Giants stay alive to host wild-card game

[September 26, 2014]  Giants 9, Padres 8: Pablo Sandoval went 3-for-3 with four RBIs and Brandon Belt homered among his two hits and drove in two runs for host San Francisco, which clinched a wild card berth earlier in the day.

Brandon Crawford set a career high with his 10th home run while Buster Posey went 2-for-2 with an RBI and a run scored for the Giants, who secured their third trip to the postseason in the last five seasons when Milwaukee lost to Cincinnati hours before their game began. Tim Lincecum (11-9) retired the only batter he faced in the seventh for his 100th career win and Santiago Casilla worked a perfect ninth for his 18th save.

Yasmani Grandal had two homers, including his first career grand slam, and drove in five runs as San Diego rallied from 6-0 deficit and used a five-run seventh inning to move ahead 8-6. Rene Rivera and Will Venable also homered for the Padres, who saw their three-game winning streak against San Francisco come to an end.

The Giants scored in each of the first five innings and led 6-0 following Sandoval™s run-scoring single in the fifth off Andrew Cashner, who allowed six runs over five frames. San Francisco starter Yusmeiro Petit cruised through the first five innings before surrendering Venable™s two-run homer and Grandal™s solo blast in the sixth.

San Francisco, which remained one game behind Pittsburgh for the first wild-card position, fell behind in the seventh as Grandal cleared the bases with a grand slam off Jean Machi and Rivera added a solo homer. The Giants regained the lead with three runs and four singles in the bottom half against three San Diego relievers, including Blaine Boyer (0-1), who was charged with all three runs.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Sandoval recorded his first four-RBI game since Sept. 4 of last season to help the Giants win for the second time in their last seven games. Padres CF Cameron Maybin was scratched before the game due to an unspecified health issue and is listed as day-to-day. ¦ Giants RF Hunter Pence went hitless in four at-bats and is mired in a 7-for-65 slump.

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