San Francisco Giants shutout Chicago Cubs, flirt with history

The Giants wrapped up their 6-game home stand with a 5-0 shutout of the Cubs this afternoon at AT&T Park. They went 5-1 on the recent home stand and now head to St. Louis for a 4-game weekend series against the Cardinals.

For a while today, it looked like the Giants might have a chance at history as they held the Cubs hitless for the first 6.1 innings of this game. Jeff Baker made sure that didn’t happen with a pinch hit single off Jeremy Affeldt with one out in the top of the 7th.

Tim Lincecum was only able to last 5 innings even without giving up a hit. He walked 4 Cubs hitters and struck out 5 while compiling 96 pitches. Bruce Bochy pinch-hit for Lincecum in a scoreless game in the bottom of the 5th. I don’t know how many other managers would have pulled Lincecum, but Bruce Bochy showed that he has his eyes squarely on October.

It would have been historic since the Cubs haven’t been no-hit since Sandy Koufax threw a perfect game against them on September 9, 1965. There’s even a Twitter account devoted to it.

Giants pitchers held the Cubs to just 2 hits and shut them out for the second straight game. The Giants staff held the Cubs scoreless over the last 20 innings of the series.

Pablo Sandoval was once again played a leading role for the Giants. For starters, he made a diving stop in the first inning that probably saved 2 runs and kept the Giants out of a hole.

In the 6th inning, Sandoval came through with the bat, again. His 1-0 out single up the middle scored Angel Pagan for the Giants first run of the game. It was Sandoval’s 8th straight game with a run driven in, he has 13 total over that time.

Hector Sanchez continues to swing the bat well. He drove a 2-out double the opposite way to score 2 runs in the bottom of the 7th.

George Kontos got the win against his childhood team. He was raised in the Chicagoland area and went to college at Northwestern. What makes it even sweeter for George is that was his first win in over a year.

Oh yea, Hunter Pence has his scooter back too. We can all rest easy.

The Giants maintain the best record in baseball at 34-19. They now head to the Midwest for a 7-game road trip in St. Louis and Cincinnati. These home stands always seem so short.