SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pinch-hitter Ty France delivered a two-run triple in the seventh inning to put San Diego ahead to stay as the Padres picked up a 5-1 win over the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday.
The Giants, who’ve lost eight of their past nine games, managed only three hits and struck out 13 times.
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San Diego Padres' Ty France (25) hits a two-run triple in front of San Francisco Giants catcher Patrick Bailey, right, during the seventh inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
San Francisco Giants' Rafael Devers, left, hits a home run in front of San Diego Padres catcher Freddy Fermin during the fifth inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
San Francisco Giants pitcher Adrian Houser throws against the San Diego Padres during the first inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
San Diego Padres pitcher Matt Waldron throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants in San Francisco, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
San Diego Padres' Gavin Sheets, left, celebrates with Fernando Tatis Jr., right, after hitting a home run against the San Francisco Giants during the fourth inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
It was a 1-1 game after six innings. Fernando Tatis Jr. led off the seventh and reached on a fielding error by third baseman Matt Chapman.
Keaton Winn then replaced starter Adrian Houser (0-4). After a walk, groundout and pop-out left runners at second and third with two outs, lefty Matt Gage replaced Winn, and France pinch-hit for Sung-Mun Song.
France hit a drive down the right-field line that Jesús Rodríguez got to but could not grab. It got past the rookie and became a two-run triple for France. Rodríguez, normally a catcher, was making his major league outfield debut.
Houser put together his best performance in seven starts with San Francisco. He gave up two runs (one earned) on three hits in six-plus innings.
The lone earned run came in the fourth inning on Gavin Sheets’ fifth homer of the season.
Xander Bogaerts tagged reliever Ryan Walker for a two-run homer to left in the eighth inning, making it 5-1. It was Bogaerts’ team-leading seventh home run of the season.
San Diego's Matt Waldron (1-1) entered the game to begin the second inning. He held the Giants to a run on two hits in five innings and struck out seven.
San Francisco’s run came on an opposite-field homer by Rafael Devers, his third HR of the season and first since April 8.
The Padres return to San Diego and will have RHP Michael King (3-2, 2.95 ERA) face St. Louis LHP Matthew Liberatore (1-1, 4.50) on Thursday night.
The Giants host Pittsburgh on Friday night.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
San Diego Padres' Ty France (25) hits a two-run triple in front of San Francisco Giants catcher Patrick Bailey, right, during the seventh inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
San Francisco Giants' Rafael Devers, left, hits a home run in front of San Diego Padres catcher Freddy Fermin during the fifth inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
San Francisco Giants pitcher Adrian Houser throws against the San Diego Padres during the first inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
San Diego Padres pitcher Matt Waldron throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants in San Francisco, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
San Diego Padres' Gavin Sheets, left, celebrates with Fernando Tatis Jr., right, after hitting a home run against the San Francisco Giants during the fourth inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appeared Wednesday before a House committee investigating sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, trying to explain to lawmakers his contact with the financier after Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.
The Cabinet member was the latest powerful political figure to appear before the House Oversight Committee. He has previously given contradictory statements about his relationship with Epstein, but he said he has done nothing wrong and welcomed the closed-door interview with lawmakers.
The transcribed interview is a test of how much scrutiny lawmakers will apply to powerful men who kept company with Epstein even after his conviction. Trump's administration has tried unsuccessfully for more than a year to move past the issue.
Lawmakers emerged from the private interview with vastly different assessments of Lutnick's answers. The committee chairman, GOP Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, said Lutnick had been “forthcoming” in describing limited interactions with Epstein. Democrats accused Lutnick of lying and evading their questions.
Lutnick is the highest-ranked administration official, besides President Donald Trump, to be named in the Epstein case files. The Republican president has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and has said he ended their relationship years ago. Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Several Democrats have called for Lutnick to resign. A few Republicans, including Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, have said he should at least testify before the committee.
“He was evasive, nervous. He was dishonest,” said Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va. “He would not admit to lying, which he clearly did.”
Lutnick has played down his ties to Epstein, who was once his neighbor in New York City. Under questioning from Democrats during an unrelated hearing earlier this year, Lutnick described their contact as a handful of emails and a pair of meetings in 2011 and 2012.
But that admission came after Lutnick had previously claimed on a podcast last year that he had decided to “never be in the room” with Epstein after a 2005 tour of Epstein’s home, which included a massage table, disturbed Lutnick and his wife.
In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to state sex offense charges in Florida, including soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.
“I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with him,” Lutnick told senators in February when he was asked about Epstein during a subcommittee hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
But Lutnick, who was previously the head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, actually had an hourlong engagement at Epstein’s home in 2011. His family then visited Epstein’s private island in 2012 for lunch.
Committee Democrats asked Lutnick repeatedly about that visit, but came away from the interview frustrated with Lutnick and accused him of evading their questions. They said Lutnick said he remembered little about the island visit and did not see anything that raised concern.
During a break in the interview, Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., said Lutnick “claims that when he said, ‘I would never be in a room again with Jeffrey Epstein,’ he meant only him and Jeffrey Epstein.”
The federal release of case files on Epstein also showed that Epstein and Lutnick had kept in contact through email. Lutnick in 2018 emailed Epstein about a proposed expansion of a museum in their neighborhood that would have blocked the view from their homes. Epstein also gave $50,000 to a 2017 dinner honoring Lutnick, while Lutnick invited Epstein to a 2015 fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. In 2013, they both invested in the same business venture.
“I haven't seen wrongdoing in the email correspondence, but he wasn't 100% truthful with whether or not he had been on the island,” Comer said. He added that the committee planned to later release the transcript of the interview and “let the American people judge whether the credibility was damaged or not.”
Democrats said Lutnick also backed away from his statement in an interview last year that Epstein was the “greatest blackmailer ever."
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said Lutnick told him that he was only “speculating” when Lutnick made the blackmail claim.
The interview was not recorded on video, as the committee has done with depositions for others, including former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state. Comer said the decision not to video the interview, for which Lutnick volunteered, was keeping with the committee's practice.
To Democrats, that decision allowed Lutnick to escape the same kind of scrutiny as others had.
“The level of the lies that are taking place inside that room without video is unbelievable and part of this egregious cover-up,” said Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz.
Comer said Democrats were only trying to score political points. “This is a serious investigation,” he said.
The chairman argued it made the committee's inquiry easier when subjects consented to an interview, rather than resist congressional demands.
“Nobody wants to be videoed. If you come in, you work with us, then you know, you might not have to be videoed,” he said.
The White House has continued to express support for Lutnick, who is one of the biggest boosters of Trump's tariff strategy. He has been close to Trump for years and helped raise money for his 2020 and 2024 campaigns.
The committee is also scheduled to hear testimony on May 29 from Pam Bondi, who was pushed out as attorney general last month.
Follow the AP's coverage of Jeffrey Epstein at https://apnews.com/hub/jeffrey-epstein.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick arrives for a deposition as part of the House Oversight Committee's investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., speaks to reporters before questioning Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as part of the panel's investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., speaks to reporters before questioning Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as part of the panel's investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick arrives for a deposition as part of the House Oversight Committee's investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick arrives for a deposition as part of the House Oversight Committee's investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - President Donald Trump speaks as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, April 17, 2025, in Washington, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listens. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, FIle)
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick delivers his budget estimates to the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies budget hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick delivers his budget estimates to the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies budget hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
FILE - Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick attends an event on health care affordability in the Oval Office at the White House, April 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
