SAN DIEGO — Just as they’re getting ready to welcome back Madison Bumgarner, the San Francisco Giants could be losing Johnny Cueto for at least one start.
Cueto lasted only four innings before being forced out by blisters on his thumb and two fingers on his right hand Friday night, when the Giants got some late runs and a high-wire act from Sam Dyson in the ninth inning to beat the San Diego Padres 5-4. Denard Span singled home the go-ahead run in the sixth and Buster Posey homered an inning later.
Afterward, Cueto had bandages on the tips of his thumb, index finger and middle finger. The right-hander had problems with blisters on two fingers in May.
“Of course I feel different now,” he said through a translator. “I think the best thing for me to do would be to take some time off. I’m not throwing very well and I don’t want to hurt myself.”
He said he’ll have to wait to see how he feels before deciding about his next start.
“Right now it feels bad,” Cueto said. “They feel like they’re cut.”
Cueto said the blisters are caused by “the baseball. The three fingers, I just can’t feel the ball.”
He said he thinks baseballs are tighter this year and that this is the first time he’s had problems with blisters.
“I just can’t explain it. I really don’t know what’s happening,” he said.
Cueto yielded three runs and six hits. He struck out five and walked three.
“You could tell he wasn’t quite right,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “His command wasn’t quite as sharp and sure enough, after four he said, ‘I just can’t finish my pitches.’ I had to make a change.”
Bumgarner, meanwhile, is scheduled to start Saturday for the first time since spraining his left shoulder in a dirt bike accident three months ago.
The Giants snapped a four-game losing streak and won for the second time in seven games. They remain last in the NL West, four games behind the fourth-place Padres.
Span’s single with two outs in the sixth gave the Giants a 4-3 lead and chased Clayton Richard (5-9). One batter earlier, pinch-hitter Miguel Gomez tied it with a sacrifice fly.
Posey homered an estimated 429 feet to straightaway center field with one out in the seventh, his 11th overall and first since June 22. The star catcher entered in a 2-for-19 slump before hitting an RBI single in the first.
Cory Gearrin (3-2) pitched one inning for the win. Dyson allowed three hits and one run in the ninth but hung on for his fourth save. He gave up an RBI single to Jose Pirela and loaded the bases with two outs before getting Jabari Blash on a fly to right to end it.
Gorkys Hernandez had a career-high four hits for the Giants and scored once.
RBI singles by Posey in the first and Cueto in the second gave San Francisco a 2-0 lead.
San Diego tied it in the second on Blash’s RBI double followed by Erick Aybar’s run-scoring base hit. San Diego took the lead on Austin Hedges’ RBI single in the fourth.
Richard allowed four runs and 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out four and walked two.
“It’s really difficult when you have the lead going and you’re expected to come away on top,” Richard said. “I wasn’t able to do that. So that’s disappointing.”
Said manager Andy Green: “I thought he settled relatively nicely there, until the sixth inning. … The sixth inning kind of got away from him.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Giants: INF Eduardo Nunez was reinstated from the disabled list after missing 18 games with a left hamstring strain.
Padres: RF Hunter Renfroe was placed on the 10-day disabled list, retroactive to Monday, with a strained neck. … RHP Kirby Yates was placed on the paternity leave list. … To replace them, OF Blash and RHP Jose Valdez were recalled from Triple-A El Paso.
UP NEXT
Giants: Bumgarner (0-3, 3.00 ERA) is scheduled to return to the rotation Saturday night after missing three months with a sprained left shoulder sustained in a dirt bike accident April 20 during an off day in Colorado. It was his first trip to the disabled list.
Padres: RHP Jhoulys Chacin (8-7, 4.32) has won four of his last six starts since June 9.
