Giants overcome Phillies
PHILADELPHIA: Madison Bumgarner struck out 11, overcoming a grand slam by Jeff Francoeur to pitch the San Francisco Giants past the Philadelphia Phillies 7-5 in Major League Baseball on Saturday.
Bumgarner (7-2) gave up the slam and a solo homer by Andres Blanco. The reigning World Series MVP gave up six hits and walked none in eight innings.
Bumgarner hit two singles and drove in a run as the defending World Series champions Giants posted their fifth straight road win.
Nori Aoki got three hits and drove in two runs. He raised his major league-leading road batting average to .407.
Santiago Casilla pitched a scoreless ninth for his 17th save in 19 chances.
Severino Gonzalez (2-2) gave up six runs in two 2-3 innings as the slumping Phillies lost their 10th game in 12.
Angel Pagan’s RBI single and Brandon Belt’s sacrifice fly made it 2-0 in the first. The Giants scored four more in the third to go in front 6-0.
The Phillies got four runs back in the fourth. Bumgarner had been cruising along, allowing one single, before he sandwiched a pair of singles around a hit batter to load the bases with no outs. After Darin Ruf struck out, Francoeur drove a 1-0 pitch into the seats in left field for his second career grand slam.
Clayton Kershaw allowed one hit and struck out 11 in eight innings against his October nemesis, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St Louis Cardinals 2-0 with a big swing from Yasiel Puig in his return from the disabled list.
Puig broke a scoreless tie in the seventh with an RBI double after missing the previous 39 games because of a strained left hamstring.
Kershaw lost to St Louis in the finale of the 2013 NL Championship Series and the final game of the 2014 Division Series.
Jose Reyes stole three bases and got two hits as the Toronto Blue Jays won their season-high fourth in a row, beating Houston 7-2 and handing the Astros their third straight loss.
Reyes scored a run, drove in one and also walked.
Yonder Alonso’s second career grand slam pulled the Padres even in the seventh inning, and Matt Kemp singled with the bases loaded in the eighth, completing San Diego’s biggest comeback of the season for a 9-7 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
Elsewhere, Hanley Ramirez hit a tworun homer and the Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 4-2 and David Price struck out 11 in a five-hitter, Miguel Cabrera homered the Detroit Tigers ended an eightgame losing streak, beating the Chicago White Sox 7-1.
Christian Bethancourt hit Vance Worley’s first pitch in the ninth inning over the right-field wall for his first career homer, lifting the Atlanta Braves to a 5-4 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, while the Texas Rangers defeated the Kansas City Royals 4-2 for their seventh win in eight games.
Also on Saturday, the Chicago Cubs beat the Washington Nationals 4-2, the New York Yankees topped the LA Angels 8-2 and the Milwaukee Brewers downed the Minnesota Twins 4-2.