Hamstring injury costs Sandoval rest of season
PHOENIX » 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 on Thursday, manager Bruce Bochy announced Pablo Sandoval’s hamstring injury was more severe than the club anticipated. Sandoval tore his right hamstring Sunday and like Cueto, will require surgery 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.
“You can’t dwell onwhat’s happened, those are tough losses,” Bochy said. “You hear me say it so many times, it’s all about focusing forward and there are some guys who are going to get great
opportunities to show what they can do." In a battle of aces and a matchup of two of the more talented hitting pitch-ers in baseball, Bumgar-ner bested Diamondbacks right-hander Zack Gre-inke, who was named Na-tional League Pitcher of the Month for his July efforts earlier in the day. Though Bumgarner has struggled through an un-characteristically quiet year at the plate, his go-ahead single against Gm-inke produced the sound the Giants were looking for. Bumgamer's two-out, fifth inning liner into left field brought home Austin Slater and pushed San Francisco ahead 2-1. With Sandoval out for the year and Brandon Belt sidelined for the next eight-to-I0 days with a hyperex-tended knee, Slater fig-ures to receive the major-ity of the playing time at first base. The rookie has provided plenty of energy and did so again Thurs-day, producing hits, scor-ing three runs and driving in two more. "I look forward to the opportunity and the chal-lenge," Slater said. "I might not have the experience, but Pm trying to pick up on the little things as quickly as possible." Though the Giants didn't provide Bumgarner with any run support in his pre-vious outing, he didn't have to wait long Thursday. Third baseman Evan Longoria launched a first-inning 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. The Giants third base-man put a run on the board with his bat in the top of the inning before taking runs away from the Dia-mondbacks in the bottom of the frame. With the bases loaded and one out, Longoria fully extended with a dive to nab a one-out line drive by Ste-ven Souza that could have altered the course of the game. Though the D'backs ral-lied to tie the score after Ketel Marte led off the sec-ond inning with a leadoff walk, Bumgarner worked his way out of another diffi-cult situation and stranded a pair of runners by induc-ing a Paul Goldschmidt groundout to preserve the tie. An Eduardo Escobar sac-rifice fly and 30 foul balls on 101 Bumgarner pitches was all the Diamondbacks had to show for their ef-forts, as the Giants ace la-bored through five chal-lenging innings. "My back was kind of against the wall the whole time I'm out there," Bumgarner said. "Obvi-ously that's not the way I'd like to draw it up. I'd like to be in there a lot longer than five innings." Bumgarner walked three hitters and allowed 10 bas-erunners Thursday, but Ar-izona left runners in scor-ing position in four of its first five innings and the Giants left-hander lowered his ERA to 2.97 by refusing to give in. "What a great job he did to hold them at bay," Bochy said. "One run, he had men on base it seemed like every inning. He found a way to get out of it and that's what makes him good. He's such a competitor. He didn't give in." • By striking out a pair of hitters to open the bot-tom of the seventh Thurs-day, Giants reliever Ray Black finished off a "relief pitcher no-hitter! Since July 10, Black has now pitched 9 1/3 innings without allowing a hit and has only given up one in his major league career. Black struck out 13 bat-ters in the nine innings he needed to achieve the feat and threw a 99-mile per hour fastball past Arizona slugger Paul Goldschmidt Thursday. "He's a great hitter and a guy like that, you've got to give credit to," Black said. "But when you're out there competing, you have to trust in your own stuff."