Giants have blast a game after being shut out
PITTSBURGH — Brandon Crawford sprayed a foul ball over the Pirates dugout. He dribbled another off the end of his bat. He hugged the wrong side of the first baseline. He got a piece of something down and in.
His plate appearance with the bases loaded in the fourth inning of the Giants’ 15-4 victory Tuesday night was neither as damaging nor as memorable as the coffin-lidded grand slam he hit here in the 2014 N.L. wild card game.
But the 11-pitch walk he drew amounted to a monthlong siege, as much as it weakened Pirates pitcher Wilfredo Boscan. Angel Pagan served the very next pitch over the center field fence for his second career grand slam, interim third baseman
Conor Gillaspie matched career highs with four hits and four RBIs, and the Giants broke the levee for a season-high 22 hits one day after a 1-0 loss.
“Crawford, that was a game changer,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “I’m pretty sure that took something out of him, and it just got contagious after that.”
Their seven-run fourth was more than enough for Johnny Cueto, who joined the Cubs’ Jake Arrieta, the White Sox’s Chris Sale and the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw as the fourth 11-game winner in the majors.
Cueto (11-1) took a shutout into the seventh inning and continued his mastery over the Pirates, against whom he is 19-4 with a 2.10 ERA over his career. The Pirates have not defeated him in 12 tries over the past three years.
Yet when it comes to the Pirates, Cueto’s first thought is a negative: the loss he took for the Reds in the 2013 N.L. wild-card game, when PNC Park fans mockingly sang his name.
“After I lost the wild card game against them, I told myself I wanted to concentrate and win as many against them as I can,” Cueto said through interpreter Erwin Higueros.
Why weren’t they singing his name Tuesday night?
“I guess they were not calling my name because they know I always win against them,” Cueto said, smiling.
Beating Cueto is not the easiest task these days, regardless of the opponent. The Giants are 13-2 in his starts this season. He joined Gaylord Perry (in 1966) as the only pitchers in the Giants’ San Francisco era to win 11 of 12 decisions to start in a season.
He was, as Bochy put it, “amped up tonight like I’ve never seen him. Johnny was ready to go.”
“I’ve always been like that,” Cueto said. “I’m just getting more comfortable with my teammates and so I’m trying to get them riled up for the game.”
The Giants (45-27) hadn’t scored in 12 innings in the series at PNC Park before they batted around without making an out in the fourth.
Crawford fouled off five pitches with two strikes before walking to drive in the game’s first run. Pagan, perhaps sensing a tiring opponent, took a hungry swing at the first pitch. It was the second grand slam of his career; he hit the other one in a Mets uniform in 2009.
“I figured he’d go to the front-door sinker,” said Pagan, “and he got in my trap.”
Gregor Blanco, who reached base in all five plate appearances, drew a walk and Gillaspie drilled a pitch to the last row of the right field seats that back up to the Allegheny River — nearly an ultrarare road splash hit.
“Honestly, I was shocked I hit the ball that hard,” said Gillaspie, who entered with a .159 average in 44 sporadic at-bats. “It’s been so long.”
Gillaspie rapped three more singles on the night, twice knocking in runs, in what amounted to an impressive debut as the Giants’ third baseman. Before the game, Bochy said Gillaspie would get the bulk of time at the position while Matt Duffy is on the disabled list with a strained Achilles tendon.
Duffy is expected to need at least three weeks of rest followed by a strengthening program, which means he’ll be out until after the All-Star break.
The Pirates tried to n enliven the end of a blowout game, sending Kratz, their backup catcher, to the mound in the ninth — the first time a position player pitched against the Giants since Arizona’s Steve Finley in 2001.
The Giants recalled n right-handed hitting outfielder Mac Williamson from Triple-A Sacramento to take Duffy’s roster spot.
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