San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Posey comes to life in win
Threehit game part of team’s solid evening
As they reached the season’s halfway point Friday night, the Giants offered their fans a respite from relentless frustration: solid pitching, strong defense and a splash of longlost Buster Posey offense.
That added up to a 63 victory over visiting Arizona. Posey posted his first threehit game this season, Alex Dickerson launched a long home run and Shaun Anderson and four relievers smothered the Diamondbacks.
“We had good atbats throughout the lineup,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “Obviously, it’s good to see Buster get some big hits . ... And it’s good to see us put a few runs on the board and take pressure off the pitchers.”
So a lively crowd of 35,391 headed home happy, probably not contemplating the Giants’ record at the midpoint (3546). They’re on pace to absorb 92 losses this season, which would match the most defeats (279) over a threeyear stretch in franchise history.
Bochy acknowledged he knows more about his team than he did on Opening Day, but he really doesn’t want to believe what the numbers tell him. Friday night’s game gave him some muchneeded hope.
“The offense is not what I thought it would be,” Bochy said before the game. “I still think it’s going to be better. I know we’re better than what we’ve been in the first half offensively.
“The numbers show that — some guys are where they’ve never been, whether it’s power or slugging or onbase percentage. … The heart of our order, we haven’t done enough there. Those are the guys you count on.”
The Giants have scored 313 runs this season, more than only two other teams in the majors (Miami and Detroit). They rank last in batting average and nexttolast in OPS, ahead of only the Marlins.
So, in a twisted way, Bochy wants to focus on his team’s starting pitching in the second half.
“That’s what our strength needs to be, pitching to keep us in ballgames,” he said. “Not a knock on our offense, but we’re not a team that can get behind and try to slug it on a consistent basis.”
Anderson showed Friday night why he might count as San Francisco’s most encouraging firsthalf discovery. He has allowed more than three runs only once in his first nine majorleague starts, and he looked sharp against Arizona.
Anderson pitched assertively (one walk) and leaned on his defense. Joe Panik, Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Belt all made good plays on groundballs, and shortstop Brandon Crawford wandered into shallow left field to make a difficult, backtotheinfield catch of Ketel Marte’s fourthinning popup.
Giants hitters, so quiet on this week’s homestand — eight runs in four games before Friday night — showed plenty of life. Dickerson bounced a solo homer off the promenade and into McCovey Cove, staking Anderson to a 10 lead in the second inning.
Forgive the Diamondbacks if they’re tired of Dickerson. He collected nine RBIs against them last weekend, in his first two games in a Giants uniform.
Posey also contributed Friday night. His oppositefield flyball in the third originally was ruled a home run, before the Dbacks challenged the call and it was reversed on video review. Posey settled for an RBI double to stretch the lead to 20.
This ended his 0for16 stretch, though he remained homerless at Oracle Park this season. He added a runscoring single in the fifth (and another single in the seventh), marking his first game with two or more RBIs since May 5. Posey reached the season’s halfway point with 20 RBIs.
The Giants nursed a 42 lead entering the seventh, then added two more runs on Dickerson’s RBI single and a wild pitch. By then, Anderson had handed the game to his trusty bullpen; Reyes Moronta, Sam Dyson, Tony Watson and Will Smith (who gave up a ninthinning run) finished the job.