Giants knock D’backs out of 1st place
PHOENIX (TNS) – After announcing right-hander Johnny Cueto would undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery on the first of the month, the Giants thought they had nowhere to go but up in August. They were wrong. Hours before the Giants blasted the Diamondbacks 8-1, manager Bruce Bochy announced Pablo Sandoval will require surgery for a hamstring injury that will sideline him for the remainder of the year.
With the news of Cueto and Sandoval’s injuries in the rearview mirror, it was up to Madison Bumgarner to step on the gas pedal and lead the Giants past a club that began the day tied for the National League West lead. He obliged, and in a five-run eighth inning, the Giants’ offense slammed on that pedal.
In a battle of aces and a matchup of two of the more talented hitting pitchers in baseball, Bumgarner bested D’backs right-hander Zack Greinke, who earned National League Pitcher of the Month honors for his July efforts earlier in the day. Though Bumgarner has struggled through an
Bay Area News Group/tns The San Francisco Giants’ Alen Hanson slides safely into home during the eighth inning of Thursday’s 8-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix.
uncharacteristically quiet year at the plate, his goahead single against Greinke produced the sound the Giants were looking for. Bumgarner’s two-out fifth inning liner into left field brought home Austin Slater and pushed San Francisco ahead 2-1.
Bumgarner’s second hit of the year was also the last one the Giants recorded until the eighth inning, but they found a way to add on to their advantage in the seventh when Slater walked and later scored on a long Hunter Pence sacrifice fly
that extended the Giants lead to 3-1.
Though the Giants didn’t provide Bumgarner with any run support in his last outing, he didn’t have to wait long Thursday as third baseman Evan Longoria launched a firstinning curveball into the left field bleachers to push the Giants out in front.
Longoria barely tucked his 11th home run of the season inside the left field foul pole and by keeping the ball fair, he became just third player to homer off of Greinke in his last seven starts.
Bumgarner walked three hitters and allowed 10 baserunners Thursday, but Arizona left runners in scoring position in four of its first five innings and the Giants left-hander lowered his ERA to 2.97 by refusing to give in.
With the bases loaded and one out in the eighth inning, Bochy sent Alen Hanson to the plate to replace substitute Chase d’arnaud. With Ziegler on the mound, Hanson lined an RBI single into right field before Slater cleared the bases later in the inning with a single followed by an error from center fielder A.J. Pollock. Black completes rare feat By striking out a pair of hitters to open the bottom of the seventh Thursday, Giants reliever Ray Black finished off a “relief pitcher no-hitter.”
Since July 10, Black has now thrown 91/3 innings without allowing a hit and has only given up one in his major league career. Black struck out 13 batters in the nine innings he needed to achieve the feat and threw a 99-mile per hour fastball past Goldschmidt Thursday.
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