San Diego Padres Have the San Francisco Giants' Number, and They Keep Rolling

The San Diego Padres have the San Francisco Giants' number, and they're calling it all night long.

Frankly, the Giants' play against the Padres is the epitome of the torture the Giants have put their fans through over the past couple of years.

Entering Wednesday, San Francisco is 7-15 against the Padres since the beginning of the 2010 season. To make matters worse, they are 2-9 at home against the Friars over that same span.

You know why that is?

The Padres play Giants baseball better than the Giants.

The San Diego offense is worse than the Giants' offense, but they have the pitching to match up. It seems they also come in with a chip on their shoulder every time they play the Giants.

San Francisco has scored four or more runs only five times in its last 22 games against the Padres. All the while, the Padres have scored four or more nine times over those games.

They aren't knocking the cover off the ball, but they find a way to win...at least against the Giants.

I wouldn't fear the Giants if I were a Padres player, either. And why would I?

In one-run games, which the Giants have otherwise excelled in, the Padres are 6-3 against the Giants over the past two seasons.

If it weren't for an inexplicable 10-game losing streak to begin the month of September, the Padres might have been playing October baseball instead of the Giants.

Over the past two games, the Padres players have shown a great deal of confidence.

They feel at home in San Francisco. They like playing the Giants.

 In no way am I saying the Padres are all of a sudden going to make a run at the division, or that the Giants are going to lose the division.

I don't picture either happening, but there is something to be said about a team that gets up for a certain team.

Those of us in the Bay Area have seen our fair share of this.

The Giants used to dominate the Padres while they were playing in Jack Robbie/Qualcomm Stadium.

The Golden State Warriors owned the Dallas Mavericks over the course of four seasons, and it was never more apparent than during the Warriors' 2007 playoff run.

The 49ers used to dominate the Rams before the Rams returned the favor in the early 2000s.

If by a cosmic force or by some confluence of events, the Padres have the Giants' number.

No helping it.

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Follow me on Twitter: @ZackFarmerWOTF

Zack Farmer is a freelance reporter who has written for the San Francisco Examiner, Patch.com, Bay Area News Group and CSNBayArea.com.