San Francisco Giants: The comeback kids strike again
Coming off a great series win against the Dodgers, the San Francisco Giants looked to continue their momentum against a good Cardinals team.
The San Francisco Giants embark on a tough road trip, beginning in St. Louis, followed by a trip to Chicago before heading home to take on Atlanta. Good pitching and timely hitting has carried the Giants to victories in five of their last six games. Giants sent Matt Moore to hill against Michael Wacha in what would be a good pitchers duel.
Moore would start off strong, as he worked quick through the first couple innings. Bottom of the third, Cardinals lead off with a Dexter Fowler triple, who would score on a sac-fly from Tommy Pham. Moore would give up another run in the bottom of the sixth following a Gyorko triple and a Molina double, putting the Cardinals up 2-0. Moore would go six solid innings, giving up just the two runs on five hits, while striking out five. With a chance to earn the win, the Giants bats looked to pick up Matt Moore the rest of the game.
Giants offense was held quiet most of the game, except the top of the seventh where they plated three runs. They led off the inning with an Eduardo Nunez single, followed by a Christian Arroyo single. Mac Williamson would knock in Nunez on a fielding error from third baseman Jedd Gyorko, giving the Giants their first run. Following the error, Denard Span would continue his hot streak, singling to right to tie the game at two a piece. Giants bats kept producing as Joe Panik would step up and knock in the go-ahead run on a fielders choice ground ball to the pitcher. After taking the lead, the Giants would load the bases back to back walks from Brandon Belt and Buster Posey.
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The umpires had different plans for this game, as they request the grounds crew to tarp the field in preparation for upcoming showers. The rain came down hard, as the Giants would experience their first rain delay of the year. After about a forty five minute delay, the game would resume at 10:15 St Louis time.
Crawford would fly out on the first pitch ending the Giants rally in the top of the seventh. With a lead now, the Giants bullpen would take over for the remaining nine outs. Steven Okert would start the bottom of the seventh, but would not record an out after allowing back to back singles putting runners on first and third with nobody out. Kontos would come in and immediately give up a three run homer to Dexter Fowler, putting the Cards back on top 5-3. Two of the three runs would be charged to Okert, while one goes to Kontos. The Giants once again find themselves down by two, looking to come back in this game.
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The Giants offense was not done yet. After stringing together a couple singles from Arroyo and Morse, Denard Span would once again come through in the clutch, knocking in Arroyo from second. The rally would end with Joe Panik, but the Giants get a run back, score now 5-4.
Bryan Morris would finish off the bottom of the eighth 1,2,3 as the Giants bats looked to make one last comeback in the ninth inning against the Cardinals pitcher Seung-Hwan Oh. Brandon Belt lead off the ninth with his third hit of the night, a single to right.
Posey would fly out to center, but Brandon Crawford would single to left center, moving Belt to third with only one out. Eduardo Nunez follows with a huge two run double to center giving the Giants a 6-5 lead in the ninth! After going more than a year without a ninth inning comeback, the Giants have their second one in nine days.
Giants hand the ball to recently activated Mark Melancon, who looks for his seventh save of the year. A lead off base hit from Kolten Wong got things started in the wrong direction for the Giants, but Melancon would settle down and retire the side, with the help of a game-ending double play from Dexter Fowler!
The Giants make an impressive comeback TWICE in this game, proving that this is a brand new ball club! There is absolutely no way that the Giants of April could have come back once, let alone TWICE! The pitching is coming together, the bullpen (other than tonight) has been pretty decent, and the hitting is coming through in the clutch. Theres still lots and lots of work to do, but we’ll take one win at a time.
Finals for tonights game:
Next: A look at the Giants Top Prospect's Starts to 2017
Tune in tomorrow as the Giants send Jeff Samardzija to the mound against Carlos Martinez, as the team looks to at-least take a series from a hot Cardinals team.