SF Giants hammer Bumgarner to extend win streak to four

Sunday afternoon the SF Giants won a seesaw-like contest with a walk-off home run, completing a three-game sweep of the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates.

They didn't have much time to enjoy their success with the Arizona Diamondbacks - winners of eight of their 13 games in August - scheduled to invade Oracle Park to start a four-game series on Monday.

Even with the improved competition for the opener, and an old friend trekking to the mound from the visiting dugout, the Giants didn't have a problem. They scored in bunches in the middle of the game and held the Diamondbacks offense down, taking a 6-1 victory.

The win was the fourth-consecutive for San Francisco, their longest positive streak in over two months. It also put them over the .500 mark on the season for the first time in over three weeks.

SF Giants roughed up Bumgarner starting in the fourth

Facing Orange and Black postseason legend Madison Bumgarner, now in Arizona colors, the Giants scuffled through the first three innings before breaking through in the fourth as Evan Longoria followed a J.D. Davis double with his 10th home run of the season on a blast to left-center field.

Joey Bart opened the fifth inning with a double, his second hit of the night after a third-inning bunt single, and two batters later he crossed the plate on Austin Slater's single for a 3-0 lead.

San Francisco put up their biggest crooked number in the sixth. With one out, Thairo Estrada roped a double to left-center to score Davis and move Longoria around to third, and Bart capitalized with his third hit, a long single that one-hopped the wall in left, to drive in two more.

Alex Cobb, who had struck out 26 batters in just over 17 innings over his last three starts, was in control again. The right-hander scattered five hits and three walks over six innings while striking out five, with the only run coming on a solo homer in the top of the sixth. A cadre of relievers cleaned up the final three innings - Tyler Rogers and Alex Young combined for the seventh, Dominic Leone took care of the eighth and Jarlin Garcia tossed a perfect ninth.

The Giants and Diamondbacks play the second of their four-game series Tuesday night, with Jakob Junis facing off against Arizona ace Merrill Kelly.