Belt proves more than the Angels can handle
Veteran hits fourth HR in as many games, and has a 21-pitch at-bat
ANAHEIM >> If patience is a virtue worth celebrating, then Sunday was the perfect time for Brandon Belt and the San Francisco Giants to have their moment in the sun.
With a record-setting at-bat, a solo home run on the ninth pitch of another plate appearance and a grand total of 40 pitches faced on Sunday, Belt paced the Giants to a 4-2 win on a day when pace of play was the least of the Giants’ concerns.
“I got some pitches that I could handle and I’m not missing them,” Belt said. “That’s the name of the game as well, when you get your pitch, don’t miss it.”
The Giants waited for their seventh series of the season to secure their first series win, and they would have happily stayed in Anaheim past sunset if meant capturing a victory. They ultimately needed 3 hours, 45 minutes to put the Angels away.
“It’s great to get a series,” Manager Bruce Bochy said. “You hate to wait this long to get one, but on the road against a club that has really been playing well this year.”
While Belt helped the Giants with his bat and glove, they turned to Major League Baseball’s ERA leader Johnny Cueto to shut down a tough Angels lineup.
Cueto entered the afternoon with a league-best 0.45 ERA and lowered it to 0.35 with six innings of shutout ball, highlighted by seven strikeouts in his second win of the season.
Though Cueto exited with a 4-0 lead, a two-run home run by Mike Trout off Cory Gearrin in the bottom of the eighth cut the Giants’ advantage in half, forcing Bruce
Bochy to turn to Tony Watson and Hunter Strickland for six outs in higher-leverage situations than the manager anticipated.
“He’s done it all season,” Strickland said of Watson. “That’s what we expect, he was a huge pickup for us this offseason.”
After Joe Panik’s single opened the game against Angels rookie right-hander Jaime Barria, Belt stepped into the box preparing for a battle. What ensued was a 21-pitch at-bat that featured 16 foul balls, including nine in a row with two strikes before Belt flied out to right fielder Kole Calhoun.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Bochy said. “That was really amazing what happened on both sides.”
Belt’s at-bat was the longest recorded by Major League Baseball since the stat was first tracked in 1988, breaking a record set by Ricky Gutierrez against Bartolo Colon on June 26, 1998.
“It’s pretty cool,” Belt said. “It’s not the record I would probably choose to break, but it’s not the worst, either. I’m just happy I just went up there and didn’t give the atbat away. I tried my hardest every single pitch.”
It was hardly the only time Belt forced his opponent to work.
Though Barria escaped a 49-pitch first inning without allowing a run, Belt singled off of him in an eight-pitch at-bat featuring four foul balls in the top of the third.
By the time Belt stepped to the plate in the top of the fifth, the Giants first baseman was locked in. There wasn’t anything left for reliever
Blake Parker to fool Belt with, so on the ninth pitch of his plate appearance, Belt slugged a 410-foot solo blast for his fourth home run in his last four games.
Belt became the first Giants player since Hunter Pence to homer in four straight games; Pence accomplished the feat between Sept. 12-15 in 2013. The first baseman kept his streak alive despite sitting out Friday’s game against the Angels on his 30th birthday.
Belt’s homer marked his fifth of the season, which pushed him ahead of third baseman Evan Longoria for the Giants’ team lead. Longoria tied Belt two innings earlier with a towering two-run shot to left-center field for his fourth of the year, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the Giants offense.
After the Giants loaded the bases against Barria in the top of the third, reliever Noe Ramirez induced a 6-4-3 double play off Buster Posey’s bat that allowed the first run of the game to score. With two outs and a runner on third, Ramirez could have escaped the inning by retiring the Giants’ No. 5 hitter.
Instead, Longoria smashed a 2-0 curveball over the fence and provided Cueto with some additional cushion.
Coming off a seven-inning scoreless stint against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday, Cueto continued the best month of his professional career with five no-hit innings to kick off his Sunday start.
Cueto’s 0.35 ERA is the lowest by a Giants pitcher through four starts in a season since Ray Sadecki posted a 0.25 ERA in his first four outings in 1968. Pitch 1: Pitch 2: Pitch 3: Pitch 4: Pitch 5: Pitch 6: Pitch 7: Pitch 8: Pitch 9: Pitch 10: Pitch 11: Pitch 12: Pitch 13: Pitch 14: Pitch 15: Pitch 16: Pitch 17: Pitch 18: Pitch 19: Pitch 20: Pitch 21: (fastball)