Giantsblog

SAN FRANCISCO — It appears that the time off from his last start that the Giants starter, Madison Bumgarner would be well rested going into Sunday’s contest against the Cleveland Indians.  Bumgarner bounced back from his previous start in which he allowed eight-runs while just recording one-out before being yanked.

Sunday evening Bumgarner showed that he had no intention of repeating that feat, striking out a career-high eleven over seven-innings.  The thrilling victory for San Francisco dropped the Indians a game behind the division leading Detroit Tigers.

Sunday’s finale was the most distanced affair, with the previous two games resulting in one-run wins for the Giants; Sunday’s was a two-run win.

Cleveland sent out their starter, Fausto Carmona, who struggled with his command all day long and was never given any sort of run support.  Seven Giants got on base with hits while three more reached as a result of walks issued by Carmona.

In the second-inning, Cody Ross and Bill Hall both singled and with two-outs Chris Stewart doubled to right-field to bring both base-runners home for an early 2-0 lead.  Aubrey Huff’s RBI-single in the third scored Pablo Sandoval which now increased San Francisco lead at 3-0.

It took Cleveland 20-innings to score a run against the Giants as Saturday’s shutout continued the drought.  The lone run came on Asdrubal Cabrera’s RBI-groundout.

That would be all the runs recorded in Sunday’s 3-1 win for San Francisco, which also gave San Francisco the sweep over Cleveland in their Interleague weekend matchup.

The Giants will rest Monday before traveling to Chicago for a four-game series at Wrigley.  Cleveland however, will open up a series in Phoenix to take on the pestering Arizona Diamondbacks.

OAKLAND — The rematch of the cross-bay rivals resumed Friday evening as the Oakland Athletics were hosts to the San Francisco Giants.  The last time these two teams met in May, San Francisco swept Oakland in their weekend series.  Oakland however, began their revenge with a 5-2 victory last night.

The victory came as a great surprise as Oakland stands last in their division while San Francisco sits atop in the NL West at the moment.  But, the other shocker to last nights game was the Giants starter who suffered the loss.

The Giants Tim Lincecum had a polar opposite start Friday evening as compared to his nine-inning shutout in which he allowed just three-hits during the first series.  Last night, Lincecum went just six-innings, allowing three-runs in his first career loss to the Oakland Athletics.

Oakland struck first on Conor Jackson’s RBI-single in the opening frame to grab a quick 1-0 lead.  However, that was counterbalanced the very next inning in the second as Cody Ross’s solo-homerun tied the game at 1-all.

In the bottom-half of the third, the Athletics opened up the game further to their advantage as they scored two additional runs for a 3-1 lead.  Josh Willingham came up big this inning, doubling home Hideki Matsui from first.  He then made an attempt to steal third which worked to his and the Athletics favor.  Giants catcher, Chris Stewart, air-mailed the throw to third into left-field, allowing Willingham to trot in.

San Francisco added another run in the sixth with Bill Hall scoring from second on a fielding error by Oakland shortstop, Cliff Pennington, but that would be the last run the Giants would score.

The real hero(s) in last nights Athletics victory was Oakland’s pitching.  Graham Godfrey started his second major league game as he allowed two-runs on six-hits over seven strong innings to earn his first major league win.

Oakland’s bullpen was just as impressive, pitching two perfect innings when it mattes the  most against an arch-rival.  The series continues tonight with Jonathan Sanchez ready to take the mound for game two.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Good and The Bad both occurred Friday evening at AT&T Park during the San Francisco Giants victory over the Cincinnati Reds.  San Francisco yet again had another last-at-bat walk-off win; their ninth this season.  But the bad news occurring from this game was the injury suffered by second-baseman Freddy Sanchez in the fifth-inning.

In the fifth, the Reds Brandon Phillips hit a sharp grounder up the middle that Sanchez was able to knock down on a diving play, but in the process of the dive, dislocated his right shoulder.  Sanchez would have to exit the game with Manny Buriss taking over duties at second.  Further tests will be completed Saturday with an MRI scheduled to take place and Sanchez already being placed on the 15-day disabled list.

With Buster Posey already out for the remainder of the season, an injury to Sanchez is the last thing the defending world champs need in mid-June.

Trailing 1-0 after a Cody Ross RBI-single in the first, the Reds got a pair of solo runs in the fourth and fifth to grab a quick 2-1 lead over San Francisco.

Reds third-baseman, Scott Rolen, smacked a triple to Ross in right and scored the tying run on Ryan Hanigan’s grounder to Ross too.  In the fifth, Brandon Phillips reached first due to the Sanchez injury.  A walk to Joey Votto and a line drive single by Jay Bruce advanced Phillips to third which loaded the bases.

With one-out, Chris Heisey was hand-cuffed on a pitch from Giants starter, Ryan Vogelsong, but hit it hard enough to first baseman Aubrey Huff to drive home Phillips and give Cincinnati the lead.

However, San Francisco responded immediately in the bottom-half of the inning to tie the game at 2-all.  Chris Stewart singled and advanced to second on Vogelsong’s sacrifice-bunt.  Miguel Tejada’s double to left both scored Stewart and tied the game, preventing a loss for Vogelsong at the moment.

Despite throwing 100+ pitches over six-innings, Vogelsong’s performance was effective to maintain his 1.81 ERA.  As for Reds starter, Travis Wood, his eight strong innings were not enough as he probably should have gone the distance and pitched in the ninth too.

The Reds bullpen was able to get within an out away from sending the game into extras, but in the process of recording those two-outs, three Giants were walked to load the bases for pinch-hitter Nate Schierholtz.  And Schierholtz continued the Giants late-inning heroics with a walk-off single that went past Rolen’s outstretched glove for San Francisco’s 3-2 victory.

ST. LOUIS — Where’s Kanye when you need him?

After a sixteen-minute stadium delay due to a pair of light towers going out in the eleventh, a frustrated Brian Wilson in dugout returned to throw one pitch for the final out of the game.

San Francisco fell behind early and for the rest of the night would be playing catch-up till the eleventh when the Giants finally went out in front.

Even starter Tim Lincecum could not shutdown St. Louis’s high-powered offense.  Lincecum pitched 6 2/3 innings allowing five-runs on ten-hits; definitely one his least productive outings up till now.

Daniel Descalso led-off the St. Louis third with a single, advancing to second-base on a sacrifice bunt from Jake Westbrook.  Ryan Theriot’s RBI-single that followed gave the Cardinals the first run of the night.  In the fourth, Colby Rasmus was busy; hitting a single, stealing second, advancing to third on Yadier Molina’s single and scoring on a groundball up the middle off the bat of Skip Schumaker allowing Molina to take third-base standing up with the deflection off an infielder’s glove.

Even when something good on the stat sheet showed up for Lincecum, something bad happened on the exact same play too.  Descalso struck-out swinging to a ball ruled a wild-pitch, scoring Molina for the Cardinals 3-0 lead.

In the sixth though, the Giants were able to quickly add some runs, tying the score at 3-all.  Nate Schierholtz lead-off single was awarded a trip to the rest of the bases on Cody Ross’s double.  Ross moved to third on a single by Brandon Crawford who took second on a wild pitch by Jake Westbrook.  Eli Whiteside’s sacfrice fly to the outfield was deep enough to advance both runners; scoring Ross as Crawford headed to third.  Finally, a two-out RBI-double by Andres Torres tied things up at 3-3.

The Giants quickly grabbed the lead in the seventh, but St. Louis scored two in their half of the inning to reclaim the lead, forcing the Giants to rally once again.  San Francisco was able to overcome the one-run deficit as they tied the game in the ninth, sending it to extras.

It was in the eleventh that San Francisco took hold of the lead and was able to maintain it despite the lights forcing an in game timeout for several minutes.

RBI-singles by Schierholtz and Crawford gave the Giants a comfortable two-run lead to hand it over to their closer.

Wilson must like drama because he allowed Molina to reach on a single, but got Schumaker to ground into the twin-killing.  He also allowed Descalso to get aboard for a two-out single.

After it was apparent the game would be delayed, Wilson could be seen in the Giants’ dugout getting a drink and whipping his cup to the ground in a clear form of frustration over the delay.

Nonetheless, no one will ever know how much Wilson’s game was thrown off due to the light delay as the very next pitch he threw was a groundout that ended the game for a Giants victory.