By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Wednesday, April 8, 2015

The San Francisco Giants made it nine consecutive victorious road series at Chase Field, following a 5-2 win on Wednesday over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

San Francisco had a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning when Casey McGehee drove a 375-foot two-run home run to left, providing the final margin of victory.

The win went to rookie Chris Heston, who was called up Tuesday from Triple-A Sacramento to replace the injured Matt Cain in the San Francisco rotation.

“What a good job he did; good for Chris,” Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said in his postgame media session. ”He was a little amped up that first inning, threw it away, but settled down and really did a nice job.”

Rookie jitters could be attributed to Heston hitting the first batter he faced and making a throwing error trying to pick him off. Once he settled down, Heston gave up two earned runs on three of the D-Backs’ five hits, struck out five and walked two in his six innings of work.

”The first inning started to unravel a little bit, kind of a little shaky there,” Heston told the media. ”But I was able settle down and get back into it.”

The Giants bullpen did the rest. Jean Machi and Sergio Romo each threw a scoreless inning, and Santiago Casilla racked up his second save in three games.

Leadoff hitter Nori Aoki led San Francisco’s 14-hit attack, going 3-for-4 with an RBI double. The Giants racked up 37 hits in the three-game series in the Valley of the Sun.

Arizona starter Jeremy Hellickson (0-1) gave up three earned runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings.

After the Diamondbacks took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, San Francisco went ahead to stay in the top of the second on run-scoring doubles by Aoki and Matt Duffy.

The Giants made it 3-1 in the fifth when McGehee scored on a base hit by Brandon Crawford. Arizona responded with a run in the sixth when Paul Goldschmidt scored on a passed ball.

In the top of the ninth, Buster Posey led off with a single and scored on McGehee’s drive to the left field pavilion, which effectively put the game out of reach.

The Giants road trip continues Thursday in San Diego, where they’ll play a four-game set with the Padres. Veteran right-hander Tim Hudson will make the first start of his 17th and final major league season for San Francisco. The 39-year-old Hudson had surgery to remove bone chips from his right ankle during the offseason.