Power Of The P – Pence And Posey Produce Pwins POver PRockies

It took a five spot in the bottom half of the eighth inning, but the only thing that mattered was the end result – a Giants win. Down by two with only six outs left in their arsenal, the Giants took it to the Rockies ‘pen starting with a Brandon Crawford single, followed by a pinch hit ground rule double from Hector Sanchez. A Melky Cabrera single brought the deficit to one when Buster Posey stepped to the plate with the bases loaded, an at-bat that shouldn’t be forgotten in the shadow of Hunter Pence‘s heroics. Posey put together a gritty ten pitch at-bat against Rockies reliever Rafael Betancourt, eventually bringing in the game tying run with a sac fly, wearing down Betancourt in the process. Pence, with the pressure now off, promptly clubbed what would become a game-winning three run homer into left-center, giving the Giants a roller coaster win and series victory over the Rockies.

Power of the Pence – Coming into Pence’s eighth inning at-bat, the awkward outfielder was 0-4, but that wasn’t telling the whole story as Pence swung that bat well all day despite the lack of results. A few unlucky breaks earlier in the game took away at least two hits from the Giants’ newest outfielder but the exchange might have been worth it to Hunter, who picked the perfect time for his first homer as a Giant. Pence now has 11 RBI in 12 games as a San Francisco Giant, despite the slow start. Results should only get better with the return of Pablo Sandoval.

Heyyy, We Want Some Posey – If you look closely at Buster Posey, you’ll notice a flame emerging from the back of his jersey. The best hitter in baseball since the All-Star break, Posey again continued his MVP campaign despite only getting one official AB on the day. Rockies manager Jim Tracy had enough of Posey’s hot streak, electing to pitch around the Giants’ backstop all day, walking him three times in the process. Posey made the most of his only official AB though, slamming a a solid single in the first and of course, the epic battle that tied the game in the 8th before giving way to Hunter Pence. This, all of course, sans a finger nail which Posey lost early in the game from a ball in the dirt.

A Perfect Belt – Brandon Belt had one of, if not the best games of his season today going 4-4 with a base on balls, finding himself on base FIVE times. More than that though, Belt hit with some much needed pop as two of his four hits were of the extra base hit variety. Belt has now reached base 16 times in his last 10 games, two of which were late inning replacement appearances. Keep it up, BBelt.

The come from behind victory keeps the Giants in first place for another day as they maintained their one game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s expected that Pablo Sandoval will return tomorrow evening as the Giants open their series with the Washington Nationals. Los Angeles will hop a charter to Pittsburgh, who thanks to a nine run fourth inning avoided being on the wrong end of a sweep at the hands of the San Diego Padres.