Suarez, Giants blank Phillies again
A’s comeback bid falls short in loss to Royals
SAN FRANCISCO (TNS) – The San Francisco Giants shut out the Philadelphia Phillies for the second straight night Saturday, winning 2-0 behind seven shutout innings from rookie left-hander Andrew Suarez and two relievers.
Andrew Mccutchen drove in a run in the sixth on a fielder’s choice and another in the eighth on a sacrifice fly as the Giants improved to 27-30. Both times, Mccutchen drove in Joe Panik, in his second game after returning from thumb surgery.
Suarez (2-4) was gone after seven innings, removed for pinch-hitter Alen Hanson with two out in the bottom of the inning. Tony Watson had 1-2-3 eighth inning and Hunter Strickland finished it off in the ninth as the Giants have won two of the first three games of the series without allowing a run against the same team that put up 32 runs against them in a four-game sweep earlier this month.
In his seven innings, Suarez gave up three hits and threw just 86 pitches, never throwing more than 15 in an inning or less than nine. He walked no one, struck out five and threw 59 strikes.
It was hardly a mighty blow, but Mccutchen’s infield chopper drove home Panik with the first run of the game in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Panik opened the inning with a double to center, advancing to third on Brandon Crawford’s ground ball out up the middle.
Bay Area News Group/tns San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Andrew Suarez threw seven shutout innings in Saturday night’s 2-0 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in San Francisco.
Mccutchen was next, and his slow chopper was fielded by a charging Scott Kingery, who threw to the plate. Panik made a perfect slide to the outside of the plate and was ruled safe by home plate umpire Jerry Meals.
On replay, it was ruled Panik was indeed safe, and Mccutchen had driven in a run on a fielders choice.
In the eighth, Panik opened with an infield single, moved to third on Brandon Crawford’s single and scored on Mccutchen’s fly to medium deep center.
Mccutchen saved a run in the bottom of the third inning when he ran down a deep drive into triples alley in right center by Cesar Hernandez with Jorge Alfaro on third.
Alfaro hit a one-out triple for the Phillies’ first hit off Suarez and remained there when pitcher Vince Velasquez hit a slow roller to third base for the second out.
Royals 5, A’s 4 KANSAS CITY – The A’s climbed out of an early hole to come back and tie the game, but a rare mistake from one of their top relievers ended up the toughest blow.
Yusmeiro Petit, who has been one of the A’s more reliable relievers, surrendered a go-ahead solo home run to Jorge Soler in the eighth, which proved to be the differencemaker in a loss to the Royals.
Trevor Cahill appeared ticketed for a short outing after allowing four runs through his first two innings of work, even causing manager Bob Melvin to get Danny Coulombe to start warming up in the bullpen after allowing two runs in the second.
But the right-hander seemed to settle in after the shaky start.
Though he did not complete five innings for the first time this season and allowed a season-high four runs on seven hits and two walks with six strikeouts over just 42/3 innings, Cahill kept the A’s in the game and enabled them to chip away at the early four-run deficit.
Catcher Bruce Maxwell mashed his first home run of the season, a solo shot to center field in the seventh that cut the deficit to 4-3, finishing with a nice 2 for 3 day with two RBIS after entering the day on a 1 for 16 slump at the plate.