Bay rivalry belongs to Giants
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
Third-base coach Tim Flannery defied physiology. How his arm did not fly off his body as he windmilled Nate Schierholtz home Sunday is a mystery. Flannery had sent four major-leaguers home on inside-the-park homers. Schierholtz was the fifth, and he made it without a play at the plate.
"I'm 51 years old," Flannery said. "Where else can you get that adrenaline hit at 51? That was fun."
Fun defined the weekend for the Giants, who stampeded the A's 7-1 behind Matt Cain's ninth win, a four-hitter, and the team's second inside-the-park home run in its nine-plus years at China Basin.
In winning for the 15th time in 21 games, the Giants outscored Oakland 15-3 and swept their crossbay rival for the second time in a three-game series since interleague play began in 1997. The 1989 Giants feted over the weekend must have thought they were in the Twilight Zone. They could not beat the A's in the World Series, spring training or tiddlywinks.
The Giants improved to 21-9 at home and moved six games above .500, burnishing their credentials as a team that must be reckoned with. A bigger test looms this week with visits by the Angels and Rangers, who are better than Oakland.
"I'm proud of these guys," manager Bruce Bochy said. "That last road trip was a tough one, with rain delays and the travel. To come here and play well, that's what it's going to take. It starts with the starting pitching."
Indeed, Tim Lincecum, Randy Johnson and Cain threw 25 of 27 innings in the series, with Lincecum and Cain going the route. The Giants have five complete games this year. Cain has three. He also has seven consecutive wins and a 9-1 record that rates him a strong candidate not only to go to the All-Star Game, but to start it.
Cain was near 100 pitches after eight innings and Bochy considered a reliever for the ninth to save Cain's arm, but Bochy said, "He had that look," and the look trumped any pitch clicker.
Cain retired 19 of his last 20 hitters, the other reaching on an error, and threw harder in the ninth than he did in the first. He ended the game with his ninth strikeout, getting Jason Giambi to chase a 90-mph slider. He walked none.
As usual, Giants hitters provided Cain robust support after he spotted the A's a 1-0 lead on Jack Cust's first-inning homer.
Pablo Sandoval hit a two-run homer in a three-run first inning against lefty Brett Anderson. Andres Torres, spelling Aaron Rowand in center, completed three-fourths of the cycle (minus the home run). The Giants had five extra-base hits, including a Cain double and Schierholtz's inside-the-park homer.
Sandoval's homer was his sixth of the year. In the postgame clubhouse, he was endorsed by 1989 National League MVP Kevin Mitchell, who said, "I like that guy Sandoval. He reminds me of myself. Let it go. You can't be up there scared to hit. You want him to hack. He ain't a mailman. He ain't delivering the mail, walking."
That, though, is exactly what Sandoval did on four pitches with two outs in the third. Rich Aurilia then flared a single to right before Schierholtz drove the ball to the base of the fence at the seventh archway in right-center. As Cust awaited a carom, the ball bounced high into the air and toward center. As Cust chased the ball, it died at the fence.
Schierholtz had his head down as soon as he rounded first. With two outs, the No. 8 hitter on deck, a weak arm in right and cutoff man Adam Kennedy halfway to Candlestick to await the cutoff, Flannery had no hesitation sending Schierholtz. As 37,728 fans roared, Schierholtz slid with his first homer of the year and the first inside-the-parker he remembers hitting on a field that had fences.
Schierholtz was not ready to declare himself a speed demon yet, saying, "I can't say much with one stolen base."
Bochy was ready to declare that 62 games in, with 100 to go, Schierholtz's bench-warming days are nearing an end, saying, "I think he's earned some playing time."
Power pitching
In their three-game sweep, the Giants held the A's to a .172 batting average (16-for-93) and the starting pitchers combined for a 1.08 ERA. Here's how the three starters fared:
| Name | IP | H | R | BB | SO |
| Lincecum | 9 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| Johnson | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Cain | 9 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| Totals | 25 | 15 | 3 |
From: MLB.com
 Oakland (27-35) Lost 3 | San Francisco 7, Oakland 1 |  San Francisco (34-28) Won 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Standings thru 6/14/09 | Recap: OAK | SF | Gameday | Athletics stats | Giants stats |
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