Yusmeiro Petit didn't put up the numbers he did in his near-perfecto, but the San Francisco Giants still put on a terrific show.
AT&T PARK — Musical fun fact from the yard: Right-handed pitcher Yusmeiro Petit warms up to “Rock & Roll” by Led Zeppelin.
In my book, anyone that warms up to Zep should automatically have an amazing outing.
While Petit didn’t put up the numbers he did in his near-perfecto last Friday, the San Francisco Giants still put on a terrific show, both in the field and at the plate.
Guillermo Moscoso (W, 2-2, 4.07 ERA) picked up the win and Santiago Casilla earned his second save as the Orange and Black defeated the Colorado Rockies 4-3 thanks to an eighth-inning rally.
With the win, the Giants finished their first winning homestand (4-3 against Colorado and Arizona) since they went 4-2 from May 20 to 26 against Washington and Colorado.
Manager Bruce Bochy was plenty happy with the win, particularly coming off last night’s difficult loss:
Giants manager Bruce Bochy
“Any time you lose a game like we did last night, squander a six run lead, that’s frustrating. … If we had lost this one, this would have been a hard game to take with all the chances we had.”
Not to take any credit away from Petit’s outing. He went five-and-two-thirds innings Wednesday giving up three runs and six hits while striking out seven. Bochy said of his performance:
“You know, I thought he was good again. … They did some pretty good hitting over there. They found some holes, but it wasn’t like he was hit hard. Just missed a little bit today. … It’s hard to be as sharp as he was last game, but I thought he threw the ball well.”
Petit opened up the game with back-to-back three-pitch strikeouts to Charlie Blackmon and Josh Rutledge. He didn’t give up a hit until the fourth inning.
Gregor Blanco made one of his signature belly-slide catches out in center for the second out in the third. When asked post-game if he thought Blanco had a chance to make that catch, Bochy smiled and replied:
“The one he caught? No. I though it was a base hit. It seemed that he had the mentality of Petit’s last start. He was going to do all he could not to let them get a hit. He’s so good out there. … I’m going to be honest, I didn’t think he had a shot at it.”
Blanco then got the Giants’ offense fired up with a lead-off single in the bottom of the third. Hunter Pence hit a two-out single into right-center, advancing the speedy Blanco to second base.
The stage was set for Pablo Sandoval, whose bloop single brought Blanco home and put the G-men on the board, 1-0.
Colorado tied the game up 1-1 in the top of the fourth when Petit gave up a walk to Corey Dickerson, followed by back-to-back singles to Michael Cuddyer and Nolan Arenado.
Petit continued to unravel in the sixth inning as he gave up three singles and allowed Colorado to take a 3-1 lead.
The Giants closed the gap in the bottom of the seventh. Rockies reliever Chad Bettis gave up three consecutive walks, loading the bases for Hunter Pence.
Pence launched the ball into left center, and former Giant Charlie Culberson made the catch right at the outfield wall. But Juan Perez had plenty of time to score from third, making the score 3-2 in favor of Colorado.
Brandon Crawford lead off the eighth inning with a single before Angel Pagan followed it up with a single off the bench. Newbie Ehire Adrianza laid down a sac bunt to advance runners to second and third.
The Rockies thought they were playing it smart by having reliever Matt Belisle (L, 5-7, 4.63 ERA) intentionally walk a pinch-htting Buster Posey. But San Francisco made them pay, as Marco Scutaro knocked an RBI single into shallow right field to tie the game.
Brandon Belt came up next, sending a line drive into shallow left for an RBI single to give the Giants a 4-3 lead.
The Giants now hit the road to take on their biggest rival, the Dodgers, down in Los Angeles. First pitch is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Angel Pagan has now hit safely in 10 of 11 games since returning from the DL. He is batting .366 (15-for-41) with seven runs scored during that span. … Hunter Pence finished 10-for-25 (.400) with two homers and nine RBIs during this seven-game homestand. He is now batting .342 (67-for-196) since the All-Star break.
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