By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Friday, July 1, 2016

AP photo: San Francisco Giants Conor Gillaspie swings for his third hit of the night at Chase Field in the sixth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Moments before San Francisco was ready to open a three-game NL West set with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti informed Manager Bruce Bochy that starting pitcher Johnny Cueto wasn’t feeling so good.

“Rags said, ‘We’ve got to watch him. He’s pretty sick,’” Bochy said. “(Cueto) logged close to 30 pitches in the first inning. I don’t know if he’s going to make it or not. His stomach was bothering him and we didn’t know if we’d have to get him out of there in the first or second inning. But he regrouped in the next inning.”

After a rough start, Cueto regrouped well enough to give the Giants a strong seven-inning effort as San Francisco came from behind to defeat the Diamondbacks 6-4.

“At first, Johnny wasn’t getting the ball where he wanted to, then he started throwing better and he gives us a chance to make a great comeback,” Bochy said.

Cueto (12-1) surrendered four earned runs in the first three innings, but settled down to retire 12 of the next 14 batters he faced, including five by strike out. Over his seven innings, Cueto struck out nine without a walk.

Cueto has nine straight winning decisions. Stats, LLC reports that to be the most of any Giants starter since Jason Schmidt won 12 straight decisions from April to July in 2004.

Santiago Casilla worked out of a jam in the ninth to earn his 18th save as the Giants improved to 51-31, leading the NL West by six games over Los Angeles. Arizona is fourth at 36-46 (15 games behind).

In the D-Backs ninth, Wellington Castillo greeted Casilla with a base hit, followed by Chris Herrmann’s single. Yasmany Tomãs grounded into 3-6-3 double play, but Castillo held at third, even though Belt didn’t look him back.

After Phil Gosselin walked, pinch-hitter Peter O’Brien was caught looking at a curve on the inside corner to end the game.

“The plan was not to look the runner back,” Bochy said about the double play. “We had a two-run lead and we just wanted the double play. And that was a huge double play that saved us.”

A two-out two-RBI double by Trevor Brown in the sixth put San Francisco ahead for the first time at 5-4, With one out, Jarrett Parker and Conor Gillaspie hit back-to-back singles, both scoring on Brown’s double.

Parker added a solo home run, his fifth of the season, in the eighth off D-Backs reliever Randall Delgado, giving the Giants a two-run lead.

Gillaspie finished 3-for-4 with two runs and an RBI.

“I’m just trying to focus on getting good at-bats,” Gillaspie said.

The Diamondbacks roughed up Cueto with three runs on three extra-base hits in the first inning. The highlight was a two-run homer to left-center by Castillo. Jean Segura led off with a double, was sacrificed to third by Michael Bourn and scored on Paul Goldschmidt’s opposite-field line drive double down the right field line.

With two out, Goldschmidt scored on Castillo’s ninth home run of the season.

After that, the Giants’ offense went to work and tattooed Arizona starter Shelby Miller (2-8) with five earned runs on eight hits over six innings. Miller struck out five and walked two.

San Francisco got a run back in the top of the second before running itself out of a rally. Brandon Crawford walked and scored on Conor Gillespie’s triple into the right field corner. However, Gillaspie was thrown out on a fielder’s choice, trying to score on Grant Green’s grounder to shortstop Nick Ahmed.

Jake Lamb hit a solo homer in the third, extending Arizona’s lad to 4-1.

The Giants cut their deficit to 4-3 on a two-RBI single by Green in the fourth. Brandon Belt led off the inning with a walk and Gillaspie hit a ground-rule double to left, setting the table for Green, who hit a sharp grounder up the middle into center field.

Green, whose contract was purchased on Thursday by the Giants from Triple-A Sacramento, was 2-for-4 filling in for Joe Panik at second.

“It’s been kind of rough lately with all the injuries we’ve had, so it’s important that the guys who have come up are having good at-bats, trying to get on base and do the best we can,” Gillaspie said. “This organization brings up quality teammates, quality people. That’s something very noticeable from every guy we bring up.

“Everybody cares about each other, everybody puts aside their personal statistics and wants to be a part of this. It’s pretty cool.”

GIANT JOTTINGS: ESPN reports that this season marks the first time since divisional play began in 1969 that every division leader is leading by at least five games heading into July. … According to Stats, LLC, the 2016 Giants reached the 50-win mark on the fifth-earliest calendar date in franchise history – June 30. The earliest was June 25, 1993; the Giants reached 50 wins on June 29 in 1912, 1962 and 1971. … Since May 11, the Giants have a 33-13 (.717) record, best in MLB. … The Diamondbacks recalled C Tuffy Gosewisch from Triple-A Reno, where he was hitting .342 with nine homers and 26 RBI in 58 games with the Aces. He was also named to the PCL All-Star team. … Nine years ago, on July 1, 2007, Tim Lincecum logged a career-high 12 strikeouts, Barry Bonds collected his 2,900th hit, and the Giants blanked Arizona 13-0.

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