Hours before the Giants faced off against the Padres, Hunter Pence gifted Madison Bumgarner with a replica Sandor "The Hour" Clegane dog head helmet from the HBO series Game of Thrones, not so coincidentally the day after the show debuted its 6th season yesterday night.
A couple of hours and three innings later, Pence lost a foul ball in the AT&T Park lights, which turned in a double for Jemile Weeks, which turned into a run for the Padres. While Hunter's was nice, Bumgarner more than likely would have appreciated the out.
I can't speak for Pence, but I'm sure he felt bad about the play, so he gave his ace a couple more gifts to make up for it in the form of a go-ahead home run in a tie game down the left-field line and a sacrifice fly. Somewhere in that Giants dugout, Bumgarner might have let out a smile.
Meanwhile on the mound, Bumgarner gave Pence, and company a gift of his own, striking out nine over the course of six and two-thirds innings on route to recording his second win of the season and leading to Giants to a 5-4 win.
Bumgarner's performance marked the fourth straight outing in which he has struck out nine or more batters against the Padres, putting him in elite company with Steve Carlton, Mike Scott, and Randy Johnson. His nine strikeouts also tied him with Noah Syndergaard for the National League lead with strikeouts at 38, although Bumgarner has one less start.
While Bumgarner was sharp, the bullpen wasn't quite on the same level and turned a stress-free game into a laugher, bringing back memories of vintage Giants torture. Bumgarner's relief, mostly composed of San Francisco rookie farmhands, found themselves in quite a bit of a pickle late in the game and Bochy, being the chess master that he is, had to make four pitching changes in the eighth inning alone. Luckily for the Giants, vintage Casilla also decided to make an appearance and mopped up the rookies' mess.
Early on, the game had the makings of a pitcher's duel between Bumgarner and Drew Pomeranz, who was coming into the game following a ten strikeout performance against the Pittsburg Pirates and a 2.04 ERA. Through three innings, Bumgarner and Pomeranz allowed a run apiece, with Bumgarner striking out three and Pomeranz striking out five.
The second time through the lineup, the San Francisco offense collectively began to figure out Pomeranz, and the bats began to show some life.
Pence broke up the aforementioned tie in the bottom of the fourth, then Angel Pagan grinded out seven pitches before singling on the eighth to drive in Brandon Belt in that same inning, bringing the score to 3-1.
With already 91 pitches going into the bottom of the fifth, Pomeranz exited with 101 pitches after recording one out and giving up singles to Panik and Posey.
Following his departure, Pomeranz's battery mate, Derek Norris, allowed his second passed ball of the night trying to receive a pitch from Luis Perdomo, which allowed Pence to drive in Panik on a sacrifice fly and extend the lead to 4-1.
Norris made up for the gaff the following inning, doubling in a run in the top half of the next inning to reduce to lead to 4-2. The Giants came right back and brought the lead back to three on when Buster Posey slugged his third homer of the season, his first since April 10th, to extend the San Francisco lead to 5-2.
The Padres made some noise in the top of the eighth when Kemp and Upton Jr. doubled and singled off of Hunter Strickland to start off the inning. After Strickland struck out Norris, Upton Jr. barely stole second, the call being so close that it came to a replay review. Although Panik appeared to brush Upton on the arm, there was not enough evidence to overturn the call.
In the same at-bat, Alexi Ramirez singled on a soft liner just past the outstretched glove of a diving Panik to knock in Kemp, bringing San Francisco's lead to 5-3. Derek Law, who came in to replace Strickland, gave up an RBI single to Brett Wallace, who came into the game batting 1 for 19, which cut the San Diego deficit to 5-4.
With two runners on, Josh Osich came in with one out and sat down Jemile Weeks on strikes; then Casilla came in to shut the door on San Diego's chance to tie the game by striking out Jose Pirela.
The instant replay system continued to fail the Giants in the bottom of the eighth, killing a rally and costing them a run. With Panik on third, Duffy hit a liner that was initially caught by Kemp, although from the replay, it appeared to touch the ground before Kemp had any stability. Much to San Francisco's dismay, the call was not overturned, the Giants were forced to surrender an oh-so-important insurance run.
Casilla didn't have the comfort of having a two-run lead going into the ninth, but the crafty veteran closed out the game regardless. The closer battled from a 3-0 count to strike out Jon Jay, then got Myers to ground out and struck out Upton on a 2-2 count to secure his 100th career save and his 6th career four-out save.
The Giants have now won three of their last four and for the first time since the first week of the season, the team is working with some positive momentum.
Tomorrow, Johnny Cueto goes for his 100th career win as he faces off against James Shields. Shields has struggled early on in the 2016 campaign, going 0-3 with a 4.15 ERA so far this season.
コメント