[jg2977]

NLDS Game 4 — October 12, 1938
San Diego Padres 10, San Francisco Giants 5
Series tied 2–2 — Game 5 back at Oracle

🎙️ Chris “Mad Dog” Russo (absolutely furious)
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
Seven–to–one in the fourth inning! SEVEN TO ONE! And this is the two-time recent World Series champ we’re talkin’ about! You can’t come into PETCO in a closeout game and give up a three-run third and then a FOUR-RUN fourth! You just can’t!
John DuPont? He didn’t survive the fourth! Ten hits! Seven runs! The Padres were lining rockets all over the yard!
And George Setton?! TWO HOME RUNS! Five RBIs! He practically rented space in left field! First inning — boom! Eighth inning — BOOM again! Every time the Giants even THINK about making it interesting, Setton slams the door with a sledgehammer!
You get it to 7–5 in the eighth — Price triples! Perdomo triples! Now you’re thinkin’, “Here we go! The champs are comin’!” And what happens?
Three batters later — Perkins knocks one in — and then SETTON again! Two-run homer! Ballgame! Over! Done!
You don’t win championships givin’ up TEN runs and FOURTEEN hits in a playoff game! I don’t care what you did in ’35! I don’t care what you did in ’36! This is 1938!
Game Five now. Winner take all. And if you’re the Giants, you better wake up — because San Diego just punched you square in the mouth.

🎙️ Vin Scully (calm, luminous, reflective)
On a gentle October afternoon in San Diego, beneath clear skies and a breeze drifting softly toward right field, the Padres found their urgency — and their thunder.
Before many in the crowd of 34,911 had settled into their seats, George Setton introduced himself once more.
A solo home run in the first inning — a firm reminder that this was not to be a coronation.
Then came the third… and the fourth… and suddenly the ballpark was alive.
Cesar Morin’s triple in the fourth inning was struck like a streak of lightning into the right-field corner, two runs racing home as the Padres built a commanding lead. Chris Perkins followed with a ringing double, and Setton, fittingly, added another run-scoring hit. It became a cascade — four runs in the inning — and the Giants were left searching for breath.
To their credit, the champions of 1935 and 1936 did stir.
Bill Valenzuela launched a majestic home run in the seventh, a soaring drive that momentarily hushed the crowd. In the eighth, Greg Price and Edgar Perdomo each delivered triples, and the deficit narrowed to two.
For a fleeting moment, one could almost feel the tide beginning to turn.
But baseball can be exquisitely cruel.
In the bottom of the eighth, with the Giants within striking distance, Setton stepped forward once more. A towering drive to left-center — his second home run of the afternoon — and with it, the tension dissolved into celebration.
Four hits. Two home runs. Five runs driven in. A performance that will be remembered in San Diego for years.
And so the Division Series, so confidently leaning toward San Francisco just days ago, now returns north for a decisive fifth game.
One game.
One autumn evening.
And somewhere between the roar of the crowd and the hush before the first pitch, a season will either continue… or gently fade into memory.