San Francisco Giants: Ty Blach, Buster Posey Power Past Cubs

Buster Posey hits a three run bomb and Ty Blach turned a stellar outing on both sides of the diamond to lead the San Francisco Giants to a 6-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday night.

Blach showed excellent poise on the mound for the San Francisco Giants, holding the World Series champion Cubs to only two runs, spanning across 7 IP, also giving up 7 hits and 1 BB.

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The Giants were able to get to Jose Quintana early, while also making sure Javier Baez had an action packed inning in the process.

Gorkys Hernandez led the game off with a single up the middle, which ricocheted off of the glove of Baez. Miguel Gomez moved Hernandez over to second on a ground ball to Baez and Hunter Pence reached first on a fielding error by Baez.

With runners on the corners and one away, Posey cleared the bases on a three run home run, barely crossing the left field fence. The play would be reviewed to determine if a fan reached over the wall, but the call on the field was upheld, giving the Giants a 3-0 lead.

In the fourth inning, Blach would help out his own cause by continuing to swing a hot bat. With two outs and runners on first and third, Blach poked the ball into right field for a RBI single, knocking in Brandon Crawford and extending the lead to 4-0.

Blach also had a strong outing on the mound, holding the World Series champions scoreless through the first four innings. He did not run into any real trouble until the fifth inning. After giving up back-to-back singles to Jason Heyward and Baez to lead off the inning, he did a great job settling down and limiting the damage.

Quintana advanced the runners on a sacrifice bunt and Baez wound up scoring on a ground out to second by Jon Jay. Blach then got Kris Bryant to fly out to end the inning.

Blach found himself in trouble again the following inning after giving up back-to-back doubles to Wilson Contreras and Ian Happ with one out. He then managed to escape harm once again by only allowing the one run to score in the inning.

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The Giants would get that run back in the seventh inning. Kelby Tomlinson led the inning off with a walk, Pablo Sandoval, pinch hitting for Blach, moved Tomlinson to third on a single up the middle and Joe Panik, who replaced Gomez after leaving the game due to an apparent injury in the first inning, ended up knocking Tomlinson in on a ground out to increase the lead to 5-3.

Hunter Strickland replaced Blach out of the bullpen in the eighth and gave up one unearned run after Panik made a fielding error on what would of been an inning ending double play. That prolonged the inning, allowing Happ to score Bryant on a sacrifice fly to Jarrett Parker.

The Giants added on an insurance run in the 8th inning on a RBI single by Crawford, his second hit of the ninth to make the score 6-3.

Sam Dyson, the interim closer in Mark Melancon‘s absence, came in to pitch the ninth inning. Aside from a two out walk, Dyson pitched a relatively quiet ninth inning to earn his 7th save of the year.

Game Notes:

Ty Blach was impressive both offensively and defensively. His RBI single was his fourth RBI in his last two outings. He also had a quality start, his 13th in 19 starts on the year. His pitch selection was excellent, keeping the Cubs off balance and found ways to escape any trouble he found himself in. He improves to 8-7 on the year with a 4.15 ERA.

Buster Posey continues to shine: His three run home run was the first by a position player at AT&T Park this season, which all I can do is shake my head thinking about that. He also stole his fifth base on the season and has yet to be thrown out stealing this season. Oddly enough, Posey has only been caught stealing once since 2015…of course that is only 13 attempts. Still impressive for a catcher not known for his speed.

Brandon Crawford loves hitting on August 8th. One year ago today, Crawford racked up seven hits against the Marlins in a 14 inning win and he went 2-4 in tonight’s game. “Can everyday be August 8th?”- Brandon Crawford (probably).

Next: Aramis Garcia on the Rise

The Giants and Cubs will now turn it over for a matinee game tomorrow as Madison Bumgarner will match up against Kyle Hendricks. First pitch is scheduled for 12:45pm.