Giants’ Magic Takes a Night Off

The Giants kept waiting for some of that June divinity to intervene Tuesday night. And while it threatened to hijack the proceedings on a number of occasions, it couldn’t quite make a clean break.

The San Diego Padres, holding on for dear life through almost every inning past the first, stopped the Giants’ sprint toward summer with a 4-3 win at Candlestick Park.

The loss snapped the Giants’ nine-game winning streak and left them with a wholly respectable 16-2 record in June. The Padres, consistent whipping boys of the Giants this month, won for just the second time in nine games.

Second-place San Francisco dropped a half-game in the standings to first-place Cincinnati, which split a doubleheader Tuesday with the Atlanta Braves. The Giants are 7 1/2 games back.

San Diego led from the first inning, but the Giants let several perfect comeback opportunities sift slowly through their fingers.

They came up with the perfect comeback setup in the bottom of the seventh, when Will Clark and Padres reliever Craig Lefferts provided two minutes of the highest drama.

Clark, who had spent a lot of time in the on-deck circle while Rick Parker twice made the last out of an inning with runners on base, came to the plate with the bases loaded, two outs and the Padres leading 4-2. In short, just about everything the Giants could have asked for to build on a nine-game winning streak.

With two outs and runners on first and second, Parker coaxed a walk from Padres reliever Greg Harris to load the bases.

With the majority of the 31,164 at Candlestick on their feet, Clark blew the punch line by lofting a meek fly ball to left on a 1-2 pitch. As he rounded first base, he chose to vent his frustrations on home-plate umpire Ron Barnes, with whom he disagreed strongly on a strike call on the 1-0 pitch.

In the eighth, the Giants provided another short segment of the magic that has become commonplace this month.

Kevin Mitchell singled to lead off the inning. After Lefferts had retired Matt Williams and pinch hitter Greg Litton, Robby Thompson lifted an innocent pop to shallow center. Padres shortstop Garry Templeton, with his back to the plate, had it skip off his glove and Mitchell -- running hard from the time of contact -- scored from first to make it 4-3.

With Thompson on second, Jose Uribe ended the threat with a groundout to third.

Not to be outdone, the ninth inning held its share of moments as well. Brett Butler singled with one out, then Clark -- looking redemption square in the face -- lined a single to center to put the winning run on base. Mitchell then lifted a popup that was gathered in by third baseman Bip Roberts to end it.

The Padres built their lead by referring to the crib notes provided by the Giants the past month. They got after it early.

San Diego reached Giants starter Francisco Oliveras for three runs in the first inning. Roberts walked, stole second and scored on Roberto Alomar’s single. Alomar went to second when Brett Butler’s throw to the plate handcuffed Gary Carter, then scored when Joe Carter singled home his 56th run of the year. Oliveras balked Carter to second and wild-pitched him to third before Mike Pagliarulo’s sacrifice fly made it 3-0.

The unlikely -- and unimposing -- Giants relief squad of Ed Vosberg, Bob Knepper and Mark Thurmond held the Padres in check, waiting for the expected onslaught that never materialized.

Pitcher Don Robinson gave the Giants their first run in the seventh with the first pinch-hit homer of his career, a first-pitch blast off Bruce Hurst that reached the bleachers in left. It was Robinson’s 12th career homer. He had been 0 for 10 as a pinch hitter since joining the Giants in 1987.

San Diego’s final run -- and, as it turned out, its most important -- came in the top of the sixth. Reliever Greg Harris led off with a ringing triple to the base of the fence in left-center and later scored on a fielder’s choice by Roberts.