Giants look flat like day-old champagne

AT&T PARK — After scoring nine runs in a dramatic, come-from-behind victory Thursday, the Giants played through a champagne hangover Friday night.

The Giants could muster only one run against the San Diego Padres in a 4-1 loss to tie the final series of 2014.

With Pittsburgh and St. Louis wins Friday, the Giants (86-74) are sure to play their one-game Wild Card playoff on the road.

The NL Central has yet to be determined, but the Cardinals hold the tiebreaker over Pittsburgh, and the Pirates own the tiebreaker over the Giants.

The second-place finisher in the NL Central will host the Giants Wednesday, Oct. 1.

Manager Bruce Bochy talked about the team’s play on the road after Friday’s game:

“It is encouraging, the fact that we have done a good job on the road. We’re going to have to… These guys, I don’t think it will matter to them.”

Madison Bumgarner took solace in learning for sure they were road-bound after this series:

“It’s nice to have everything kind of set in stone for us. It’s not 100 percent yet. We don’t know exactly where we’re going, but we know we’re going to be going somewhere. We’ll be prepared for it.”

Photos by Scot Tucker/SFBay

The only Giants run came in the second on a Brandon-to-Brandon connection when Brandon Crawford drove in Brandon Belt on a sacrifice fly.

Ryan Vogelsong (L, 8-13, 4.00 ERA) took the loss after coughing up the lead with three runs in the sixth.

Vogelsong said fatigue wasn’t a factor after the game:

“I don’t really have an answer for you other than ‘I just blew it…’ I didn’t make a very good pitch to start with Gyorko on the double. Then I let the Grandal bat get away from me there and then made a bad pitch to Smith. It makes it tougher to take when you break two bats and three runs come in off two broken hits.”

Padres starter Ian Kennedy (W, 13-13, 3.63 ERA) earned his 13th win of the season on seven strong innings of four-hit ball with six strikeouts and surrendered one unearned run.

Joaquin Benoit closed the game for his 11th save of the season.

Jake Peavy (6-4, 2.20 ERA) will start Game 3 of the four-game series Saturday. He’ll face lefty Eric Stults (8-17, 4.42 ERA). Game time is 1:05 p.m.

Notes

The Giants dropped to 7-10 against the Padres this season. It’s the first time they’ve lost a season series with San Diego since 2010 (6-12). … Vogelsong made his 32nd start of the season, which is the most single-season starts in his career (31 in 2012). … Hunter Pence snapped a 21 at-bat hitless streak with a single in the second.

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