Giants win fifth series in a row, pop in clutch
Bochy’s boys 9 for 15 with runners in scoring position in romp
ATLANTA >> During the first two weeks of the regular season, the Giants’ at-bats with runners in scoring position appeared as challenging as crushing a moving piñata with a blindflold on.
That blindfold has been now ripped off and that piñata has been smashed into pieces. The Giants left no doubt with a 11-2 win over the Braves on Saturday, as they’re celebrating their fifth straight series victory and reaping the rewards of hitting the target over and over again.
For the first time since May 15-17, 2015, the Giants pushed across at least nine runs in three straight games as they scored in four straight innings to open up a 10-2 lead by the bottom of the fifth.
After starting the season 8 for 67 with runners in scoring position, the Giants went 9 for 15 with runners in scoring position on Saturday as Alen Hanson, Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford all finished with multiple RBIs.
“We’ve had our tough go with the offense,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “But I just kept saying, ‘We’re going to come out of this.’ It’s good to have a lot of guys swinging the bats well.”
Crawford, Posey and Andrew McCutchen all finished with three hits while center fielder Gorkys Hernandez led the Giants’ offense with four. The 11 runs San Francisco scored set a new season-high as the Giants picked up their sixth win in their last seven games.
“We knew we had the team to be able to put up runs,” McCutchen said. “That’s what our team is built around. We all are swinging the bat well and I think we can consistently do this.”
Hanson, a fill-in for injured second baseman Joe Panik, smoked a two-run double off McCarthy in the top of the second that scored Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford to open the scoring for the Giants. In the third inning, a Belt RBI single drove in Andrew McCutchen before Evan Longoria picked up two more RBIs with his 1,500th career hit.
Longoria blooped a double in front of Braves right fielder Nick Markakis to pad the Giants lead, but San Francisco didn’t stop there.
With two outs, Hanson stepped up and yanked an 0-1 cutter from McCarthy into the right field seats to push the Giants ahead 7-2. Hanson’s four RBIs in the first three innings set his single-game career-high of three, which he posted in his first game with the Giants thanks to a three-run home run he crushed in an April 28 loss to the Dodgers.
“It’s a swing that works and he does a good job with two strikes, which he did,” Bochy said.
The Giants signed Hanson as a minor league free agent this offseason, and he arrived in spring training with an opportunity to compete with Kelby Tomlinson, Orlando Calixte and other free-agent infielders Chase d’Arnaud, Andres Blanco and Josh Rutledge for a spot as a reserve infielder.
Hanson didn’t last long in the competition as the Giants optioned him to minor league camp on March 12, but he surpassed Calixte, d’Arnaud and Rutledge on the depth chart with a torrid start to the year with Triple-A Sacramento.
“It was a competition and competition makes you do better things,” Hanson said. “I was optioned down early, but I went down to the Minor Leagues and I went ahead and did what I needed to do.”
When Panik suffered a torn UCL in his left thumb Friday, the Giants called up Hanson who was leading the Pacific Coast League in batting average. He’s filled in admirably during his first week with the club and also recorded two putouts on softly hit grounders he needed to charge Saturday.
All the offense provided left-hander Ty Blach with the confidence to attack a Braves lineup that led the National League in runs entering the weekend.
“They’re an aggressive team so I just knew if I made some quality pitches early in the count, I could try to get some early contact and try to get the guys back in the dugout and keep the momentum on their side,” Blach said.
Blach allowed Freeman’s run-scoring groundout in the first and an unearned run in the third, but set a new season-high with 7 2/3 innings pitched.
With rookie lefty Andrew Suárez slated to throw today, the Giants should have nearly every reliever available except for right-hander Reyes Moronta.
Moronta left Saturday’s game after throwing eight straight balls in the top of the ninth inning and exited the game with back tightness. Pierce Johnson finished off the game for the Giants and Moronta is dayto-day.