By Jeremy Kahn

After a heartbreaking loss in the opener of the three-game series against the Atlanta Braves, the San Francisco Giants pulled off a comeback of their own.

Hunter Pence hit a three-run home run in the top of the eighth inning, as the Giants rallied from a 3-2 deficit to defeat the Braves 8-3 at Turner Field.

Jake Peavy pitched six strong innings, allowing just one run and five hits, walking just one and striking out a season-high eight.

Peavy threw a season-high 106 pitches, and since returning to the rotation six starts ago, Peavy has a 2.63 earned run average.

Matt Duffy picked up four hits on the night, including the game-tying double that scored Gregor Blanco, who doubled to leadoff the inning. After a intentional walk to Buster Posey, ape ce launched a three-run home run.

Jeremy Affeldt won for the first time this season, as the Giants are now 12-4 since the All-Star break and are a half-game behind the Chicago Cubs for the second wild card spot in the National League.

By Jeremy Harness

The Bank of the West Classic has some local flavor to it, and now we know who the local product will be going up against.

Nicole Gibbs, who played her collegiate tennis at Stanford, where this tournament is being held, found out who she will be playing tomorrow night. The 22-year-old will face the sixth-seeded player in the tournament, Elina Svitolina, who dropped the first set to fellow Ukranian Kateryna Bondarenko but roared back to take the next two sets to move on to the second round.

The match was pretty much split down the middle, but the main difference was that Svitolina went the entire match without a single double fault while Bondarenko committed six of them. Meanwhile, Svitolina won 52 percent of her second serves while Bondarenko won only 36 percent of them.

In one of the earlier matches of the day, Vitalia Diatchenko won the first set, 6-3, over Ajla Tomljanovic, but she did not get a single game after that, as Tomljanovic cleaned her out in every way imaginable the rest of the way.

For starters, just as Madison Keys did in blasting Aleksandra Krunic Monday night, the Croatian won 19 of her 22 first serves to set the tone and keep the pressure on Diatchenko. She also broke all three of Diatchenko’s three serves in the third and deciding set.

The dominating finish that Tomljanovic showed should serve as good preparation for her second-round match, as her opponent is none other than Keys, who barely broke a sweat in cruising against Krunic.

However, the Americans did take a hit during the doubles portion of this event. The duo of Catherine Bellis and Jacqueline Cako gave it a good run against the second-ranked pair of Spaniards Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja, but they fell in straight sets, 6-4 and 7-6, despite the fact the they saved 11of their 14 break points.

By Jeremy Harness

STANFORD – The Bank of the West Classic got under way on Monday, minus the main attraction.

Serena Williams, who won this tournament for a third time last year, was forced to take herself out of this year’s event due to a bad left elbow, which she injured while practicing during the Swedish Open.

However, this could prove to be the perfect opportunity for a star in the making such as Madison Keys, who is ranked No. 18 by the WTA at press time. The 20-year-old certainly put the field on notice Monday night by overpowering Aleksandra Krunic in straight sets by a 6-3 and 6-0 count.

Keys was simply too fast and too strong for the Serbian throughout the match, and she appeared to only grow stronger as the match went along. To illustrate her dominance, Keys won 24 of her 26 first serves to go along with six aces to only one for Krunic.

“Once I got ahead, I just tried to keep the pressure on her,” said Keys, who made it to the quarterfinal round at Wimbledon as well as a semifinals at the Australian Open earlier in the season. “My first serve, overall, has been working for me.

“It hasn’t been the most consistent year, but I would say it has been the best year.”

When you also factor in that keys also broke Krunic’s serve four times, you’ve got a match that lasted less than an hour.

Andrea Petkovic, who is directly in front of Keys in the WTA rankings at No. 17, came back to down fellow German Carina Witthoeft in three sets in one of the afternoon matches.

The 27-year-old Petkovic dropped the first set to Witthoeft, 7-5, but she responded in a huge way with a dominant 6-1 second set before closing out the 20-year-old, 6-3, in the final set to move on to the quarterfinal singles round.

“I just played really bad (in the first set),” said Petkovic, who currently does not have a coach but who has reached out to German tennis legends Steffi Graf – to no avail, as Petkovic said that Graf has no desire to travel at all at this point – as well as Boris Becker, to take on a sort of a mentor role in her career. “I was just sort of relying on my (physical) stability, but I never felt like I was on top of my game.”

Petkovic made it all the way to the semifinal round of last year’s tournament before falling to Serena Williams in straight sets. However, she won’t have the chance for redemption this time around due to defending champion Williams dropping out.

To add a little local flavor to the tournament, former Stanford star Nicole Gibbs also moved on to the quarterfinals after beating Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, 6-4 and 7-5, to win her third match of the season.

To get the upper hand, the 22-year-old Gibbs won 78 percent of her first serves during the match, including winning 82 percent in the second set, which proved to be crucial down the stretch.

By Jeremy Kahn

With a chance to be a hero for a second straight day in his home state, Hunter Pence came up short.

Pence grounded into a double play with the bases loaded to end the game, as the Texas Rangers held on to defeat the San Francisco Giants 2-1 at Global Life Park.

Buster Posey got the Giants within a run in the top of the ninth, as he singled off of Sam Dyson, but then Dyson got Pence to ground into the twin killing to stop the rally and end the game.

Martin Perez was fantastic for the Rangers, as he went 8.1 innings, allowing one run on just two hits. This start for Perez came on the heels of a nightmarish outing on Tuesday night that saw Perez allow eight straight batters to reach in the second inning, as the New York Yankees throttled the Rangers 21-5.

Josh Hamilton provided the only offense the Rangers would need, as he hit a two-run home run off of Mike Leake in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Leake, making his Giants debut, went 6.1 innings, allowing two runs on eight hits, walking two and striking out five.

By Jeremy Kahn

Brandon Belt and Hunter Pence are both from Texas, and the duo disappointed the home fans with their bats.

Belt and Pence each hit solo home runs in the top of the 11th inning, propelling the San Francisco Giants to a 9-7 victory over the Texas Rangers at Global Life Park.

After trailing the Rangers and new starter Cole Hamels by the score of 7-4 with two outs in the top of the eighth, the Giants began a rally of epic proportions. Joe Panik doubled, and ended Hamels night.

Reliever Tanner Scheppers then allowed three straight hits, including a game-tying single to Pence.

Hunter Strickland pitched two innings for the win, and Santiago Casilla got the final three outs for his 27th save.

Buster Posey hit his 15th home run of the season, one of three hits for the 2012 National League Most Valuable Player.

By Jeremy Kahn

In their first appearance in Arlington since winning the 2010 World Series, the San Francisco Giants failed to relieve the same celebration from that November night.

Elvis Andrus and Adrian Beltre each hit home runs in the first two innings, as the Texas Rangers defeated the Giants 6-3 at Global Life Park.

It was a rough night for Madison Bumgarner, as he allowed six runs for the second time this season, and also struck out in seven innings.

Things got testy between the teams at the end of the third inning, as Delino DeShields popped out to end the inning and flipped his bat in the process. Following the flip of the bat, a shouting match between Beltre and Bumgarner began.

Both benches and bullpen cleared, but order was restored and there no were no ejections from either side.

Nick Martinez went 6.1 innings, allowing two runs and struck out four on his way to his sixth win of the season.

Brandon Crawford hit his 16th home run of the season for the Giants in the top of the ninth inning.

Carlos Carrasco Dominates the A’s Hitters, Cleveland take game one of the four-game Series.

by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s returned home Thursday night to start an eleven game homestand. Chris Bassitt (0.3, 2.94 ERA) was on the hill for the A’s, and he was opposed by the Indians Carlos Carrasco (10-8, 4.25ERA.) Carrasco was dominant. He gave up two hits and one run in the first inning, and that was it. Carrasco did not allow a hit the rest of the way and he pitched a complete game. Indians win 3-1. Chris Bassitt pitched well for Oakland but not well enough. Bassitt gave up three runs and four hits in the first inning but allowed just two more hits in seven innings of work.

The Indians jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. A’s starter, Chris Bassitt, was roughed up for four hits to start the game. The Indians would have had four runs, but a base running blunder by Jason Kipnis cost the Tribe a run. Kipnis singled to left to start the game. The next batter, Francisco Lindor, attempted a bunt but missed the ball. Kipnis was running on the play but couldn’t get back to first safely and was tagged out. Lindor reached on a single. Left fielder Michael Brantley doubled down the left field line driving in Lindor and Brantley advanced to third when Sam Fuld let the ball get by him for an error. As it turned out, it didn’t matter as the cleanup hitter, Carlos Santana, deposited his twelfth homer of the year over the left-field fence to put the Indians up by three. The A’s scored a run in their half of the inning. Billy Burns singled to get it going. Burns stole second when Sam Fuld struck out. The next batter, the red-hot Josh Reddick, doubled to right field driving in Burns to make it 3-1 after one complete. Final 3-1 in favor of Cleveland.

Game notes- The A’s managed just two flyball outs against Carrasco. The Indian outfielders had a great time watching Carrasco’s dominant performance. Carrasco has won all ten games this year when given the lead. Carrasco retired the last sixteen A’s in a row.

Game two of the four-game set will start at 6:35 at the O.co Coliseum. There will be a firework display after the game.

Kendall Graveman will go for Oakland and he will be opposed by the Indians’ Danny Salazar.

KPIX meteorologist Roberta Gonzalez threw out the first pitch Thursday night. Time of game was 2 hours and fifteen minutes and 13,173 were on hand to watch the A’s go down to defeat.

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-There is an old saying that all streaks must come to an end, and for the San Francisco Giants this was the night.

Gerardo Parra led off the game with a single, and then Carlos Lopez drove him in with the only run that the Milwaukee Brewers would need on their way to a 5- victory over the Giants before a crowd of 42,793, the 379th consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

Wily Peralta was cruising along into the seventh inning, but that was the only inning that the Giants threatened the Brewers all night. Buster Posey led off the inning with a walk, then Hunter Pence ended Peralta’s night after a opposite-field double. Brandon Belt grounded out to Scooter Gennett at second base to score Posey. Pence scored on a sacrifice fly in which Parra made a terrific diving catch in right field.

Peralta ended up going six innings, allowing two runs on five hits, walking two and striking out three on his way to his second win of the season.

With the loss, the Giants saw their six-game winning streak come to a screeching halt and also saw their seven-game winning streak end.

Matt Cain went six innings, allowing four runs on eight hits, not allowing a walk and striking out three.

Cain allowed two runs in the first inning, as Adam Lind drove in Gomez with a single of his own. Lind picked up his second run batted in of the night in the top of the third inning, as he hit a sacrifice fly to score Parra, after Parra led off the inning with his second single in as many at bats.

After Gennett tripled to lead off the top of the fourth inning, Jean Segura singled him in with the Brewers fourth run of the evening.

Parra reached for the third time in the top of the seventh inning, as he tripled off of Yusmeiro Petit and then scored on a Lucroy sacrifice fly.