By Emily Zahner and Kahlil Najar
SAN FRANCISCO,CA–The San Francisco Giants (63-79) could not solve the puzzle that was Arizona Diamondbacks’ (72-69) starter Brandon McCarthy, as they fell 2-1 to the visiting D-backs. The former Oakland Athletic improved to 4-9 on the season with the win tonight from eight strong innings. In a thrilling pitchers battle, Matt Cain also threw a great game, only giving up two runs on eight hits. Unfortunately for the Giants, McCarthy was just a little bit better. With the loss tonight, the Giants are now one loss away from elimination from the post season. The Diamondbacks sit 11 games back from the continually impressive LA Dodgers.
The silver lining Giants fans can grasp from from this loss and maybe for the remainder of the season is that after missing 14 games on the DL, Matt Cain (8-9) came back and appeared to have no trouble or pain. He went six and a third, gave up two runs on eight hits and struck out three. Cain even took a hard grounder to his right calf from Arizona’s power hitter Paul Goldschmidt. “Matt did a nice job since coming off the DL. It’s been a while since he’s been out there. Pitching and defense did a great job tonight keeping that game close but we couldn’t help with the offense” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. Offensively for the Giants, Hunter Pence continued his hot streak. His two singles tonight pushed him to his 49th multihit game of the year, good enough to tie him for third in the National League. Angel Pagan continued his amazing return to the line up when he dazzled the fans with what could be called the play of the night. After a deep double by Gerardo Parra, Pagan took the ball on the bounce and shot a dart to shortstop Brandon Crawford who relayed it to catcher Hector Sanchez, who tagged out Wil Nieves, who was trying to score from first. Bochy echoed Pagans accolades, “He’s worked hard to get to this point. He looks like he hasn’t missed a beat. It’s really amazing considering the surgery he had. This is big for him as we wind down the season, he goes into next season knowing he’s healthy and 100%.”
For Arizona, Brandon McCarthy (4-9) went eight strong innings, surrendered six hits and only one run. Paul Goldschmidt and Gerardo Parra provided the offense for the Diamondbacks as they went 5 for 8 with three singles, a double and a triple and driving in both Arizona runs. McCarthy was replaced in the ninth by another former Athletics, Brad Ziegler, who threw an easy 1-2-3 inning for his ninth save of the year. With his win tonight, McCarthy was questioned as to how he was able to come into AT&T and pitch as well as he did, “It’s just trying to execute as many pitches as I can. Focus on what I can control.” Bochy also had high praises for the Arizona starter, saying “We couldn’t figure out McCarthy. His pitches moved a lot and we didn’t hit any balls hard tonight.”
The scoring started in the bottom of the third when Brandon Crawford scored after Marco Scutaro hit his 110th single of the year to center field to give the Giant’s a 1-0 lead. Crawford had led off the inning with a single of his own and was scooted over to third by a sac bunt from Matt Cain and a grounder to first by Angel Pagan. The Diamondbacks got on the board then next inning when Gerardo Parra hit a line drive to Hunter Pence in right field and scored Paul Goldschmidt to tie the score at one apiece. Goldschmidt gave Arizona the lead for good when in the fourth when he hit shot to the deepest part of the AT&T park that scored Adam Eaton from first to seal the victory with a final score of 2-1.
The Giants will try to stave off elimination tomorrow as they take on Arizona’s Wade Miley (9-10, 3.78) and put Madison Bumgarner (11-9, 2.91) on the mound. Game time 1:05pm PST.
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