Yu Darvish strikes out 12 in win over division-leading Giants

San Diego – Yu Darvish struck out 12 over 6⅓ innings and improved to 3-1 on Friday as the San Diego Padres held off the National League West-leading San Francisco Giants 3-2.

Darvish walked three, hit a batter, and surrendered four hits, including a solo home run to Giants catcher Buster Posey in the top of the first at Petco Park.

“It was one of those days where I could strike out a lot of batters, but there were so many issues today,” Darvish said. “I don’t want to pitch lousy as a top of the rotation starter, and going six to seven innings is expected since I want to set a good example for the starting staff.”

The Padres tied it 1-1 in the bottom of the first when Trent Grisham doubled and scored on an Eric Hosmer single off Logan Webb (1-2). The game remained tied until the bottom the sixth, when Darvish worked around a leadoff double by striking out the heart of the Giants’ order.

Hosmer singled and Jake Cronenworth doubled to open the Padres’ sixth and set the table for Jurickson Profar, who singled in both runners.

In Seattle, Los Angeles Angels designated hitter Shohei Ohtani hit his eighth home run, a third-inning, tie-breaking solo shot, but went hitless the rest of the night in a 7-4 loss to the Mariners.

In Arlington, Texas, Kohei Arihara (2-3) surrendered six runs on four hits, two walks and a hit batsman to take the loss in the Texas Rangers’ 6-1 defeat to the Boston Red Sox.

All four hits were home runs, two by J.D. Martinez, who passed Arihara’s former Nippon Ham Fighters teammate Ohtani for the major league home run lead with his eighth and ninth.

“It was frustrating as I wasn’t able to execute my pitches,” Arihara said. “I threw a lot of fat pitches that felt like they lacked late movement.”