Giants Remain Strong; Beat D-Backs 4-3

The San Francisco Giants held their ground, and their early lead, to take game 2 of the 3 game series from the 1st place Arizona Diamondbacks. That puts the Giants just 4.5 games back in the NL West. A win today and sweep today would certainly give the Giants some more momentum toward becoming a team that is really in the race again.

As for last night, I’ll just hit the highlights for you.

Jul 20, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Matt Cain (18) pitches during the first inning in a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at AT

Matt Cain pitched and lasted 5 innings. I thought he pitched pretty well. I’d have liked to see him pitch further into the game, but once he got into a jam in the top of the 6th, Bochy pulled him. It was probably a good move to keep his confidence up after the last 2 disastrous starts for him. He gave up 4 hits, 4 walks, 4 strikeouts, and got the win, so I’ll take that any night of the week, especially when there is a W in the column. Let’s hope his arm just needed a little bit of rest and he returns to the Matt Cain we know and love once again.

Jeremy Affeldt left the game in the 6th inning with a strained left groin. Bruce Bochy said that Affeldt would be getting an MRI done and they would know more after that. We’ll keep you updated, but the Disabled List is a real possibility.

In the 8th inning, Sandy Rosario tried to barehand a ball hit up the middle and appeared to injury his hand. Trainers came out to take a look, and what looked like it could be a second pitcher of the game heading to the DL turned out to be minor. He stayed in the game, pitched to one more batter, and then left the game, appearing fine. His hand is probably a little sore, but it didn’t seem to be a major concern after the game. X-Rays came back negative on his hand.

In the 9th inning, Sergio Romo also got hit by a comebacker up the middle. It hit is glove first though, and he’s supposed to be fine. According to Andrew Baggarly, the trainers didn’t even look at it. All the same, it was a scary night to be on the pitching mound.

As for hitting, Buster Posey, who played 1B last night, hit a bomb of a 2-run home run in the 5th inning to put the Giants up 4-1. Both Posey and Pablo Sandoval had 2 hits nights and the Giants combined for 9 knocks.

Final game of the series starts at 1:05pm today with Madison Bumgarner (10-5, 3.02 ERA) facing Randall Delgado (1-3, 3.92 ERA).