Barry Zito dominated San Diego on Saturday with a 2-0 shutout to put the Giants on the verge of a weekend sweep, but they fell in the finale Sunday afternoon. Kevin Correia had to try to match veteran Greg Maddux pitch-for-pitch, but it was too much for him as the Padres managed to get a win out of the weekend and avoid getting swept.
After getting a 1-0 lead right off the bat in the first inning, Correia pitched confidently through six innings, allowing a run in the second inning, and another in the sixth before leaving the game in the seventh. He walked four Padres hitters and they made him pay with just three hits in six and a third innings pitched. Alex Hinshaw worked the rest of the seventh inning, but struggled, giving the Padres another run on two hits. Osiris Matos pitched the eighth inning with two strikeouts, but gave up a solo homer to Kevin Kouzmanoff that extended San Diego’s lead to three runs.
Maddux limited San Francisco to just two hits over six innings, but they still struck first. Emmanuel Burriss came around to score in the first inning on a Randy Winn single, but that was it for the Giants offense. The bats have been slumping this last week, scoring less than three runs a game, and relying too much on the starting pitchers to take over. Winn also had another single in the game (out of four total Giants hits), Brian Roberts and Rich Aurilia had the other two singles. The running-game looked good though, Roberts, Winn, and Burriss each picked up stolen bases off the Maddux/Todd Hundley battery.
The Giants return home tomorrow to begin a three-game series against Atlanta at 7:15 p.m. Matt Cain has been hot so far this second half, but will be facing young phenom Jair Jurrjens in game one.
