SF Giants sweep Rockies, extend win streak to five games
SAN FRANCISCO — Alex Cobb’s precision pitching, Joey Bart’s clutch hitting and Brandon Crawford’s third home run of the season paced the Giants to a 7-1 win Wednesday that secured a series sweep of the Colorado Rockies.
A sun-splashed crowd of 23,341 watched the Giants notch their first series sweep this season, via their 10th straight win against the Rockies, dating to last
August.
It also extended the Giants’ win streak to five after losing their previous five. Next up is a Thursday flight to St. Louis, where they’ll play Friday through Sunday before a three-game series in Colorado.
Cobb and previously unbeaten Rockies starter Chad Kuhl kept things scoreless through three innings before the Giants broke through offensively.
That shouldn’t have been too surprising. The Giants outscored the Rockies 24-8 over the threegame set.
It was Bart’s RBI single that highlighted a three-run, goahead rally in the fourth inning. His clutch hit came on an 0-2 pitch, and it came an inning after he struck out 33rd time in 58 atbats this season.
Crawford’s third home run of the season (385 feet) extended the Giants’ lead to 5-0, and it chased previously unbeaten starter Chad Kuhl.
One more offensive highlight: Joc Pederson theatrically ended an 0-for-22 skid in the sixth, dribbling a 52-mph single that hugged the first-base line all the way to the bag, which Pederson crossed with his arms raised in celebration and relief.
Cobb’s second win came the same day his former Tampa Bay teammate Evan Longoria made his long-awaited season debut. Longoria, coming off finger surgery on March 28, struck out three times in his first four at
bats before reaching on an error in the eighth.
COBB’S HOT START Cobb (2-1) opened with five scoreless innings before getting pulled in the sixth, after 85 pitches (61 strikes) with just three hits and two walks.
He retired 10 consecutive batters after yielding a single to leadoff batter Connor Joe to open the game. Cobb issued a twoout walk to Blackmon and then struck out C.J. Cron with a 93-mph sinker to
keep the shutout bid intact through four innings.
With runners at the corners, Jose Alvarez relieved Cobb and failed to cleanly field Charlie Blackmon’s slow comebacker, allowing Dom Nunez to score and cut the Giants’ lead to 5-1.
This start was a far cry from Cobb’s outing 10 days earlier, when he got pulled only two outs into the first inning here, after falling into a 5-0 hole in an eventual 11-5 loss to Washington. He drew a no-decision in his ensuing start last Friday, allowing two runs in five innings in
an eventual 3-2 defeat to St. Louis, which is where the 49ers next open a three-game series Friday after an off-day Thursday.
Kuhl, who entered 3-0, threw three scoreless innings before the Giants rallied in the fourth for a 3-0 lead.
BART SHOWS UP ON TIME
The Giants’ most encouraging at-bat of that rally came from Bart, who delivered an RBI single up the middle for a 2-0 lead. Facing an 0-2 count and his second strikeout of the day, Bart singled up the
middle to drive in Thairo Estrada.
Bart’s second strikeout of the day would come in his next at-bat. He got hit by a pitch to help stoke the eighth-inning rally.
Bart came through with a defensive gem, too. He threw out Garrett Hampson attempting a delayed steal to end the Rockies’ seventh-inning chances.
NOTES
— Mike Yastrzemski broke the scoreless stalemate by sliding in safely on Crawford’s grounder to first with no
outs. Yastrzemski led off with a single, took second on an errant pickoff attempt, then scooted to third on Thairo Estrada’s single to center. Crawford came home on a Brandon Belt flyout for the 3-0 lead.
— After his infield single, Pederson drew a basesloaded walk in the eighth, on a 10-pitch at-bat that began in an 0-2 hole. Pederson had opened 0-for-3 with to extend his slump to 0-for-22 (0-formay) since an adductor strain kept him out three games.
— Relievers Alvarez,
John Brebbia, Tyler Rogers
and Jarlin Garcia did not allow a run in relief of Cobb. Rogers pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning, then Garcia did the same in the ninth, striking out Ryan Mcmahon to end the game.
— After pummeling their way to 8-5 and 9-2 wins the previous two games against Colorado, the Giants struggled to produce runs in Wednesday’s initial innings. They stranded two runners in the first inning and again in the third, that latter rally spoiled by strikeouts from Longoria and Pederson.