San Francisco Giants Take Series And Top Padres In Offensive Outburst

AT&T South was again live and hopping tonight as the Giants squeaked out a 8-7 victory thanks to a four run, fifth inning. The Giants took an early 1-0 lead thanks to a Joaquin Arias solo shot, but the Padres’ Cameron Maybin equalized the score with an RBI fielders choice in the bottom half. Sadly for Giants starter Barry Zito, that wasn’t the only run he’d give up in his four short innings of work as the San Diego native was chased quickly, a three run homer from Chase Headley his undoing. Down 4-1, the Giants mounted their comeback that began thanks to a leadoff pinch hit single by Ryan Theriot, which was followed by an Angel Pagan double and a Marco Scutaro sacrifice fly. Pablo Sandoval reached on a fielders choice, scoring a run, but it was Buster Posey with the big hit who clubbed a double down the right field line. Hunter Pence and Arias capped the inning with RBI’s of their own. Another rally in the 7th thanks to Posey and Arias (and in the 9th from Posey and Pence) added some insurance for the Giants who maintained their half game lead in the NL West.

Strong Pen Work (mostly) – Although Barry Zito was, well, Barry Zito, the bullpen came in and tossed four innings of one run ball (before Affeldt) – the lone run coming off a monster Carlos Quentin homer thanks to Eric Hacker. The recently recalled Hacker was in-line for the win before giving up the solo shot, but some wildness after the dinger resulted in Bochy pulling the Dallas native. Jose Mijares, Santiago Casilla, Sergio Romo all did their jobs, but Jeremy Affeldt struggled in the ninth, giving up two runs before Clay Hensley finished it off. He was the seventh pitcher used by the Giants on the night.

Joaquin ARBIas – Coming into the game, Joaquin Arias had one homerun on the year – five for his career. You can add another to that total along with three more RBI as the Giants utility infielder had a career night (at least in regards to his career numbers), being the catalyst for the Giants offensive production. His three hits also tied a season high.

A Giant Road Offense – The Giants lead the Major League in runs scored on the road. Tonight’s outburst marked the 15th time the Giants have scored 5+ runs since the All-Star break and 10 out of 15 road games since the break where they’ve scored 5+ runs.

The Giants will try to complete the sweep (certainly no easy task as we’ve seen this year) tomorrow afternoon before heading to Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers.