If there’s one complaint starting pitchers have had about the team, it’s not getting a chance to go deeper into games. That seemed to change in the final two games against San Francisco on Saturday and Sunday.

Joey Lucchesi threw 100+ pitches for the fifth time this season, which is the most among Padres pitchers in 2019. However, he also had a good few other starts where he could’ve gone farther. In the bottom of the sixth, Lucchesi got leadoff batter Evan Longoria to fly out before giving up a pair of singles. Andy Green came out and Lucchesi started to hand Andy the ball before Andy said, “You keep that baseball.” Lucchesi responded by inducing a weak ground ball to start a double play and get out of the inning unscathed. The 26-year-old starter finished the night with 6 innings, one run, and three strikeouts.

The choice to keep Joey Lucchesi in the game proves the Padres think he will play a huge impact in the future, giving him a chance to get out of a jam.

The next day, Eric Lauer also made 100+ pitches for the fifth time in the 2019 season. Lauer wasn’t quite as sharp as the previous starter but went 6 innings with 108 pitches, his second highest pitch count of his second season. The 24-year-old from Ohio struck out 9 Giants for a new career-high and walked no batters, but gave up a pair of 2-run jacks for 4 runs. The Padres gave him 7 runs of support, the fifth-highest mark for Lauer.

Offensively, a day after 5 hitters earned multi-hit efforts, San Diego did it 3 times, with Josh Naylor doing it both games. Eric Hosmer went 3-for-3 with just a home run shy of the cycle and Ty France hit a pair of roundtrippers as the offense exploded for 13 hits and have hit 10+ hits on back-to-back games. The Padres had 8 different players who got a hit in Sunday’s series finale.

Luis Perdomo made 13 pitches to get through the 7th, Andres Munoz struck out the side in order in the 8th, and David Bednar made his major league debut, pitching a perfect inning as the bullpen shutout the Giants for 6 consecutive frames.

The Padres will go into Arizona, winning 3 of their last 4 games, and with much momentum as Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer have led a hot offense in San Francisco. It’ll be rookie Cal Quantrill (6-5, 3.99) versus veteran Mike Leake (10-10, 4.67).