Sultanes, a tough night under the lights as the Giants take the first in a historic exhibition set

sultanes walked into Oracle Park on Monday night in front of 25, 000 people, a setting built for spectacle and scrutiny at the same time. The first of two exhibition games against the San Francisco Giants quickly became a test of composure: a 10–2 loss shaped by a couple of defensive mistakes, a late power surge, and the kind of pitching decisions that reveal what a manager wants to learn in March.

What happened in the Giants–sultanes opener at Oracle Park?

The San Francisco Giants won 10–2 after breaking the game open with a five-run rally in the eighth inning. Bryce Eldridge and Tyler Fitzgerald hit the home runs that headlined that late outburst.

Before the scoreboard spread, the night carried long stretches of tension. San Francisco found its first opening in the third inning, producing three runs. The rally included three singles, capped by a squeeze play single from Jared Oliva, and it was extended when a throwing error by shortstop Coco Montes helped push the advantage to 2–0. Jung Hoo Lee followed with a double into the right-field gap to make it 3–0.

On the mound for Monterrey, Stephen Tarpley worked 3. 0 innings, allowing three runs on five hits with one walk and three strikeouts. Érick Rodríguez handled a clean fourth inning, but another miscue by Montes in the fifth inning—this time with two outs—allowed Oliva to score again, stretching the Giants’ lead to 4–0.

How did sultanes respond—and who stood out despite the loss?

There were signs of pushback, and individual at-bats mattered even as the margin grew. Josh Lester finished 2-for-3 with one run batted in. Ramiro Peña went 1-for-3 with an RBI, and Víctor “Chule” Mendoza went 1-for-3. Monterrey’s first hits came early, with Mendoza and Lester recording singles in the first inning, but the Giants’ pitching then retired 14 straight batters before Monterrey stirred again.

That spark arrived in the sixth inning with a triple from Gustavo Núñez. The inning turned into a brief opening for hope: Núñez and Peña delivered run-scoring singles, and Lester followed with another one-base hit to cut the deficit to 4–2.

Peña’s night carried an extra layer of meaning. The game marked his return to Oracle Park after playing for the Giants in 2016, his last season in the major leagues—a personal loop that closed in a ballpark now filled with a different role, a different uniform, and a different kind of spotlight.

Still, the Giants answered immediately. They opened the sixth with a home run by Willy Adames, moving the lead to 5–2 and resetting the tone just as Monterrey had started to settle in.

Why did the game swing late, and what did Monterrey’s manager say afterward?

The eighth inning decided the final shape of the story. The game felt playable heading into that frame, but the Giants’ lineup turned the moment into separation. After Alonso Becerra issued a walk to Luis Matos, Becerra’s outing ended, and Nick Struck—back with Monterrey—took the mound. Eldridge hit a three-run home run, then Fitzgerald followed with a two-run shot, and the late rally became the defining sequence in a 10–2 result.

For Henry Blanco, the manager of Monterrey, the decisions were not only about chasing an exhibition win; they were also about measuring people in high-pressure pockets of the game. Blanco did not hesitate to give young players opportunities, including Becerra and catcher Omar Rentería. Becerra’s seventh inning, in particular, offered a glimpse of why the club was willing to place him in the middle of a major-league environment: he worked through Luis Arráez, Rafael Devers, and Matt Chapman in a clean, statement inning.

Afterward, Blanco kept his message measured and forward-looking. “The guys did a good job; we made some bad pitches, but I think we should feel good, ” Henry Blanco, Manager of Sultanes, said.

The arc of the night backed up that balancing act: stretches of competitive execution, followed by costly mistakes and a late inning where major-league power punished anything left in the wrong part of the zone.

In the end, the ballpark lights didn’t dim the lessons. If anything, they sharpened them—how one throwing error can tilt an inning, how a brief offensive opening can close quickly, and how a five-run eighth can turn a tense exhibition into a decisive headline. For sultanes, the first game in this two-game set ended in a loss, but the night also contained the kind of moments—Peña’s return, Becerra’s clean inning, and Blanco’s clear-eyed evaluation—that only appear when a team steps onto a stage this bright.