Live Game Lessons: The Good and the Bad from Padres @ Giants (8/12/2025)

How you watch the game of baseball is indicative of the type of player you become. Players that watch the game and can analyze what's happening and take in a lot of information become more intellectual players. When you're at a game you can see SO MUCH of the field and more than you can on TV.

I went to this Giants/Padres game last night and these are some of the bigger themes I saw. You might see some breakdowns of some smaller details in the future!

In a game that both teams got 10 hits you'd think the score should be pretty close throughout. The Padres led from pretty much start to finish as the Giants failed to cash in with runners on base. Make no mistake, the Padres played a much better game as detailed below.

Cascading Affect of Mental Errors

Robbie Ray pitched great for the Giants last night. His stat line wasn't anything spectacular (6 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 4 K), but he had to battle through some unnecessary adversity. In the first inning he gets Fernando Tatis Jr. to pop out and then strikes out Luis Arraez (only his 14th K of the season) in a 9-pitch battle. The adversity comes when Manny Machado hits a little pop-up to the right side, which should end the inning. Instead we saw this little miscue:

This ball is hit way too high to not be caught at the big league level. Ideally, you want the outfielder to get everything he can, but a lot of times this play is easiest for the 2nd baseman. Middle infielders, know that these popups that are hit toward the line are going to come back to the middle of the field. You can't give up on these or look around for someone else to make the play, because every second the ball is in the air, it is getting closer to you.

What did this lead to?

1. Xander Bogaerts hit a double on the next pitch to make it 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs.
2. Ray slips on the rubber and balks in a run to make it 1-0 (still in the first).
3. Ray strikes out Jackson Merrill in a 7 pitch at bat. Inning goes from a 16 pitch inning to a 24 pitch inning.
4. The top of the 2nd starts in the 6 hole rather than the 4 hole; Ramon Laureano works a 9 pitch single to lead off the inning.
5. Iglesias homers on the first pitch and it's 3-1 Padres.

This all stems from the "error". Players need to understand that sometimes it's not just the run that hurts. It is the cascading effect that a mental error can have on the game. If Ray is starting the 2nd inning with Bogaerts who is more of a free swinger than Laureano, the inning is probably going to go differently. Instead, a guy works a 9 pitch at bat and it's followed by an ambush.

2 Strike Hitting

A very evident difference in the two teams last night was the ability to compete with two strikes. It's not really surprising given Padres hitters strike out the 3rd least amount in the league, but here are a couple numbers that emphasize the difference.

1. Overall Strikeouts - Padres 4, Giants 11
2. Foul Balls hit w/2 strikes - Padres 18 (17 off of Ray), Giants 7
3. Number of pitches seen after two strikes - Padres 62 of 173 (36%) pitches seen. Giants 38 of 144 pitches seen (26%)

This should give you a pretty good idea of which hitters were having more competitive at bats. It wasn't like the Padres were facing a bottom of the rotation arm either. Robbie Ray is a former Cy Young Winner and an ace with put away pitches. San Diego just did a much better job making adjustments with two strikes to shorten up and be disciplined to the strike zone. This forced Ray into a 114 pitch outing through only 6 innings in a start where he only walked one hitter.

Stealing 3rd base/holding runners

Laureano hit a lead off double to start the 4th inning and then after an unproductive out he's looking for any way to get himself to 3rd with one out. Ray got into a one look rhythm and Laureano steals the base without a throw. You can see in the video below Ray turns his head to home plate, pauses, and throws.

The problem here is the pause. You can't see it in the video, but as he looks back to home plate, Laureano starts to extend with shuffles and then takes off when he picks up his leg. As a pitcher you need to throw the ball as you turn your head back to home plate and/or mix in multiple looks at the runner (harder with the pitch clock). This is a great job by Laureano. Your jump needs to be perfect when you have a left handed hitter up because the throwing lane is so open. This ended up being a HUGE play because...

With the Giants down 3-1 in the 4th. They need to bring the infield in. Which means the hitter's batting average just went up .100 points. That is when this happened -

Jake Cronenworth hits a weird semi line drive/groundball to Casey Schmitt who can't handle it and it rolls into centerfield. This is an EASY play if there is a runner on 2nd and the infield is back, but it adds another run for the Padres. It's a great job by Laureano to get himself to 3rd with one out, but also a poor job by the Giants to not pay attention to a guy with speed in a running situation. For him to steal so easily with a left handed hitter up is criminal.

Non-flashy plays celebrated

The guy that stood out to me most last night was by far Ramon Laureano. Not Fernando Tatis Jr. ($340 million), not Manny Machado ($350 million), not Xander Bogaerts ($280 million), but Ramon Laureano ($4 million).

With the Giants down 4-1 Wilmer Flores leads off the bottom of the 6th with a base hit down the left field line. Off the bat, I definitely thought it was getting to the wall and probably a double, but Ramon Laureano had other ideas...

This is a GREAT play to cut this ball off before it gets to the wall and then throw a perfect one hop seed in to 2nd base to prevent Flores from getting a double.

Last note on this play, the Padres infielders all pointed out to Laureano to tell him it was a great play. Not every team is celebrating this type of play. In the grand scheme, it's a nice play to keep the runner off 2nd to start the inning, but up three runs, probably not a huge deal. For them to care about the details of this tells you a lot about the points of emphasis in their clubhouse. It's one of the reasons they were able to pull into a tie with the Dodgers for 1st place in the division with last night's win.

Less Serious Notes

1. Giants fans, can we all agree that the Giant's regular home french vanilla uniforms are some of the cleanest in baseball and the city connects need to go? Call me a traditionalist, but I don't think there is a single city connect jersey out there better than a team's primary uniform. When you have as classic of a look as the Giants, you don't need a gimmicky Tuesday night uniform.
2. I saw 4 or 5 Dodger hats at the game last night. Maybe it was because they needed to check in on their division rivals in a game that saw the Padres move into a tie with LA after they got walked off on in Orange County (bummer). Or maybe it was because Dodger fans need a place that isn't a total dump to enjoy a game at. It's probably (definitely) the latter 😏.