Buster Posey Leads San Francisco Giants Past Tigers

Sep 6, 2014; Detroit, MI, USA; San Francisco Giants catcher

(28) hits a single in the eighth inning against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

With Madison Bumgarner squaring off against David Price at Comerica Park on Saturday, a classic pitchers duel was on everyone’s mind. Each team’s line up had different ideas though.

The Giants jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning with all 4 runs coming on 2 outs. Buster Posey lined a single to right followed by Hunter Pence singling to right and extending his hit streak to 18 games. Pablo Sandoval joined the party with a single to center scoring Posey and then Andrew Susac hit a double to right center scoring both Pence and Sandoval. Joaquin Arias followed with a double to score Susac before Matt Duffy was called out on strikes to finally end the inning.

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The Tigers didn’t waste any time getting themselves right back in the game with a Torii Hunter double off of Bumgarner followed by a home run by Miguel Cabrera giving him 20 on the year. Bumgarner gave up back to back singles by Victor Martinez and J.D. Martinez before getting out of the inning on a double play ball from Nick Castellanos.

David Price settled in and almost went the distance only giving up 4 more hits on the day including a solo home run to Buster Posey in the 5th which would be all she wrote for the San Francisco Giants scoring Saturday afternoon.

Madison Bumgarner was not very sharp despite only allowing 3 earned runs in 6 innings and coming away with the win. This marked the first game in his career in 145 starts in which he did not strike out a batter. This was also the first time since Kirk Rueter in 2003 that a Giants pitcher had gone at least 6 innings without a strike out or a walk.

Jean Machi pitched a clean 1-2-3 7th inning for the Giants which set up the 2012 rematch of Sergio Romo versus Miguel Cabrera to lead of the 8th. Cabrera got the slider he’d been waiting for since 2012 and launched a first pitch home run to make the score 5-4. Romo retired the side in order following the home run to allow Santiago Casilla to come in and pitch a clean 9th inning for his 15th save of the season.

The Giants once again looked like a team who has no intention of letting the Dodgers walk away with the division title earning their 78th win of the season. If the Diamondbacks can help the Giants out and beat the Dodgers tonight, the Giants will only be 1 game out of first place.

Buster Posey became the first Giant to reach 20 home runs and continues his late MVP push going 3 for 3 with a home run and a walk. He upped his batting average to .310 and is now 3rd in the NL in batting average.

Posey staying hot is absolutely the key to the Giants trying to win this division. The offense is clicking at the right time and Posey has to remain at the center of that. The Giants are getting hot at the right time once again and are putting themselves in a good position coming into the series next weekend with the rivals themselves, the Dodgers.

It is also worth noting that Madison Bumgarner is now one of two 17 game winners in baseball. The other? Who else but Clayton Kershaw. These 2 pitchers are going to be at it for many years to come.

I would love to see the Giants get the sweep tomorrow night and Tim Hudson on the mound gives them an excellent shot at that. As we all know, the Giants love to sweep in the Motor City.