James Shields has been known throughout his career as "Big Game James."
On Wednesday against the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants, it was "Five Frames James."
The San Diego Padres' ace left with a 1-0 lead after throwing 96 pitches in five innings, and the bullpen promptly gave up the lead, with the Giants winning 7-1.
Brandon Belt hit a tying solo home run in the sixth inning and Buster Posey hit a go-ahead, two-run double in the seventh for the Giants.
"I was still good to go," Shields said, who added that he understood manager Pat Murphy's decision. "I had plenty more in the tank. I've been in that situation plenty of times in my career and I definitely had more in the tank."
Shields said his stuff "was as good as it's been. I felt my stuff was there all day. I was commanding the zone, using my fastball quite a bit today and keeping them off-balance. We fixed a few things with my delivery."
Shields said he wasn't aware of his pitch count and only rarely looks at it on the scoreboard.
"But I'm not really conscious of it. I've built my whole career on going deep in games and I'm not really too worried about pitch count," he said.
Murphy said it was a combination of pitch count and Shields labouring in a few innings.
"A certain part of the order coming up that I knew (Marcus) Mateo could get out of," Murphy added. "The pitcher is leading off, a one-run game. I think James understood it, too. A baseball decision. I still felt after the sixth it was a good one."
Matt Cain pitched six strong innings in his fourth start of the season for the Giants, who took two of three in the series and have won eight of nine overall.
Belt homered into the sandy play area beyond the fence in right-centre on a 3-2 pitch from Mateo with two outs in the sixth. It was Belt's 10th.
Brandon Maurer (6-3) came on for the seventh and allowed Angel Pagan's one-out single before getting Joe Panik to ground to first. He walked Matt Duffy, who checked his swing on a 3-2 pitch, before Posey doubled to right, with the ball landing just in front of a diving Matt Kemp to give the Giants a 3-1 lead. Hunter Pence singled to right-centre to bring in Posey.
The Giants piled on with three more runs against Dale Thayer in the eighth. Brandon Crawford hit a leadoff homer into the Jack Daniels' party deck atop the right field wall, his 14th. Justin Maxwell had a pinch-hit RBI single and Duffy had an RBI base hit.
Cain (2-1) allowed one run and five hits in six innings, with six strikeouts and one walk. He was making his fourth start of the season. He had elbow surgery in 2014 and had been sidelined this season with a strained flexor tendon.
Shields, coming off his first victory since June 3, held the Giants to three hits in five scoreless innings while striking out seven and walking three.
Jedd Gyorko homered off Cain leading off the second inning, his fifth.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Giants: LHP Jeremy Affeldt, sidelined since June 16 with a strained left shoulder, was activated from the 15-day DL. He faced two batters in the eighth, allowing a single and a walk. To make room, LHP Josh Osich was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento.
UP NEXT
Giants: RHP Jake Peavy (1-4, 4.94 ERA) is scheduled to start when San Francisco opens a three-game home series against Oakland. The A's will counter with RHP Jesse Chavez (5-9, 3.21).
Padres: RHP Tyson Ross (6-7, 3.38) is scheduled to start the opener of a four-game series against Miami. The Marlins counter with RHP Tom Koehler (7-6, 3.38).
This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.