San Francisco Giants win it late thanks to Buster Posey

The San Francisco Giants have won back to back games, and have done it late. This time, Buster Posey got the big hit.

It was a 4-2 ballgame headed into the bottom of the eighth inning. Matt Cain had a decent outing, but the Giants hitters just couldn’t do anything to help. That was until late in the ballgame.

With one out and two on base, Conor Gillaspie hit a hard grounder right at Carlos Santana. While Santana was thinking double play and inning over, the ball popped up and went right between his legs. Brandon Crawford made it to third, and Brandon Belt scored. With the score at 4-3, Hundley struck out with the runners on the corners.

With Kelby Tomlinson set to hit next, Bruce Bochy opted to pinch hit Buster Posey. Posey worked it to a full count, and blasted a double over the head of Michael Brantley in left. All runners scored making it 5-4.

The Giants weren’t entirely out of the clear, as a walk, and a HPB put a ton of stress on the save opportunity from a resurgent Sam Dyson. With the bases loaded and a full count, and the Indians hottest hitter in Jose Ramirez at the plate, a good high fly for Hunter Pence ended the threat, and the ballgame with the Giants taking the game and series from the Cleveland Indians.

Three Takeaways

• Denard Span hasn’t been terrible, after starting terrible. His solo home-run is evidence. He’s a streaky ballplayer, and the Giants always play well when he plays well. That catalyst at the top of the lineup, is what the Giants have missed at times, and when he’s on, it finally clicks.
• Cain wasn’t terrible today. He went six solid innings, even though he gave up three runs, it’s still a quality start. Can’t ask for more than that from your starter. If he can go out and give you a quality start, you usually have a good chance at winning ballgames.
• A lot has been made of Buster Posey’s clutch level, both amongst fans and internally here at AtF. A clutch player performs to their career averages in high leverage situations, and if they’re a good player, they’re going to be considered “clutch”. Posey was nails in a high leverage situation today, and that’s exactly what you want from your best player, and clean-up hitter.

Next: Ryan Howard, Heir to Crawford's throne?

The San Francisco Giants take on the San Diego Padres tomorrow evening, as Madison Bumgarner makes his first home start since before his injury in April. First pitch is at 7:15pm, and you can watch on NBCSBA, or listen in on KNBR 680.