Tag: Hunter Pence

Royals, Giants meet again: Can either team regain the magic?

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Young fans watch activities before a baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco Giants Wednesday, April 19, 2017, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

By Morris Phillips

The last time we checked in on the Giants and Royals collectively, things weren’t going well.

Two months later, on the occasion of their second interleague matchup of 2017, they still aren’t.

The 2014 World Series champs, the Giants, are battling the Padres to stay out of the basement in the NL West. The 2015 World Series champs, the Royals, have shown signs of life lately, but still reside in fourth place in the crowded AL Central.

The biggest issue is the same for both teams. The Giants have seen their offensive stars deal with injuries and/or regress. Currently, the Giants average just 3.68 runs scored per game, which ranks 29th out of 30 clubs. That’s almost a full run below the MLB average of 4.61. The Royals rank 28th, averaging 3.86 runs per game.

Manager Bruce Bochy admitted on Saturday that a return to form for his guys could take a while, now that he finally has his top seven hitters healthy for the first time all year. Hunter Pence, the most recent returnee from the disabled list, struggled in his first week back, registering just three hits in seven games. In Sunday’s bust out 13-8 win over the Twins, Pence showed life with three hits, and three runs scored.

The Royals just clubbed 10 home runs in three games at San Diego’s still spacious Petco Park, winning two of three from the Padres.  The series highlights a modestly improved stretch for Kansas City, winners of seven of their previous 12 ballgames. After starting the season 10-20, the Royals are 28-34, still just five games of the division-leading Twins.

Mike Moustakas hit a pair of home runs Sunday, and leads the club with 17, putting him on pace to shatter the surprisingly-modest franchise record of 36, set by Steve Balboni in 1985. Still Moustakas isn’t in the position to gloat, likely mindful of his and his team’s struggles offensively.

“This game is hard,” Moustakas said. “I’m just trying to come in and find ways to get hits every day. I’ve been fortunate this year that things are going out of the park.”

While Moustakas has flourished, Alex Gordon, Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer, the other Kansas City mainstays have not.

 

No offense, but…: Giants lineup underwhelms again in 3-2 loss to the Twins

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By Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO–With little margin for error, even one of the NL’s hottest pitchers can find himself in a bind.

Jeff Samardzija came into Saturday’s game against the Twins on one of the most impressive runs of his decade-long, big league career, becoming the first pitcher since 1900 to strikeout as many as 59 batters, while walking only one, accomplished in the time frame of his previous seven starts.  The Giants’ pricey 2016 free agent acquisition has been both dominating and consistent–without the results to show for it.  While Samardzija’s been dealing by any measure, wins and losses must be excluded. The Shark’s 2-8 on the season, and only 2-3 during his unprecedented run.

In a matchup with the Twins’ Jose Berrios, a 2012 first round pick, Samardzija knew coming in runs would be at a premium. And once Giants’ hitters started flailing at Berrios’ confounding curveballs on Saturday, that premium number grew smaller.

With run support the elephant in the room, plus the presence of Berrios, the pressure was on. And the Giants didn’t respond well, falling to Minnesota, 3-2, their 31st loss in 37 games this season in which they scored three runs or less.

“Occasionally you’re going to give up three runs, maybe four, but you have to pick these pitchers up sometimes,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “We have a hard time, especially here at home. I know this is more of a pitchers’ park but still that shouldn’t happen.”

Leaving the Giants’ starter high and dry has been a reoccurring theme in 2017, and even more recently. In the team’s last eight home games, the Giants have been shutout three times, and scored just once in the homestand finale loss to the Nationals on May 31.

On Saturday, Brandon Belt started the scoring with a splash hit in the first inning, but it was the current San Francisco treat, a solo shot.

In the fourth, the Twins’ Kennys Vargas tied with a rocket off Samardzija on a 2-2 pitch with two outs. The 457-foot home run registered among the longest hit by Minnesota this season. Samardzija would say afterwards, he wanted his pitch in on Vargas’ hands. Instead the pitch was at the knees–not really bad location, but it allowed the powerful Vargas to extend his arms.

In the fifth, Samardzija allowed the one walk he gave up all day to Robbie Grossman, among the AL leaders in on-base percentage.  The Giants’ starter threw three consecutive balls to open the at-bat, only to see Grossman draw the walk on a full count.

Afterwards, Samardzija would admit the one walk issued affected him in subsequent pitches, the second of which turned out to be the game-winner for the Twins, a two-run homer off the bat of Brian Dozier.

Giants’ hitters over the final five innings would attempt to tie it with a pair of runs, but only Buster Posey’s ground out with two runners aboard scored a run. Brandon Crawford and Hunter Pence, hitting fifth and sixth in the San Francisco lineup, would both strike out with runners on in the third and again in the fifth, after Posey’s fielder’s choice made the score 3-2.

Pence and Crawford both would finish 0 for 4 with three strikeouts, bringing scrutiny upon both in the postgame press conference.  Crawford is in a 9 for 50 (.180) slide over his last 14 games, and Pence has only three hits (3 for 22) in the week since he came off the disabled list.

“That makes it tough, when you’re in the heart of the order and you have a couple of guys struggling, that makes it tough to score runs,” Bochy said of the pair. “Those are the guys you lean on. The third inning, that’s the difference in the game.”

The Giants look to avoid getting swept at home on Sunday with Matt Cain taking the mound in a matchup with Nik Turley, making his big league debut.

OLD FACES, NEW PLACE: Ehire Adrianza, the former Giants’ utility man from 2015 and 2016, was given his unconditional release by the Brewers in February, and then signed a minor league deal with the Twins. Adrianza hit .303 in spring training, and .297 for the Twins since returning from the disabled list from an oblique injury early in May.  He started at shortstop on Saturday, and was 0 for 4.

Chris Heston, now exactly two years removed from his no-hitter for the Giants and no longer an emerging prospect at 29, just signed with the Twins this week. Heston started the season with the Mariners, and was released by the Dodgers without making a major league appearance.

 

 

Giants turn the page on April by starting May with a win over Clayton Kershaw

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Posey pop

By Morris Phillips

No recap of the Giants’ tidy performance at Chavez Ravine could resonate without prefacing the facts pointing to how daunting a challenge the NL West cellar dwellers faced on Monday night:

The Giants just experienced a dreadful April, one of the three worst season opening months since their move to the west coast over 65 years ago.  Under those humbling circumstances the last guy the Giants wanted to see was the forever emboldened Clayton Kershaw.  But surprise, Monday belonged to the Giants, and not to the guy that had 19 victories in his career against them, and had seen the Dodgers beat the Giants seven of the last eight times the two clubs met with Kershaw starting.

Johnny Cueto pitched seven strong innings, throwing 30 pitches in a tense, seventh inning in which the Dodgers threatened to plate the tying run.  And the Giants got home runs from Hunter Pence and Buster Posey off Kershaw, and held on to win, 4-3.

If the Giants needed an off night by the Dodgers’ ace to find the victory column, they didn’t exactly get it.  Kershaw worked through six innings, allowing eight hits, but would have survived had it not been for the offerings to Pence and Posey that left the yard.  In the first, Pence took advantage of a hanging curve on a two-run blast.  In the third, Posey connected on an ineffective slider that neatly cleared the left field wall down the line.

“I wasn’t great, but they had something to do with it as well,” Kershaw said.

In the fifth, Christian Arroyo singled home Gorkys Hernandez to put the Giants up 4-2.  Arroyo managed a pair of hits, after he received a nasty introduction to Kershaw in the second, when he struck out on a slider in the dirt.  Arroyo also drew a walk hitting in the two hole, seeing 27 pitches in all, a nice development for a 21-year old with less than 10 big league games under his belt, and none as challenging as this one.

With the win, the Giants remain in last place in the NL West, 6 1/2 games behind the division-leading Rockies.   But the victory reversed an ugly pattern of failures on the road.  The Giants won for only the fourth time in 13 road contests thus far this season.

Cueto retired 13 consecutive batters after allowing a single to Kershaw in the third.  In the seventh, the first two Dodgers to bat reached.  But Cueto escaped, retiring Andrew Toles with two runners aboard and a run in, to preserve the lead.

Lefty reliever Steven Okert retired the next five Los Angeles hitters, leaving Derek Law to strike out Yasiel Puig for the game’s final out.  After blowing a save opportunity on Sunday against the Padres, closer Mark Melancon was bypassed for Okert and Law.

The Giants hope to make it two straight with Matt Moore taking the ball on Tuesday.  The Dodgers will counter with Alex Wood, who threw six scoreless innings at AT&T Park last week, only to get a no decision when the Giants rallied late for a 4-3 win.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Giants bullpen gives up sure win in late innings

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by Michael Martinez

SAN FRANCISCO – Johnny Cueto (13-3) appeared to have his first win since the All Star break in the bag after he threw a solid six and two thirds innings, allowing just three runs on eight hits with four strikeouts. Cueto also had a nice day at the plate putting together two hits and driving in a run. However, the Giants bullpen fell apart in the late innings and allowed the Orioles to make things competitive.

Hunter Strickland came in to relieve Cueto and got out of a seventh inning jam but gave up two runs in the seventh to let the Orioles back into the ball game, which included a solo shot by Mark Trumbo. The blast was Trumbo’s was number 34 of the season he still leads the AL in that category.

Derek Law replaced Strickland in the eighth and was able to limit the damage as the Giants still held a 7-5 lead heading into the top half of the ninth.

Then Santiago Casilla came into the game and not only let two runners get on base, but threw a hanging curveball right over the heart of the plate to Baltimore second baseman, Johnathan Schoop. Schoop made Casilla pay as he crushed the hanging breaking ball into the left field bleachers to give the Orioles the lead, eight to seven. The homer marked Casilla’s fifth blown save of the year.

“I have confidence in all my pitches,” Casilla said through interpreter Erwin Higueros. “I threw the curveball, and I just made a mistake. The ball didn’t break.”

The Giants then tried to make something happen off Orioles closer Zach Britton in the bottom of the ninth, but unfortunately could not get a run across the plate to push the game into extra innings. Britton added to his league leading save total, 37, as Baltimore sits just a half game behind the Toronto Blue Jays for first place in the AL East.

For San Francisco, its their 18th loss since the Mid Summer Classic and a real bad one after they held a six run lead heading into the top of the seventh.

The orange and black hit their stride at the plate, tallying 14 hits for seven runs and forced Orioles skipper, Buck Showalter,  to remove starter Wade Miley in the fifth inning.

Giants back up catcher Trevor Brown got the scoring started with an RBI single in the second inning. Brown got the start behind the dish after Buster Posey was a last minute scratch due to back tightness. The injury could have been sustained from the flight back and has gradually worsened, according to Posey.

Before Sunday’s ball game, Brown had been hitless in his last seven at bats, with just three hits in his last 19. But Brown made the most out of his start and was a huge spark for SF’s offense. He finished the game three for five with three RBIs.

“He’s been great,” Posey said about Brown’s performance this year. “He gave us a chance to win the game.”

Outfielder Hunter Pence also had a good game and it appears his swing could be coming into form. Pence hit a bomb to center field, 436 feet to be exact, and added a single during the Giants big fifth inning. Pence’s dinger was his first since returning from the disabled list. Prior to today’s game, Pence had not put one into the seats dating all the way back to May 18.

Fortunately, the Dodgers (65-52) lost to Pittsburgh on Sunday, 11-3, keeping the Giants a game ahead in the NL West.

After blowing a huge lead and taking a loss in what looked to be the Giants first back-to-back wins since July 30 and 31 as well as their second consecutive series victory, San Francisco will take on the Pittsburgh Pirates at home tomorrow night at 7:15 p.m. PT as Matt Moore takes the mound.

“I think everyone knows what’s at stake. I don’t think there’s really any motivation needed,” Posey said. “This time of the year, this is when it’s fun. Each game as we get further and further along will have a little more importance on it. I think the group of guys in here generally thrive in these situations.”

Three home runs powers Giants past Padres, 7-3

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By Gabe Schapiro

On Friday night, a sellout crowd of 41,103, the 244th consecutive sellout at AT&T Park, went home happy. Thanks to an unusual display of power in a park where it’s hard to come by, the San Francisco Giants (75-85), came away with a 7-3 victory over the San Diego Padres (75-85). Ryan Vogelsong, making his final start of 2013, wasn’t at his best, but he battled all night and limited the damage. With the win, and a Colorado Rockies loss, the Giants are guaranteed to finish in no worse than fourth place in the NL West.

In what proved to be a good omen, prior to the game the Willie Mac Award, named after the great Willie McCovey and annually given to the Giant who best exemplifies the spirit and leadership that Big Mac played with, was deservedly awarded to Hunter Pence. Thankfully San Francisco didn’t spoil what from the get-go was a positive environment.

Following the ceremony and a slightly delayed start, it took some time for Vogelsong to settle in. Right out of the gate the Padres were making hard contact, and in the first inning they got on the board with a solid single to left field by Tommy Medica that brought home Chris Denorfia, who had singled earlier in the inning.

In the second inning San Francisco made some noise of their own. Pablo Sandoval took a rare walk, and then two batters later rookie Juan Perez got a hold of one and sent a 1-1 pitch just over the left field wall for his first career home run. The homer gave the Giants a 2-1 lead.

After the game Bochy complimented how well Perez has adjusted to life in the major leagues following his first big league long ball. “He’s really turned it up a notch here, he’s played great on both sides of the ball. He looks a lot more comfortable at the plate, he’s quieter up there…the ball jumps off his bat. I’m glad to see him get that sense of belonging up here.”

San Diego wasted little time in responding. Denorfia walked to lead off the next half inning, and as walks so often do, it came back to hurt Vogelsong. Up next was Jedd Gyorko, who sent a towering fly ball towards triples alley that smacked off of the right field wall. Gyorko was thrown out trying to turn it into a triple, but Denorfia easily scored from first to tie the game at 2-2.

In the top of the third it only took the Giants three pitches to punch right back. Abreu singled to lead off the inning, and Brandon Belt followed with his 17th home run of the season, a no-doubter into the porch in right field. Two batters later Pence got in on the slugfest, and to celebrate his Willie Mac Award in style hit his 26th homer of the season, extending the lead to 5-2.

After the third, for the most part both starters settled down, until the sixth.

In the top of the sixth Vogelsong ran into some control problems, walking two, but managed to gut his way through the inning unscathed. With that his night was over having scattered five hits, two runs, four walks, and three strikeouts in his six innings. He threw 91 pitches.

On Vogelsong Bochy kept it simple, saying that after the game ““I just told him great job, great start. Good for him how he finished….I was happy for Vogey bouncing back from a rough start like that.”

By the ninth the Giants had added two more runs to their lead, making it 7-2. In the ninth the Padres tried making it interesting when Logan Forsythe led off with a long home run to dead center, bringing them to within four, but that’s where the comeback attempt ended.

This series against the Padres, the last of the season, continues tomorrow at 1:05 PM.

Game Notes: Following the three home runs hit by the Giants tonight, they have 105 on the season, two more than they did during their World Series run in 2012….Gregor Blanco almost hit for an usual kind of cycle, getting himself thrown out at first, second, and home plate during the game. Bochy announced that Cain would not make his last scheduled start, making his 2013 season over as well.

Michael Duca on A’s and Giants

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by Michael Duca

OAKLAND–When it comes to Josh Donaldson he’s probably the best player the American League left off the All-Star roster and there’s little doubt that Donaldson has been pretty consistent and is number two in the A.L. in WAR which is one of those stats when you go to replace a player all year and that’s probably the best one or actually judging a player. He’s just about the best in the A.L. at providing victories for a team both offensively and defensively.
Donaldson has played an outstanding third base he would probably be the leading candidate for the gold glove if it weren’t for Mario Marchado in Baltimore and he is amongst the best offensive third baseman in the A.L. if it weren’t for the Miguel Cabrera guy in Detroit. He’s sort of the avis of third basemen in the A.L. second best defensively, second best offensively, probably best all around.
Donaldson in the playoffs:  To know how Josh Donaldson is going to do in the playoffs is something you can’t ask before the playoffs. How big of a role was the Giants Marco Scutaro last year? Nobody was expecting that, how big of a role was the former Giant Cody Ross in 2010? Nobody was expecting that. What happens in the playoffs was because teams have been scouted for weeks, weeks, and more weeks the key players tend to get shut down and the role players tend to play the biggest roles for the winning teams because if the role players who come and provide the offense allow a game to go far in the playoffs it’s the unexpected it’s the team tendators who show up out of nowhere.
Angel Pagan is carrying the Giants offense: People in the pressbox laugh when I say the Giants Angel Pagan has proved he’s the Most Valuable Player in the National League. By a real definition the term MVP he’s clearly the most valuable player to his team because they were in first place when he got hurt. Then the Giants played 20 games below .500 while he was gone and since his return they’ve climbed from the cellar back to third place.
There isn’t any question how important he is to the team, the best way to explain him is he gives the maximum effort and demands maximum effort and produces a higher level of energy within the clubhouse and on the field amongst their teammates. Who could ever forget last year watching the fast clap, the sunflower seed throwing, all of that stuff that outsiders think of is silly and a little boyish is really good how seriously good athletes manage to alleviate the pressure of playoffs.
It’s to revert to being little boyish, it’s to revert to going out and having fun when you perform and you relax and you let your talent to take over and that’s what Pagan did for the Giants last year and that’s what Hunter Pence did for them last year much like Juan Uribe did for them in 2010.
The way the Giants have played winning seven out of their last nine is their late September test against really good competition unless they had something to lose and I think the Giants will do really well to finish up the season. The Giants will be able to demonstrate a little bit more long ball power in the upcoming series at Yankee Stadium and the Giants pitching staff will probably do a good job in that ball park also because they throw a lot of ground balls.
The most important thing that’s going to come out of that series is the Giants are going to carry away with them forever the memory of being there for Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera’s last regular season home game and to see what the Yankees have planned for the future Hall of Famer.
Michael Duca does commentary each week for the Giants and A’s for Sportstalk

The Giants beat the Dodgers

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The day started with the Los Angeles Dodgers  in first place with an 18 ½ game lead over the Giants.

The Giants have had a very tough year and the Dodgers are going to win the division but none of that mattered as the Giants beat the Dodgers 4-3 and won three out of four on the road in LA. The rivalry is there. Anytime you can beat the Dodgers is a great day for Giant baseball. No matter how far down in the standings, it is always sweet to beat the hated Dodgers.

Ryan Vogelsong started for San Francisco and he pitched well. Vogelsong went six innings allowing seven hits and three runs. The Dodgers’ pitcher, Edison Volquez also pitched well. Volquez went 5 2/3rds innings giving up three runs on five hits. All three runs given up by Volquez were driven in by the red hot Hunter Pence.  Pence drove in seven runs in the 19-3 blowout Saturday night and he hit two more home runs  and had three RBIs on Sunday. The game summary follows below.

Hunter Pence got the Giants off to a good start when he hit a solo home run to lead of the second. Vogelsong dodged a bullet in the bottom of the fourth when Juan Uribe led off the frame with a triple but the Dodgers failed to score. The Dodgers loaded the bases in the fifth. Adrian Gonzalez was the hero for the Dodgers when he blasted a double to right that cleared the bases and the Dodgers le 3-1 after five.

The lead didn’t last long as that man, Hunter Pence, put the ball into the left field seats driving in Brandon Belt. For Hunter it was his 25th home run of the season and he now has 92 runs batted in so far this year.

The Giants took a 4-3 lead in the eighth. Brett Pill hit a pinch hit home run off Dodger left, Paco Rodriguez. Giants’ relievers Jean Machi, Santiago Casilla and Sergio Romo shut the door on the Dodgers to give the Giants the win.

Game notes- Hunter Pence hit a home run in every game of the four game series. Willie Mays is the only other Giant to do so. It was the ninth career two home run game for Pence and Pence tied a career high with his 25 home runs. Pence’s 19 RBIs over the six game span is the most ever by a Giant since RBIs became an official statistic in 1920.

Winning pitcher was Jean Machi and Sergio Rome picked his 35th save of the year.

Ex-Giant Brian Wilson pitched in the 7th inning for the Dodgers.

Giants are off to New York for a week. They play the Mets for three then travel to the Bronx to play the Yankees.

Another day, another A – former Oakland Athletic Brandon McCarthy spoils Matt Cain’s return with a 2-1 Diamondbacks victory

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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.

Petit is nearly perfect

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By Jeremy Kahn

PhotoSAN FRANCISCO-Yusmeiro Petit came within just one strike of baseball immortality against his former team, the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The right-hander, who is making his third start in the last two weeks, came within one strike of becoming the 24th pitcher to throw a perfect game, as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Diamondbacks 3-0 before a sellout crowd of 41,180 at AT&T Park.

Petit retired the first 26 batters he faced, but former Oakland A’s third baseman Eric Chavez broke up the perfecto with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, as his single was out of the reach of a diving Hunter Pence in right field.

In all, Petit threw a complete game one-hit shutout, the first of his career, as he struck out seven, just five days after striking out a career-high 10 in the Giants 8-2 victory over these same Diamondbacks on Sunday afternoon at Chase Field in Phoenix.

Petit was only the second Giants pitcher this season to throw a complete game, joining Tim Lincecum, who threw a no-hitter on July 13 against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park.

The eight and two-thirds of no-hit ball pitched by Petit was the longest in his career, breaking his previous long of seven innings, while pitching for the Diamondbacks at PNC Park against the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 4, 2009.

Petit is the 12th pitcher in major league history to lose a perfect game with two outs in the ninth inning, and the second this season, as Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers lost a perfect game in his first start of the season against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on April 2, 2013.

In that game, Ronny Cedeno broke up Petit’s no-hit bid with no outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, as the Diamondbacks defeated the Pirates 6-0.

Pence scored the first run of the game for the Giants in the bottom of the second inning, as Petit’s battery mate Hector Sanchez drove him in with a single.

It was also Pence who scored the Giants second run of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning, as he scored on the second Sanchez single of the night.

On the night, Pence went 3-for-3 with three runs, a single, a double and a home run.

Over his last 15 games, Pence is hitting .392, going 20-for-51 with nine RBIs, and 13 runs scored.

This was also the 48th multi-hit game of the season for Pence, tied for the third-most in the National League.

Following the Pence double, Pablo Sandoval nearly reached for the second consecutive at-bat; however Adam Eaton made a terrific catch in left field.

Joaquin Arias was then retired following the Sandoval fly out, as Paul Goldschmidt made a great play at first base.

Petit’s opponent on the mound, Patrick Corbin nearly picked up the first Diamondbacks hit in the top of the sixth inning, but Juan Perez made a tremendous diving catch to preserve the game for Petit.

Corbin went eight innings, allowing three runs on eight hits, walking just one and striking out five, but lost for the second time in the last five days to the Giants.

Sandoval extended his hitting streak to eight-straight games, as he singled off of Corbin in the bottom of the second inning.

During the streak, Sandoval is hitting .406 (13-for-32) with eight RBIs, also over his last 23 games, the 2012 World Series MVP is hitting .386 (33-for-86) with 20 RBIs.

Pence made it 3-0 in the bottom of the eighth inning, as he took a Corbin pitch and supplanted it into the left field bleachers for his 19th home run of the season.

It was the 19th home run of the season for Pence, as he is just one home run shy of becoming the first Giants player to go 20-20 since Barry Bonds turned the trick in 1998.

Pence and Sandoval are not the only Giants swinging a hot bat, as Angel Pagan extended his hitting streak up to 11 games, as he singled in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Giants pounce on the Padres

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By Jeremy Harness

The last time Pablo Sandoval hit three home runs in a game, he was leading the Giants past the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of last year’s World Series.

Lest to say that we are far removed from those days, even though it was only less than 11 months ago. Nonetheless, every win should be taken as a positive, no matter how meaningless it is now, and Sandoval’s three-bomb outing Wednesday night helped the Giants breeze past the San Diego Padres, 13-5, at PETCO Park.

In hitting the trio of homers, Sandoval drove in a total of six runs, giving the Giants all the runs they would need to pull out the victory.

Well, this game did have some meaning, in the fact the Giants are no longer in the cellar of the National League West. Now they have company, as they dropped the Padres into a tie with them for last place with matching 62-77 records.

Tim Lincecum didn’t pitch great – he gave up five earned runs on seven hits, walking four and striking out five – put he held on long enough to pick up only his ninth victory of the season against 13 defeats.

He was helped out by a bullpen that combined to allow only two hits the rest of the way.

Aside from Sandoval, Hunter Pence had a rather-solid game at the plate for the Giants. He knocked in three runs, including a two-run homer in the fourth inning off Padres starter Eric Stults.