Clutch Hitting Comes to Rescue, Giants Complete 2nd Straight Sweep

It took eight innings, but for the for the second day in a row, the bats found a way.

On a wonderful Father's Day afternoon, the San Francisco Giants erased early mistakes with heroic late-game hitting as the bats woke up just in time to score four in the eighth inning, propelling the orange and black to a series sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays.

The win over Tampa Bay marks their second straight sweep and San Francisco's 8th straight win.

Joe Panik brought some newcomers along the clutch train in the eighth, as following his go-ahead RBI single, Buster Posey drove in his 32nd run of the season with his own single, and Conor Gillaspie snapped a 0-24 drought with a loud two-run double which one-hopped the wall in right-center.

With a series with more than a couple failed chances to drive in runners in scoring position, the big eighth inning alleviated all those demons. Coming into the game, the Giants were batting 5 for 22 with runners in scoring position, and going into the eighth inning the team was batting 6 for 27.

Despite the final score, it didn't look like the Giants would be in for such a big win.

Early on in the ballgame, the Giants simply couldn't get out of their own way, failing to make the simple plays on defense which turned into free bases for Tampa Bay.

Peavy was the first Giant to get the ball rolling on the error train, missing the target on a pickoff to Brandon Belt in the first inning which allowed Logan Forsythe to score from third, giving the Rays their first run of the game.

The defensive woes continued when in that same inning a pop-up which blended into the Tropicana Field dome lights caused a miscommunication between Trevor Brown and Belt. The first baseman had to stick his glove out at the last second, but it was too late the ball caught the palm of Belt's glove and plopped right out.

That error was Belt's seventh of the season at first base and his second game in a row in which he has had a miscue. To reiterate, Belt only had three at first base all of last season.

The steady glove of Brandon Crawford wasn't safe from the error bug either, as a routine ground ball off the bat of Forsythe in the second took a nasty bad hop at the last second and handcuffed the shortstop.

It almost looked as if Crawford knew the bad hop was coming, as he went down to a knee to try and snare the grounder, but the foreknowledge was no help.

During the following at-bat, Forsythe stole second with ease when Crawford and Joe Panik failed to cover second base, forcing Trevor Brown to eat his possible throw-out instead of risking a throw sailing right past second and into center field.

Even with all the ridiculousness of the first couple innings which, nine out of ten times, would have put the Giants in a position to lose, Peavy somehow grinded through six innings and only allowed the one run via the errant pickoff.

Not only did Peavy evade the Rays taxing him for more than the one run, but he got stronger as the game progressed, tossing a pair of two strikeout innings, 1-2-3 innings in the fifth and sixth to finish his day.

Peavy left with the no-decision, but the veteran ended his outing with eight strikeouts on the day, which tied the season-high total he had against Cincinnati and was arguably the most important piece in this afternoon's game.

Even with Peavy dealing, the Giants looked like they were in for a long day at the plate, not getting anything going against Odorizzi during his first run through the San Francisco lineup, but their fortunes changed starting in the fourth with one booming swing of the bat by Belt.

With Odorizzi dealing, Belt tied up the ball game by launching an absolute bomb for his 10th home run of the season, which cleared the right field bleachers and into the walkway to tie the ball game up at one apiece.

Belt finished the day with two hits and a walk in three at-bats, bumping his average up to .305 and his on-base percentage up to

Although Belt's swing of the bat swung the momentum in San Francisco's favor, the team's misfortunes with runners in scoring positions continued.

The Giants had a dreamlike start to the fifth inning, as Matt Duffy hit a booming double off the top of the center field wall and Angel Pagan singled and swiped second to put runners on second and third with no outs.

With a golden opportunity to put up a crooked number on the scoreboard, or at least take the lead, the Giants were not able to capitalize and wasted away their best opportunity of the game.

Brown popped out to Logan Morrison, who made a fantastic over the shoulder catch, and Gregor Blanco and Denard Span both struck out looking to end the threat.

Luckily for Brown, Blanco, and Span, the trio of Panik, Posey, and Gillaspie was able to pick them up three innings later.

Following Peavy's exit after the sixth inning, the San Francisco bullpen did an excellent job of maintaining the tie and protecting the lead just as they did in yesterday's game.

Derek Law and Hunter Strickland held the Rays scoreless in the seventh and eight, and Cory Gearrin, once again taking the place of Santiago Casilla, closed out the ninth with a pair of strikeouts.

Steven Okert made an appearance for one batter, allowing a hit.

____________________________________________________________________

In this afternoon's ballgame, Matt Duffy, on the birthday of the Iron Horse Lou Gehrig, took the place of Manny Machado, who was serving his suspension due to this role in a benches-clearing brawl against the Royals, as the active leader in most consecutive games played with 188.

The Duffman had an excellent first game as the active leader in consecutive games played, going 2 for 3, including his double, as mentioned above in the fifth inning.

Duffy exited the ballgame in the seventh inning and was replaced by Gillaspie due to soreness in his Achilles, the same type of injury which pestered him during Spring Training. He is listed as day-to-day.

Manager Bruce Bochy said that Duffy hit third base awkwardly in the seventh inning and came out of the game as a precaution.

With the Giants playing tomorrow in Pittsburg, Bochy may opt to have Duffy sit out instead of risking aggravation, which would knock him off as the leader of consecutive games played.

#recap