wall.
Machado followed with a solo shot, the fourth of the game off poor Jakob Junis, who entered with a 3.95 ERA and exited at 6.06.
