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SAN DIEGO (AP) — The San Francisco Giants have played eight straight games decided by one run, losing four of them.
They've scored two runs in the last 19 innings and four in the last 26.
"We have to get these bats going," manager Bruce Bochy said after Tyson Ross pitched the San Diego Padres to a 2-1 victory Friday night.
Ross held the Giants to four hits and struck out nine in eight scoreless innings. It was Matt Cain's third straight loss.
"We're a little cold here the last few games," Bochy said. "But their guy pitched very well, kept us off balance, had good stuff and shut us down."
Ross (2-2) beat Cain five days after topping AL Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer and the Detroit Tigers. The right-hander was rarely in trouble, despite allowing a leadoff double to Angel Pagan. Ross then retired the next eight batters. He walked one.
"From there he really made pitches. I thought his stuff was outstanding," Padres manager Bud Black said. "He was in a pitching duel with one of the proven National League pitchers in Matt Cain, and matched him. It was a great, great pitching duel."
Pablo Sandoval was the only Giants runner to reach third base against Ross, after hitting a single leading off the seventh and advancing on a walk and a double play. Sandoval was stranded when Ross got Brandon Crawford to line to shortstop.
Asked if his players are pressing, Bochy said: "Maybe a couple of them. They're big boys. They have to fight through this. It's early. I think without question there's a couple of them pressing up there. What we have to do is to stop going out of the strike zone. We've done it quite a bit here over the last two games."
Cain (0-3) allowed four hits and one unearned run in seven innings while striking out eight and walking two.
The eight consecutive games decided by one run is the most for the Giants since another streak of eight in a row in August 1910, according to STATS.
"It's tough," Cain said. "Any way you lose, it's not fun. Tyson threw the ball really good over there and he didn't give us many opportunities to score runs. When we had chances to do it, he (bore) down and got the job done."
Ross was born in Berkeley and raised in Oakland, where he later pitched for the A's. He beat the Giants for the first time in six career appearances.
"East Bay, man," Ross said. "That was a lot of fun. I grew up an A's fan, so that rivalry's definitely there. The Giants were the rival at heart for me growing up."
Chris Denorfia tripled to right-center with one out in the first and scored on a passed ball by Hector Sanchez, who couldn't hold onto ball four to Jedd Gyorko.
Yasmani Grandal, pinch-hitting for Ross in the eighth, homered off Juan Gutierrez, his first.
Huston Street got his sixth save in six chances, but not before allowing Brandon Belt's homer to right with one out in the ninth, his sixth. Street walked Hunter Pence with two outs before striking out Sanchez.
After allowing Denorfia's single with one out in the third, Cain retired 11 straight batters until Will Venable singled leading off the seventh.
It was Cain's second straight start allowing one run and four hits in seven innings.
It was the seventh time Cain has allowed just one run and lost, and the second time he has not allowed an earned run and lost.
NOTES: Plate umpire Jerry Layne was scratched due to an illness, and a three-man crew worked the game. Hunter Wendlestedt took over behind the plate. ... Giants C Buster Posey got the night off. ... The series resumes Saturday when Giants RHP Tim Hudson (2-0, 2.35 ERA) is scheduled to face LHP Eric Stults (0-2, 5.52).
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