Game result and context
Padres hold off Giants 7-6 at Oracle Park to keep wild-card position
The San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants 7-6 on September 12, 2026, at Oracle Park. San Diego scored in every inning from the second through the seventh, which gave it enough room to absorb two Giants home runs in the eighth. The Padres improved to 80-68 and remain third in the wild-card standings. The Giants fell to 62-87.
Final result
The San Diego Padres defeated the San Francisco Giants 7-6 in nine innings at Oracle Park before a crowd of 40,146. San Diego moved to 80-68. San Francisco dropped to 62-87.
It was Game 2 in a regular-season series of 3 games.
How the game changed
The Giants struck first. Rafael Devers hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the first inning, and Shay Whitcomb added a solo shot in the second. San Francisco had three runs through two innings.
From there, the Padres chipped away. They scored two runs in the second and then one run in each of the next five innings. Jackson Merrill homered in the third, and Fernando Tatis Jr. went deep in the sixth. San Diego had seven runs by the end of the seventh, while the Giants went scoreless from the third through the seventh.
San Francisco answered in the bottom of the eighth. Drew Cavanaugh hit a solo home run, and Drew Gilbert followed with a two-run homer to cut the deficit to one. Neither team scored in the ninth, and the Padres held on.
Key performances
Tatis had two hits in three at-bats with a home run, a run scored and an RBI for San Diego. Merrill had one hit in four at-bats, and it was a homer that accounted for his run and RBI.
For the Giants, Gilbert had two hits in four at-bats with two runs, a home run and two RBIs. Devers had one hit in four at-bats, a homer that drove in two. Cavanaugh and Whitcomb each homered for their only hit in three at-bats. San Francisco out-homered San Diego four to two but still came up a run short.
Season and playoff context
The win keeps the Padres in a wild-card position. They rank third in the wild-card standings and sit second in their division, 10.0 games back, with a division elimination number of 5.
The Giants are fourth in the division, 28.5 games back. They are 11th in the wild-card race, 18.5 games out, and have been eliminated from both division and wild-card contention.
Series context
This was Game 2 of the series in San Francisco, and neither team had yet won the set. One more game remains at Oracle Park.