Andrew Pentis MLB.com Giants fans were spoiled for the first nine games of their team's final 10 before the All-Star break. They saw Ryan Sadowski's home debut, two more gems from Tim Lincecum and Jonathan Sanchez's no-hitter, and their team won seven times.
That explains why many of the 41,913 at China Basin let Barry Zito have it Sunday, three batters into his 4 1/3-inning start. The third of those Padres to reach base rounded it and kept going, but Kevin Kouzmanoff's three-run home run was just the beginning. San Diego extended its lead to six after former Giant Eliezer Alfonzo also went deep in San Francisco's 10-4 loss.
Zito and his catcher said he missed location on the changeup geared to Kouzmanoff but credited Alfonzo for turning on a first-pitch fastball.
"With great hitters, they don't miss those ones," Bengie Molina said.
Zito (5-9) did not pitch past the sixth inning in six of his last eight starts despite coming off his finest, an 8 1/3-inning performance Tuesday against the Florida Marlins. Asked about his yo-yo-like first half, which he ended with a 5.01 ERA, he used one word, then, in pure Zito fashion, added a few more.
"Inconsistent," he said. "Had some good games. Had some bad games. The goal is consistency."
"It is what it is. I'm not going to keep reliving the past."
The Padres scored four total runs in their three series-opening losses to the Giants this week against Lincecum, Sanchez and Matt Cain -- who were a large part of the starters' 1.47 ERA during the homestand entering Sunday -- before collecting a season-high 10 against Zito.
Manager Bruce Bochy called it an off-day for the lefty, his No. 2 starting pitcher after the four-day break. The skipper kept his postgame comments short, and everyone from his players to his coaches on down to the bat boys were already packing their bags for various places minutes after Sunday's game. But with their first-half success, they may not want to venture too far.
With the loss, the Giants missed grabbing victory No. 50 before the layoff. They did, however, get to 49 at their fastest rate in five years.
"Obviously you want to win for Zito, you want to win for the team and finish strong," said Molina, often the clubhouse's voice of reason. "But now that we lost ... the only thing to do right now is focus on we had a great homestand."
Zito's start ended it. The lefty's final batter, Chase Headley, drove in San Diego's seventh run with a single in the fifth, leaving plenty of work for the bullpen, the day after it logged 7 1/3 innings in Cain's injury-shortened start. Brandon Medders walked a batter and allowed a two-run single, adding on to Zito's finishing line: nine earned runs on 10 hits.
The crowd at AT&T Park got positive after John Bowker hit a solo home run in the fifth against another former Giant, Kevin Correia. Following Edgar Renteria's two-out RBI single in the sixth, Bowker plated his team's third run with a bloop single to center field, kicking Correia (6-7) from the game after 5 2/3 innings.
Bowker, who provided two of few final-game bright spots by notching his first two Major League hits of the season since being recalled Thursday, said he was "anxious" early in his return. Facing big league pitching can do that to a hitter.
"They make those adjustments on you pretty quick," he said. "I got one good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it."
Bowker, alongside in-game additions Kevin Frandsen (single) and Fred Lewis (RBI double), represented a bottom-of-the-order contingent taking good swings into the break. Before leaving for his brief vacation to Lake Tahoe, Bochy remarked how much of a challenge it would be to get them all in the lineup.
Sandoval homers; bullpen stands tall after All-Star leaves
Andrew Pentis MLB.com After Giants starting pitchers took no-hitters into the seventh inning on back-to-back nights, Matt Cain's bid lasted two batters. He faced only nine, in fact, before leaving in the second inning of San Francisco's 2-1 win over the San Diego Padres Saturday at China Basin.
The Padres' second batter of the game, Tony Gwynn, was the first of four batters to reach via hit. The fourth was the most impactful: With two outs recorded in the second, Padres pitcher Tim Stauffer smacked Cain's 35th pitch of the game up the middle, hitting Cain in the right elbow. The sequence likely will cost Cain an appearance in his first All-Star Game.
Cain suffered a contusion -- X-rays were negative and ruled out a fracture -- as the ball hit him just below his throwing elbow, leaving him numb until a half-hour after he left the game. The 38,112 in attendance needed equal time for recovery after the 10-game winner's shortest career start.
Manager Bruce Bochy, joined by pitching coach Dave Righetti and trainer Dave Groeschner, immediately huddled with the right-hander behind the mound after the play. Bochy had already made the decision to lift Cain before his one practice pitch sailed over the head of catcher Eli Whiteside and hit the net behind home plate.
"I was letting him fight out there a little bit," Bochy said. "That's a pretty good shot he took. ... There was no question he was coming out."
Minutes after Bochy told reporters Cain was "doubtful" to pitch in Tuesday's Midsummer Classic, the pitcher used the antonym, while admitting the necessity of caution.
"It's probable," said Cain, who will attend the festivities in St. Louis even if he's unable to pitch. "I'm going to try to stay more hopeful than 'doubtful.' It'd be great to go and throw [Tuesday], but for the situation we're in here, playing ball real well, it'd be better to take that time and get it right."
The uncertainty accompanying Cain's injury was all that dampened the Giants' series-clinching win against the Padres, which pushed their record (49-38) a season-high 11 games above .500.
Cain's counterpart, Stauffer (0-1), retired the first 10 batters he faced but found trouble in the fourth against Pablo Sandoval. The Giants' No. 3 hitter homered on a first-pitch fastball for the second time in two nights (his 15th this season), driving in Randy Winn for San Francisco's 2-0 advantage.
The Giants led off the sixth with two hits (Fred Lewis' pinch-hit single and Aaron Rowand's double), but Stauffer intentionally walked Sandoval and retired the next two hitters to end the threat.
Bochy said opponents will likely be deterred from voluntarily issuing a free pass to Sandoval when cleanup hitter Bengie Molina returns to the lineup; Molina missed his second straight game attending to his wife, who gave birth to the couple's child before Saturday's game.
Stauffer was gone when San Francisco loaded the bases in the eighth on three straight singles from Winn, Sandoval and Travis Ishikawa but came away with no insurance runs. The Giants didn't require them, anyway, because the Padres' lineup collected just three hits in 7 1/3 innings against Giants relievers, compared with four against Cain.
"We hit Cain pretty good at the beginning, but when he left, it became a little tougher because our game plan was for Cain, and he throws a lot of fastballs," said San Diego's Edgar Gonzalez, who went 1-for-4. "They brought in the other guy, and he was throwing a lot of off-speed pitches. I don't think that we made good adjustments."
Bochy called on five of his seven relief pitchers, bookended by righties Justin Miller and Brian Wilson. That "other guy" was Miller (2-1), who logged 3 1/3 scoreless innings after Cain's exit. He lowered his ERA to 1.98 and leads the bullpen in frames pitched, with 41.
"The starting staff has taken innings away from us all year in a very positive way, so anytime we can go out there and try to perform and pick up the team," Miller said.
Everth Cabrera manufactured the Padres' lone run against Sergio Romo and Jeremy Affeldt in the eighth. Cabrera doubled, stole third base and scampered home on Whiteside's throwing error. Wilson entered the game with the potential game-tying run on first base and got a four-out save, his 23rd this season, by whiffing three.
"You don't win a game like that unless your bullpen comes through for you," Bochy said. "You lose one of your horses in the second inning, that's a big blow for your club. You need your bullpen to step it up, and they all did."
BATTING 2B: Gonzalez, Ed (6, Cain), Cabrera, E (4, Romo). TB: Cabrera, E 2; Gwynn; Gonzalez, A; Headley; Venable; Gonzalez, Ed 2; Stauffer. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Headley; Cabrera, E. GIDP: Gonzalez, Ed. Team RISP: 1-for-5. Team LOB: 6.
BASERUNNING SB: Cabrera, E (7, 3rd base off Affeldt/Whiteside).
BATTING 2B: Rowand (23, Stauffer). HR: Sandoval, P (15, 4th inning off Stauffer, 1 on, 1 out). TB: Rowand 2; Winn 2; Sandoval, P 5; Ishikawa; Lewis, F. RBI: Sandoval, P 2 (55). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Renteria 4. Team RISP: 1-for-5. Team LOB: 6.
In return to rotation, Sanchez throws first Giants gem since 1976
Henry Schulman SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle As long as bats and balls connect on warm summer evenings, baseball never will cease to amaze.
The Giants' 33-year no-hitter drought ended at China Basin on Friday night, and the pitcher who threw the nine innings of brilliance was not a Cy Young Award winner, nor a 300-game winner, nor a pitcher with a nine-figure contract. It was a pitcher so bad this year he was banished to the bullpen last month, a man who had not thrown a complete game in 50 big-league starts.
It was Jonathan Sanchez, a 26-year-old left-hander who until this night was the personification of pitching promise unfulfilled. Now, his name is etched forever on the list of this franchise's great achievements.
In an 8-0 victory, with his father watching him start a major-league game for the first time, Sanchez no-hit the San Diego Padres and nearly had a perfect game. The only baserunner was Chase Headley, who reached on an error by third baseman Juan Uribe with one out in the eighth inning.
It was the first no-hitter by a Giant since John Montefusco's in Atlanta on Sept. 29, 1976, the first ever at China Basin, the 17th in franchise history and the first in the majors since the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano no-hit Houston last season.
And across America today, people will look at a staff that features Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Randy Johnson and say, Jonathan Sanchez?
"If you look at this staff he wouldn't be the one you'd pick," said manager Bruce Bochy, who has been like a ping-pong master bouncing Sanchez between the rotation and bullpen over the last three seasons, hoping his pitcher could find it.
Sanchez had not started a game since June 22 nor won since May 25. He was 2-8 with a 5.30 ERA this season and started Friday only because Johnson, whose turn he took, injured his shoulder Sunday.
"We had a toast in the clubhouse after the game, and Sanchy said, 'I don't want to go to the 'pen after this start,' " Bochy said.
Afterward, Sanchez expressed his greatest satisfaction that he got to share this moment with his father Sigfredo, who flew in from Puerto Rico to watch this game after Jonathan's brother suggested he go.
"I'm so proud that he was here with me," Sanchez said.
Sigfredo Sanchez was more nervous than his son, saying, "I bit my fingernails and was having a heart attack. I'm very proud."
Sanchez walked none and struck out a career-high 11, including Everth Cabrera to end the game. Sanchez retired the first 22 Padres before Uribe muffed Headley's eight-inning chopper and could not pick up the ball. Uribe had started the game at second base and moved to third an inning earlier when Pablo Sandoval left with back pain.
Sanchez said the error did not rattle him at all.
"That's part of the game," he said. "I just had to go keep pitching and forget about that."
He did, retiring the final two Padres in the eighth. A crowd of 30,298 stood for the entire ninth inning and truly started to believe when Sanchez retired the first hitter, Luis Rodriguez, on a grounder to Edgar Renteria at short. Then came the biggest test, a long drive to center by Edgar Gonzalez.
Aaron Rowand saved the no-no when he banged against the wall to catch the ball near the top.
"I was going to go over and land on the other side of the fence if I had to make a catch," Rowand said. "Fortunately, I didn't have to."
Sanchez pointed toward Rowand in appreciation. Rowand pointed back.
The place was in pandemonium when Cabrera hit a foul ball for strike two. Sanchez then finished the no-hitter with a curveball that Cabrera took for strike three.
Typifying the confidence Sanchez displayed all night, he said, "I knew I was going to get it when I got to (2-2). I threw the pitch and I got it."
Sanchez did not leap or scream. He merely raised his hands in joy and embraced catcher Eli Whiteside, who caught the game only because Bengie Molina had to rush to the hospital with his wife in labor.
The rest of the Giants then mobbed Sanchez along the first-base line.
"It was f- amazing," Lincecum said. "If you can print that, print it, because that's what it was. He showed a lot of character, especially with all the movement he's made."
Granted, the 51-loss Padres are not the gold standard of offense on which to judge a pitcher, but that is beside the point.
Sanchez was in complete control, staying on top of his pitches so they would not rise dangerously into the zone. He threw 28 strikes before his 10th ball and used his breaking pitches effectively, which the staff had been begging him to do.
The Padres also have some good hitters, including Adrian Gonzalez, an All-Star who has 24 home runs. When Sanchez struck out two to start the fifth inning, Gonzalez was his first victim. Sanchez also struck out two in the sixth inning and the side in the seventh.
Offense was not a concern for the Giants.
Rowand hit a two-run single to cap a four-run second inning and Sandoval, apparently seeing NL All-Star manager Charlie Manuel's face on every baseball, walloped a tape-measure homer with two aboard in the fifth inning to chase starter Josh Banks.
SF Giants no-hitters
No-hitters in San Francisco Giants franchise history (since 1958):
Giants ace loses no-no, scoreless-inning streak in seventh
Chris Haft MLB.com Tim Lincecum said that he never began considering the possibility of throwing a no-hitter Thursday night.
"I didn't think I had very good command of my fastball today, which kind of made things erratic," Lincecum said.
Picky, picky.
Lincecum was in the vast minority in that regard at AT&T Park, where the right-hander stymied the San Diego Padres until Tony Gwynn's single to christen the seventh inning ended the no-hit bid. Lincecum unraveled afterward and didn't even finish the inning, but the Giants prevailed, 9-3.
John "The Count" Montefusco's distinction of being the last Giant to throw a no-hitter (Sept. 29, 1976, at Atlanta) remained safe -- at least until Lincecum's next outing. Everybody who watched Lincecum in his final assignment before Tuesday's All-Star Game -- which he just might start -- probably went home feeling more convinced that he'll someday match Montefusco.
"With the stuff he has, it could happen anytime," Giants catcher Bengie Molina said.
Lincecum still helped himself to nice servings of history. He extended his scoreless-innings streak to 29, third-best since the Giants moved west in 1958, before yielding all of San Diego's runs. Gaylord Perry owns the two longest streaks, 40 in 1967 and 39 in '70.
By winning his fourth consecutive start and sixth in his past seven, Lincecum (10-2) joined Matt Cain (10-2) to form the first pair of Giants pitchers with double-digit win totals before the All-Star break since John Burkett and Bill Swift in 1993.
Lincecum thus can depart for St. Louis and the Midsummer Classic feeling satisfied.
"Looking at the big picture, I made some big improvements," the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner said. "I kept my walks down a lot more than I used to. I was able to go deeper into games. I try to take the positives away and there were a lot of them that I could grasp."
Meanwhile, a no-hitter again eluded Lincecum, who maintained a perfect game for 4 2/3 innings two starts ago at St. Louis. But he looked primed to close the deal against the Padres, whom he had dominated in most of 10 previous starts (1.43 ERA). Through six innings, Lincecum struck out eight, faced one batter above the minimum and allowed two balls to be hit out of the infield.
Then Gwynn connected with a 1-2 fastball, stroking it out of left fielder John Bowker's reach. Molina explained that Lincecum wanted to jam Gwynn, but the pitch veered outside.
"He missed his spot, but it was still a good pitch," Molina said.
The crowd, which roared for Lincecum after he struck out the side in the sixth inning and when he batted in the Giants' half, serenaded him with another brief ovation.
One pitch before singling, Gwynn hit a foul tip that Molina couldn't grab. To do so would have been virtually impossible.
"You can't control those things," Molina said. "Sometimes you catch it, sometimes you don't. You're trying to catch the ball; you're not trying to catch a foul tip."
Gwynn sounded happy just to make contact against Lincecum.
"He can locate all three pitches anywhere. And he rarely ever, ever misses up with his changeups," Gwynn said. "If he misses with his location, he's usually OK, because the ball is down. It might as well be a split-finger. The ball just dives. If you've got command of all three pitches and you throw 95 [mph], it makes it a lot more difficult on the hitters."
Lincecum insisted that Gwynn's hit didn't leave him crestfallen.
"After I gave up that first hit, it was like it came in the first inning or the third inning," Lincecum said.
But the Padres, who trailed, 6-0, when the seventh inning began, sustained a serious enough rally to chase Lincecum and bring the potential go-ahead run to the plate before Sergio Romo, who issued a bases-loaded walk upon entering the game, retired Evereth Cabrera on a comebacker to end the threat.
The Giants amassed three homers, an occurrence for them almost as rare as a no-hitter. Molina belted a two-run homer off Padres starter Matt Geer (1-4) in the first inning before Travis Ishikawa and Juan Uribe combined for San Francisco's first back-to-back homers of the season in the fifth. Pablo Sandoval, who finished a close second in the 2009 All-Star Game Sprint Final Vote, contributed a two-run double in the fifth.
Uribe, Randy Winn and Nate Schierholtz added eighth-inning RBI singles to seal the Giants' third victory in nine games against San Diego.
From the sounds of his postgame comments Wednesday afternoon, Ryan Sadowski just as easily could have been talking about continuing his scoreless-innings streak as talking about his first major-league loss.
This time, reality was the latter, in the form of a 7-0 loss during which the Giants really didn't contest Florida on a brilliantly sunny day at AT&T Park.
"I could have let it fall apart at a lot of different spots, but I didn't," Sadowski said. "... I competed well and stuck to my strengths."
Those positives weren't enough to beat Chris Volstad, who struck out six and allowed only five hits. Using a sinking fastball in the mid-90s, a slow curve and an occasional changeup - all with equally precise control - the 6-foot-8 right-hander tossed his first career complete game.
The Marlins scored three runs - two earned - in five-plus innings against Sadowski, pushed their lead to 4-0 off reliever Justin Miller in the seventh and got an unneeded three-run shot from Dan Uggla in the ninth against Merkin Valdez. The Giants rarely threatened, moving only two runners into scoring position.
"Volstad was just awesome," Sadowski said. "He made it so if I gave up one, it was going to be enough."
Unlike his first two starts, Sadowski struggled with his command, walking two in the first inning, two more - including Volstad - in the fifth and hitting a batter in the sixth. The right-hander showed poise in limiting the damage in innings that appeared headed for scoring binges. He pushed his career-commencing scoreless-innings streak to 16 before allowing a run in the fourth.
Even then, things could have been a lot worse. Sadowski gave up back-to-back one-out hits but got an important strikeout of Cody Ross with runners on second and third before John Baker's grounder found a hole on the left side and drove home Jorge Cantu. In the fifth, Sadowski yielded only one run despite giving up two walks, a hit and a Wes Helms fly-out that would have been a homer in most other parks.
"If you're around (Sadowski), you can see his persona, his mentality and the way he goes about his business," Aaron Rowand said. "He's very calm and cool-headed with everything he does. When he needs to make pitches, he makes pitches, and that's why he's going to be around here for a long time."
In some senses, the Giants deserved to be in a surprisingly positive mood following a 7-0 whitewash. They still won their 12th series in 14 tries at home and can rest on the fact that they've won seven of their past 11 games.
"The bottom line is we won the series, and we can move on to playing San Diego and try to do it again," Rowand said. "It's not September yet. The key to being consistent and trying to find yourself in the postseason mix at the end of the year is to continually win series."
That type of optimism also oozes from Sadowski, who took the end of his scoreless streak in stride. His 16 consecutive shutout innings were the most by a Giants rookie since Al Worthington tossed 19 in 1953.
"There are a lot of people who have never given up a run in the big leagues, so it's actually probably more of an accomplishment to have given up a run," Sadowski said. "That's the way I look at it. Man, I hope I get the opportunity to give up a few hundred of these."
With rotation in flux, lefty tosses 8 1/3 shutout innings
Chris Haft MLB.com Barry Zito's record shows that his performance Tuesday night may have been an anomaly. Given the suddenly tenuous state of the Giants' pitching, Zito's effort also couldn't have been more timely.
Zito fell two outs short of his first shutout and nine-inning complete game in six years, limiting the Florida Marlins to four hits in the Giants' 3-0 victory.
The decision not only lifted the Giants a season-high nine games over .500 (46-37), but also bolstered their confidence. Left-hander Randy Johnson's strained throwing shoulder, which has sidelined him for an indefinite period, has transformed San Francisco's starting rotation from formidable to vulnerable. Aside from All-Stars Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, the Giants' front five includes Ryan Sadowski, whose big league career consists of two games, and Jonathan Sanchez, who has struggled consistently.
So for Zito to lead the way in the Giants' Major League-leading 12th shutout raised the team's hopes of weathering Johnson's absence.
"I came here to help this team win, and I haven't done that to the best of my ability," said Zito, who's 26-38 as a Giant. "It's important that I step up and stay focused on what I have to do and pick up slack while Randy's out."
Right-hander Sergio Romo acknowledged Zito's impact in the wake of Johnson's trip to the disabled list.
"It's quite a blow, because he is Randy Johnson. But we all know that we have a job to do," said Romo, who earned his first career save Tuesday. "For Zito to be able to perform the way he did to give us a boost ... he gave us an even bigger boost today."
Zito reminded witnesses how he won the American League Cy Young Award with Oakland in 2002. Confronting a Marlins lineup lacking All-Star shortstop Hanley Ramirez, the National League's leading hitter who missed his third consecutive game with a sore right hip flexor, Zito faced one batter over the minimum through five innings and allowed one runner to reach scoring position during his 8 1/3-inning stint. That happened in the sixth inning, when opposing pitcher Josh Johnson singled and Emilio Bonifacio walked with one out. Zito responded by retiring Wes Helms on a fly to right field and Dan Uggla on a popup to first base.
Everything looked easy for Zito (5-8), who walked only one and struck out six. But, he said, "For me, it was a grind every pitch. I had to keep my focus every pitch and make sure I was doing what I was supposed to be doing."
Catcher Bengie Molina confirmed that Zito accomplished this.
"He mixed up the curveball, slider, changeup -- everything was working," said Molina, who drove in the Giants' first run with a fourth-inning sacrifice fly.
The view from the Marlins' side looked no different.
"He changed speeds very well," Helms said of Zito. "He didn't leave anything over the middle of the plate. If he did throw a fastball that was hittable, it was either in, just enough for a strike, or away just enough to get that fly ball or that ground ball. He was like the Zito of old.
"He's kind of like Jamie Moyer: He's got to put the ball where he wants to to have success, and he did that tonight. He kept every hitter off-balance."
Having thrown 101 pitches entering the the ninth inning, Zito seemed within reach of his fifth career shutout and first since April 18, 2003, against Texas. That also happened to be Zito's last nine-inning complete game. But when Helms singled with one out, Giants manager Bruce Bochy sprang from the dugout and summoned Romo -- not Brian Wilson, whom the Giants planned on resting after his arduous 37-pitch save Monday.
Bochy wouldn't let Zito work himself into a jam.
"He was going one hitter at a time," Bochy said. In a refreshing turn of events, the AT&T Park crowd, which typically finds ways to boo Zito, turned its wrath on Bochy, since fans wanted to see the left-hander finish what he began.
"It's nice to get booed when you're taking him out. That's a good thing," Bochy said.
It was even better for the Giants when Romo struck out Uggla and Jorge Cantu to conclude the brisk two-hour, five-minute contest, San Francisco's second-shortest game of the season.
Zito clearly wanted to finish the game yet understood Bochy's move. "I haven't quite earned the right to get out of my own jams late in a lot of games this year," said Zito, who has eight quality starts in 17 outings and a 4.43 ERA. "That's something I have to earn back, the respect to do that."
The Giants needed each of Zito's zeroes, given the presence of Johnson, another All-Star who was 4-0 with a 3.00 ERA in eight starts since his last loss May 19. But Juan Uribe, who was simply trying to hit a sacrifice fly or a productive grounder with Edgar Renteria on third base and one out in the fifth inning, extended the Giants' 1-0 lead by clobbering a 1-2 pitch from Johnson (7-2) for his third home run of the season.
"When you go into the game and face an All-Star pitcher, you're not thinking that he's better than me," Uribe said through a translator. "You just go out there and do your job and make contact."
Final Vote leader helps Cain become 10-game winner
Chris Haft MLB.com
If Matt Cain shows up at AT&T Park on Tuesday looking a little bleary-eyed, it'll probably be the result of staying up all night casting text-message or online votes for Pablo Sandoval.
Sandoval, the National League's early leader in the Final Vote competition to fill the last spot on each league's All-Star team, hit his first career grand slam to help Cain become the NL's second 10-game winner Monday as the Giants outlasted the Florida Marlins, 5-4.
Sandoval has made a habit of supporting Cain this season. The switch-hitter has delivered seven of his 13 home runs in games Cain started.
"He's been huge for me," Cain said.
This homer was the biggest. It put the Giants ahead 5-0, a cushion that enabled them to weather Florida's two runs in the sixth inning and another pair in the ninth, as Brian Wilson nearly blew his fifth save but recovered just in time to convert No. 22.
Cain called Sandoval's home run the ultimate campaign statement.
"I don't know how you could ask for anything better than that," Cain said. "I don't think there's anybody in the States who's not going to know him after tonight, especially under the voting. You need votes and you hit a grand slam first thing -- I think that's going to help you out for a couple of days."
Sandoval graciously accepted the outpouring of support. It began with his teammates wearing "Vote Pablo" stickers during batting practice, continued with frequent reminders and prompts around AT&T Park to cast ballots and ended with the curtain call that followed his grand slam.
"It's a big moment for me right now," Sandoval said.
The game's signature moment was set up for Sandoval as the Giants, who led 1-0, loaded the bases in the fifth inning on Juan Uribe's double and walks drawn by Cain and Aaron Rowand. Facing Marlins starter Sean West (3-3) with two outs, Sandoval drove a 1-0 pitch into the left-field seats.
Sandoval used reason as well as his bat. West threw him an inside fastball to induce a popup behind first base in their previous encounter during the third inning. So Sandoval figured that the Marlins left-hander would maintain his pattern.
"I was looking for the same pitch," Sandoval said.
West realized that he missed his intended location.
"I threw it right in [Sandoval's] wheelhouse," he said. "I probably should have thrown a few sliders because of the situation. He's looking for that fastball. ... I basically just gave it to him. It would have been a good pitch if it was down, but I just left it up."
Cain (10-2) lacked command of his offspeed pitches, so he and catcher Bengie Molina decided to rely primarily on fastballs.
"We were mixing it on both sides of the plate, trying to keep them off-balance," Cain said.
Cain pitched only one perfect inning, but accurate throws from left fielder Andres Torres and right fielder Nate Schierholtz apprehended Marlins runners at second base to end the third and fourth innings.
Fending off the Marlins proved crucial, given the ninth inning's events. After Jeremy Affeldt pitched typically scintillating relief for 1 1/3 innings, Cody Ross opened Florida's rally off Wilson with a one-out double. John Baker and Wes Helms singled, trimming the difference to 5-3. Wilson walked pinch-hitter Ross Gload on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases.
Chris Coghlan hit a comebacker to Wilson, who could have started an easy 1-2-3 double play by throwing home. Instead, he made a low toss toward second base, forcing out Gload but also prompting Edgar Renteria to make a one-hop throw to first base that Travis Ishikawa couldn't hold. Baker scored and the Marlins still had runners on the corners.
"I was foolish," Wilson admitted. "We all have those moments. Not everybody has them in the ninth."
Emilio Bonifacio -- the last hitter Wilson would have faced, since Sergio Romo was warming up in the bullpen -- hit another comebacker. Under the circumstances, Wilson's throw to first was entirely proper.
"I guess you get a save for that," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said dryly.
