Giants’ Pence hobbles off bench, beats Padres with misplayed hits in ninth

Giants’ Pence hobbles off bench, beats Padres with misplayed hit sin ninth With Brandon Belt on first base and two outs in the ninth inning of a scoreless game, Hunter Pence dragged his achy hamstring to home plate, hit a high fly to right and jogged to first as everyone inside the yard starting thinking "10th inning." Johnny Cueto pitched his second consecutive complete game, both against the Padres, and his third against San Diego overall. The Giants improved to 7-0 against the Padres this season and won for the 11th time in 12 games, their only loss against reigning Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta. Angel Pagan appeared to reinjure his hamstring busting up the line on a two-out grounder in the eighth, trying to sustain a rally against Brandon Maurer in a scoreless game. Maurer relieved Drew Pomeranz, whose seven shutout innings dropped his ERA to 1.70. Matt Duffy hit a two-out double and Buster Posey was walked intentionally. Pence did not start for the third consecutive day because of the hamstring and, notwithstanding his game-winning double, might not be able to return by Tuesday. Cueto retired the first 11 Padres before a Kemp single in the fourth then started a streak of 12 until he hit Alexei Ramirez in the hand with two outs in the eighth inning of a scoreless game. [...] Cueto got the Giants back to the dugout with a fastball that Solarte took for strike three, a boderline call. [...] of who bats where, the Giants have become masters at finding creative ways not to score during a run of ineptitude with men in scoring position, 16-for-98 entering the game. In the first inning, Matt Duffy was picked off ahead of a Buster Posey strikeout.