SAN DIEGO — Before Tuesday’s game, manager Bruce Bochy said he expects Brandon Belt to return before the end of the season. Then he paused and admitted there’s also a chance Belt’s season was ended by a concussion.
There were never any such concerns with Joe Panik, even though he also is dealing with a repeat. Panik’s second concussion in as many seasons proved to be just a blip. If anything, he’s playing his best baseball since he returned.
Panik homered for the second straight night and made a brilliant first-inning play at second base. That was the good. You can’t even say a 6-3 loss to the Padres was the bad. At this point, it’s simply the norm for a Giants team that has shown little interest in climbing back into a race for fourth place.
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The Giants don’t look like they’ll finish strong, but certain individuals do, and Panik is near the top of the list. He is 5-for-14 since returning, with a pair of homers and a long foul ball at Chase Field that was inches from being a third blast.
“Any time you’re going good and something happens and you take some time off, you always want to pick up where you left off,” Panik said. “For me to pick up where I left off (in Washington D.C.) is a good feeling. This concussion was different than last year’s, but knowing that I’m healthy and that I’m (fine), it’s definitely a good feeling.”
Panik said he was never particularly concerned about losing a big chunk of his second half, or even missing the rest of season.
“After that first rehab game, I knew for a fact that I was going to be fine,” he said.
San Francisco Giants
If only the Giants could feel the same way about their future. Tuesday’s loss was jarring in how familiar it has gotten at this point. The lineup left too many runners on early and didn’t build a big enough lead for the Matt Moore stumble. Moore, coming off three strong starts, gave up five runs in five innings. The Padres hit two homers in the fourth.
“I didn’t really feel like I gave us a chance to win tonight,” Moore said.
The left-hander has given up five or more runs in eight of his 27 starts. With this offense, that’s a death sentence. Bochy lamented the way the Giants failed to pile on early. In the later innings, the young, energetic Padres made a handful of highlight plays to keep the Giants off the scoreboard.
“The first couple of innings, that came back to haunt us there,” Bochy said. “We created the chances there and couldn’t cash in.”