SAN FRANCISCO—The San Francisco Giants hosted the San Diego Padres on April 21, but it was not just a regular day at the AT&T Park. It was Filipino Heritage Night, the best pound-for-pound boxer Manny Pacquiao threw out the first pitch, and the normally cool San Francisco night was instead a rare hot night?77 degrees at game time.
That wasn?t the end of the rarities that night. Giants? shortstop Edgar Renteria hit his seventh career grand slam off of Jake Peavy?the first one given up in the Padres? pitcher?s career. Most importantly, that homer by Renteria was half of the run-support that the Giants provided starting pitcher Matt Cain in the Giants 8-3 victory over the Padres.
Finally.
Cain has been known as the San Francisco pitcher with the curse of no offensive backing. Today was a different.
?It really is [good],? Giants manager Bruce Bochy said in regards to how good it was to see Cain had run support. ?Matt has had a couple years of some tough luck. We went against a touch pitcher, had some good at-bats?the guys battled well tonight.?
First baseman Travis Ishikawa contributed to the effort, going 2-for-3 with one walk, two runs, and two RBI.
?Any pitcher out there, we want to try to get him the win,? Ishikawa said when asked about the offense?s performance with Cain on the mound. ?We struggled last year giving him run support.?
The struggle was momentarily forgotten with Renteria?s fourth inning grand slam to left-center.
?That was amazing what he [Renteria] did,? Cain said. ?Obviously the grand slam, the RBI, then an RBI later on in the game, and the defensive work that he did behind me.?
Renteria wasn?t the only one flashing his glove. Ishikawa caught a perfect throw by center fielder Aaron Rowand and relayed it to catcher Bengie Molina. Two Padres base runners, Adrian Gonzalez and Chase Headley, were striding one immediately after the other, attempting to score. Molina almost tagged both runners out, but ended up missing Gonzalez and tagging Headley.
Although Bochy would have loved to have to call go the Giants? way, the sequence of events was still captivating.
The reawakening of the slumbering lumber was exciting for the large crowd of 39,314 (increased by 11,000 fans who came out for Filipino Heritage Night). It was a relief to see the Giants cross the plate twice as many times tonight as they did in the entire three-game series against Arizona this past weekend.
?We?ve been struggling a lot recently and the pitching staff has done a great job keeping us in games,? Ishikawa said. ?Hopefully we can use this again as a stepping stone, encouraging us to continue with our efforts tomorrow.?
Pacquiao receives warm welcome
A bevy of pregame festivities were at hand at the ballpark and it culminated in the throwing of the first pitch by Filipino boxer, Manny Pacquiao. Serving as catcher was Tim Lincecum, whose mother is Filipina. Lincecum and Pacquiao, both of who are well-respected and highly-touted in the Filipino community, met for the first time on the field. Fans were thrilled seeing the two of them together.
Coming soon: Slideshow and article covering Pacquiao?s appearance at AT&T Park.
