Angel Pagan's single broke a scoreless tie in the eighth and Jeff Samardzjia struck out nine in seven innings for the San Francisco Giants, who beat the San Diego Padres 2-1 on Thursday night to keep pace with the New York Mets for the NL wild card lead. The Mets and Giants took a half-game lead over the idle St. Louis Cardinals in the wild card race. San Francisco came in trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers by six games in the NL West, with 10 to play.