• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Molina homers twice to lift Giants past Padres

Apr 9, 2008 - 7:06 AM By Al Barba PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- Bengie Molina's one-out home run to left field in the bottom of the 11th inning lifted the San Francisco Giants to a 3-2 victory in 11 innings over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night.

The home run - the second of the night for Molina - came on a 1-2 pitch off Padres reliever Cla Meredith (0-1) and snapped the Giants' four-game losing streak.

"He's (Meredith) so nasty on the righties," Molina said. "I was just hoping he would thrown something middle-in on me. He did and I didn't want to miss it."

The blast was Molina's first career walk-off home run and the feeling was better than he ever expected.

"It was way, way, way much better than I thought it would be," he said. "It was the most amazing for me to see the happiness, the joy of my teammates.

"It's amazing. That's my fist time I've ever done that in my career, and I cannot even explain that to you. I was rounding first and, after I touched first, all I wanted to do was come back home."

Brad Hennessey (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings to earn the win.

"That (Molina's home run) was huge," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "We were down to our last pitcher and had one player left. We were looking for something big there."

Molina's heroics overshadowed a solid outing from Giants starter Tim Lincecum, who allowed seven hits, one run, walked one and struck out seven in six innings.

"It all started with our starter, Timmy, and what a great job he did," Bochy said. "Henny (Hennessey) really came through, and that is what you need when you get into extra innings; somebody to go up there and put up zeroes, and he did it for us."

After the San Francisco bullpen pitched two scoreless innings, closer Brian Wilson was unable to hold the 2-1 lead as the Padres rallied to tie the game in the ninth.

Josh Bard walked to open the inning, moved to third on a single to left field by pinch hitter Tony Clark and scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Brian Giles, who finished with four hits in the game.

It was Lincecum's first start of the year after making his season debut in relief due to the threat of rain on April 4 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In that game, he earned the win after pitching four innings, allowing one run and striking out four. The only run Lincecum allowed on Tuesday came in the sixth, when the Padres loaded the bases with no outs.

"It's nice to see us pull it out and get a win," Lincecum said. "The first two guys got on with hits, walked the next guy, and just tried to settle down and breathe a little more and I managed to get an out after that.

"I felt good. I thought I was throwing a decent amount of strikes. It was just good to see us pull it out. That is what I am most excited about."

Khalil Greene hit a fly ball to left field that Daniel Ortmeier tracked down but dropped. He fielded the ball off the fence and threw it into rookie shortstop Brian Bocock, who relayed it to third baseman Jose Castillo in time to force out Kouzmanoff.

Adrian Gonzalez, who had two hits including a leadoff single to left in the inning, scored on the play. Padres lefthander Randy Wolf was solid in six innings, surrendering two runs, five hits, a walk and striking out four while throwing 73 pitches.

Molina gave the Giants a 1-0 lead in the second inning when he homered on a 1-0 pitch to left-center field. It marked just the second time in eight games that San Francisco scored first.

The Giants added to their lead in the third inning when Bocock drew a leadoff walk and scored on an RBI double to the right field corner by Randy Winn.