Lincecum's gem spoiled by Phillies

Wilson blows save in ninth; two runs in 11th decide game

Chris Haft
MLB.com
The Giants nearly turned the outrage of the AT&T Park fans into euphoria Wednesday. That would have been a neat trick, since they lost this game more than once.

San Francisco scrambled to recover after yielding a run in the 10th inning and two more in the 11th to fall to the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-6. But the Giants' extra-inning adventures didn't seem as stunning as the events of the ninth inning, when they squandered the combination of Tim Lincecum on the mound and a 4-1 lead.

The stage was set for another celebration of Lincecum's glorious skills. He was three outs away from becoming the first Giants pitcher to win not only his first five starts of the season but also five games in April since John Burkett in 1993. A complete game also appeared within reach for Lincecum, who had surrendered three hits, struck out 11 and thrown 98 pitches entering the ninth.

But after walking Shane Victorino on four pitches with one out, Giants manager Bruce Bochy yanked Lincecum in favor of closer Brian Wilson without hesitation.

Bochy was showered with boos during each leg of his round trip between the dugout and the mound. But the catcalls gained a hostile edge after Wilson loaded the bases with two outs and yielded Jayson Werth's pop-fly double that tied the score, denied Lincecum a victory and prevented a three-game series sweep.

Bochy explained that Lincecum "worked hard the game before," having thrown 120 pitches last Friday against St. Louis. The walk to Victorino, which hiked Lincecum's pitch count to 106, brought the right-hander toward a limit that Bochy and pitching coach Dave Righetti didn't want to exceed.

Additionally, Wilson was fresh, having rested for three days. He also had converted all four of his previous save opportunities and was unscored upon in seven outings.

"These aren't easy decisions," Bochy said, emphasizing that nothing was physically wrong with Lincecum. "I'll say this: There'll be other times we feel like he can [finish the game]. We have to take care of this kid. ... We have one of the best [closers] in the game. I didn't have any problem bringing Willie in. Never will."

All that logic soon was shrouded by a haze of events. Placido Polanco flied out, but Chase Utley singled and Ryan Howard walked to load the bases. Werth fell behind on the count, 1-2, but worked it to 3-2 before lifting a fly ball that landed just inside the right-field line near Philadelphia's bullpen. The ball scooted by right fielder Nate Schierholtz as Victorino, Utley and Howard scooted around the bases.

Lincecum didn't dispute Bochy's move.

"We have an All-Star closer and a 4-1 lead," he said. "... I'm not saying I felt like it was in the bag, but usually he's going to close it out pretty well."

But Lincecum did admit that he wanted to stay in the game.

"It would have been nice," he said. "I kind of let go of [Victorino] with the walk. But it would have been ideal. ... I still felt strong. Obviously I felt the innings on me, but nothing to the point where I couldn't continue."

Said a subdued Wilson, "I really can't explain what happened. I felt like I was throwing the ball where I wanted to. I wasn't really erratic. ... I can't really do anything about it besides just wear it."

Schierholtz was playing toward right-center field to cut off potential extra-base hits and couldn't reach Werth's popup.

"It's a ball normally I think I would have a chance to make a play on," Schierholtz said. "It's probably the only ball, outside of a home run, that scores all three guys."

Phillies players welcomed Lincecum's departure.

"I guess it's just kind of a new life," Howard said. "The way he had been pitching the entire game, yeah, I guess you just try to seize the opportunity of getting somebody else in there."

"Obviously, when he came out of the game, yeah, you're happy to see the guy leave," Victorino said. "But we're not like, 'Oh, yeah, we're going to do this!' You're still trying the whole game."

So were the Giants, who almost atoned for their lapses yet ultimately compounded their frustration. They lost despite outhitting Philadelphia 17-8. San Francisco stranded a whopping 16 baserunners and went 5-for-21 with runners in scoring position.

Jeremy Affeldt flung a run-scoring wild pitch in the 10th, but Schierholtz, who went a career-best 5-for-5, doubled to open the Giants' half of the inning and scored on Andres Torres' single.

The Phillies pulled ahead for good with a pair of runs in the 11th on Wilson Valdez's RBI double, which Eugenio Velez nearly caught at the wall, and Victorino's routine fly to left, which Velez mishandled for an error.

Velez indicated that breezes blew Victorino's fly off its anticipated path.

"I was waiting for the ball right there -- and I had to keep running," Velez said.

Schierholtz doubled again in the 11th with one out to drive in a run. But Velez, with runners on second and third and a chance to be a hero, grounded to first baseman Howard, who threw out Juan Uribe at the plate. Torres then grounded out, ending the game and forcing the Giants to take solace in their comeback.

"It was fun watching our hitters go up there and be competitive and put pressure on the other team," Lincecum said.

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Giants cooking at home

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The adage says you cannot win a division in April. Just the same, you can construct a solid foundation. It starts by setting a tone of domination at home, and the Giants are doing precisely that.

They are 8-3 at AT&T Park after manhandling Philadelphia 6-2 Tuesday night. They have won four of their first five games on what should be their toughest homestand of the season, against three gold-standard teams.

In capturing series against the Cardinals and Phillies, the Giants have put their 1-5 trip to Southern California far behind them.

"Everybody talks about that stretch we had in San Diego," first baseman Aubrey Huff said. "You can't explain it. You can't read anything into that. Everybody's writing us off and panicking, but you just keep playing."

Many fans were writing off starter Todd Wellemeyer after terrible starts in Los Angeles and San Diego. They started calling for Madison Bumgarner or Kevin Pucetas or a guy named Anybody But Wellemeyer.

Wellemeyer was not ready to be flushed away. Working with pitching coach Dave Righetti and bullpen coach Mark Gardner, he moved to the first-base side of the rubber to expand his view of the plate, which he hit consistently in seven innings of two-run ball Tuesday.

As he walked off in the eighth, Wellemeyer accepted an ovation from 31,792 fans, many of whom surely wanted his head a week ago.

"It's natural for them to think that way," Wellemeyer said. "I don't blame them. They can get on the bandwagon if they want. They're welcome."

Wellemeyer's first Giants win enabled his teammates to sleep well pondering a possible sweep today behind Tim Lincecum, who attempts to go 5-0.

Wellemeyer's reward is a trip to long relief. He will be skipped in Florida because the Giants have off days Thursday and Monday and do not want their top four starters to go a week between games.

The Giants' pitching has been phenomenal on this homestand. In one full turn against two dynamic offenses, the starters allowed six runs in 32 innings. The bullpen has been better, allowing nothing in 13 innings.

In the two games against Philly, the pitchers were well-supported by an offense that adjusted from hard-throwing righty Roy Halladay to soft-throwing, 47-year-old lefty Jamie Moyer.

Huff and Matt Downs homered in the second inning, Huff hitting his first as a Giant that actually left the yard. His first was an inside-the-parker.

"Everyone said they enjoyed the first one better. Not me," Huff said. "I enjoyed that one a lot more."

Edgar Renteria and Pablo Sandoval contributed RBI singles to a fifth-inning rally that began with a single by Wellemeyer. Renteria and Sandoval added RBI singles in the seventh against Chad Durbin.

Nate Schierholtz nearly homered in the second as well and stole the show with his arm. He threw out Ryan Howard and Chase Utley at second trying to stretch singles, Utley in the ninth with his team trailing by four.

The Howard play was entertaining. As he lollygagged into second, Renteria deked him by standing idly as if the ball were nowhere in sight. Renteria then quickly grabbed Schierholtz's one-hop strike and tagged Howard on the butt - a "mental lapse," Howard called it.

"Man, I had no idea he had that good an arm," Huff said. "The throw on Utley was on a line from 200 feet. Amazing. It wasn't even close. He has one of the better arms I've seen in right field."

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Giants beat Phillies and ace, Roy Halladay

Alex Pavlovic
San Jose Mercury News

A slumping lineup against the hottest pitcher in baseball turned out to be quite a mismatch Monday night, just not the one you would expect.

Roy Halladay was no match for the suddenly hard-hitting Giants.

San Francisco handed Halladay his first loss of the season, tagging the Phillies ace with 10 hits in a 5-1 victory at AT&T Park. Halladay, Philadelphia's prized offseason acquisition, had not lost as a National League pitcher and entered the night with a minuscule 0.82 ERA.

The Giants, on the other hand, had scored 11 runs over their previous seven games, five of them losses. All of that went out the window in the first inning, when the Giants jumped on Halladay (4-1) with three loud singles and two runs.

It was all the support Jonathan Sanchez (2-1) would need.

The left-hander struggled with his command, walking five, but sprinkled six strikeouts throughout five innings to get out of several jams.

Halladay had not given up more than two runs in a game since September, but Mark DeRosa got to him early with a two-run single that energized a lineup that had gone 5 for 54 with runners in scoring position over the previous seven games.

"We've been missing that, and it seemed like it loosened the guys up and sent some confidence through the lineup," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who called DeRosa's at-bat one of the best of the season.

Sanchez matched Halladay, but not in the way he had hoped. Philadelphia put runners in scoring position in the first, third and fifth innings, but Sanchez escaped major damage and allowed just one earned run.

"He really didn't have his best stuff. That's the first time all year he didn't have all three pitches working," catcher Eli Whiteside said. "They had their opportunities, but he battled. He kept us in it."

An early season scapegoat for fans dreaming of the Buster Posey era, Whiteside continues to thrive in his role as Sanchez's primary catcher. He added a run in the seventh when he golfed a Halladay offering off the left-field foul pole, and he has five extra-base hits and five RBIs while catching Sanchez's past three starts.

With Whiteside behind the plate this season, Sanchez has given up just seven hits and two earned runs in 20 innings. Sanchez got plenty of help from his defense too, particularly center fielder Andres Torres, who fought the swirling wind to rob Ryan Howard of extra bases with two runners on in the first. Howard, who signed a $125 million contract extension earlier in the day, went 0 for 3 and struck out in the fifth inning with runners on second and third.

"He got all that money, so I thought he's got to be happy out there and he'll be ready to swing the bat," Sanchez said.

Sanchez's early fortitude with runners on base was all the more important once Halladay finally got in a groove. After John Bowker and Whiteside made it 3-0 with back-to-back doubles in the second, Halladay retired 10 straight, showing why he is considered the leading threat to Tim Lincecum's bid for a Cy Young Award three-peat.

Pablo Sandoval broke through in the sixth, smoking a double down the line in right and scoring a pitch later when Aubrey Huff broke a 0-for-13 slump with an RBI single. Facing Halladay for the first time, Sandoval had two hits to raise his average to .365.

Relievers Guillermo Mota, Jeremy Affeldt and Sergio Romo combined to give up one hit and strike out five over four shutout innings, moving the Giants (11-8) into a tie for first in the National League West with the San Diego Padres.

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Giants can't solve former teammate

Offense continues to struggle in loss to Penny, Cardinals

Chris Haft
MLB.com
So far, 2010 is shaping up to be a lot like 2009 for the Giants.

Their pitching remains outstanding. But their offense is noteworthy only for its repeated shortcomings, which were evident in Sunday's 2-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Giants went hitless in six at-bats with runners in scoring position, wasting the nine hits they did muster against ex-teammate Brad Penny and two relievers.

The hitters themselves seem to be excruciatingly aware of their lapses.

"I think we try to do too much," catcher Bengie Molina said. "That's probably normal."

Infielder-outfielder Mark DeRosa asked nobody in particular, "What were we with runners in scoring position this week? Five-for-80?"

That's an exaggeration, but DeRosa wasn't off by much. The correct answer was 5-for-54 (.093) in San Francisco's last seven games, spanning its four-game losing streak and this series, which the Giants somehow captured two games to one.

Four of those five hits didn't clear the infield, making that statistic all the more gruesome.

"We have to be better. I have to be better," said DeRosa, who's hitting .235 overall and was 0-for-1 Sunday with a teammate in scoring position. "We have to realize how good our pitching staff is. We have to grind at-bats and we have to grind every inning."

DeRosa theorized that scoring first in the early innings, even if it's only a run or two, gives the Giants a considerable edge with a starting staff headed by Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito and Matt Cain.

"Just to put the other team on the defensive," DeRosa said. "They don't want to come in here and face those three guys. Same thing tomorrow against [Philadelphia's Roy] Halladay. We have to find a way to chip across [runs] early, give Jonathan [Sanchez] something to relax with."

Instead, the Giants' anxious approach at the plate is giving opposing pitchers the chance to relax. Ask Penny (3-0), who yielded eight hits in 7 2/3 innings yet was never seriously threatened.

"I didn't throw a pitch as hard as I could all day," Penny said. "That's the first time in my career that's happened. They were being aggressive and they didn't let me get deep into counts. The key for me was mixing it up."

Giants manager Bruce Bochy knows he must mix up his batting order, though there's only so much he can do with center fielder and leadoff hitter Aaron Rowand on the 15-day disabled list until next Sunday.

Don't expect to see Eugenio Velez leading off Monday night's series opener against Halladay and the Phillies, however. Velez is in a 1-for-23 skid, resulting from "pulling off" pitches and trying too hard, in Bochy's view.

"I have to get him out of there with him not seeing the ball right now," Bochy said.

Bochy said he wasn't sure whom he would install at the top of the order, though he actually has more than one viable candidate. Andres Torres went 3-for-4 with a double while hitting eighth Sunday. Torres also made two crowd-pleasing plays in center field. Right fielder Nate Schierholtz, who went 2-for-4, is another possibility.

The Cardinals didn't mount much more offense than the Giants. But they did have Albert Pujols, one of the game's pre-eminent hitters, who yanked a first-inning homer to left field off Matt Cain (0-1). Cain allowed a fourth-inning run as Colby Rasmus doubled, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Yadier Molina's sacrifice fly, then vanished after the fifth inning.

That output sufficed for Penny, who excelled for the Giants by posting a 4-1 mark as a stretch-drive acquisition last September. The right-hander improved to 7-2 with a 2.82 ERA at AT&T Park. Those statistics weren't lost on the Giants, who insisted at last December's Winter Meetings that they made a competitive offer to retain Penny, a free agent.

"I was pretty close to coming back but the offer wasn't close to the Cardinals," Penny said. "I grew up in Oklahoma and I was always a Cardinals fan. Still, if the offers were similar I probably would have come back. I love this park. It's a huge park. Some of the balls hit today would have been doubles off the Green Monster. This park allows you to pitch to contact."

Especially when the contact isn't very authoritative.

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Giants reward Zito's brilliant outing

Torres delivers pinch-hit single for go-ahead run

Chris Haft

MLB.com

As the AT&T Park spectators confirmed, the continued rebirth of Barry Zito was something to behold.

Zito subdued the St. Louis Cardinals for eight innings in the Giants' 2-0 victory Saturday to hike his record to 3-0 for the first time in his 10-year career.

Andres Torres rapped a pinch-hit RBI single off Adam Wainwright to shatter a scoreless tie in the eighth. Aubrey Huff added a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to clinch the series for the Giants and seal the Cardinals' first series defeat of the season.

Brian Wilson pitched the ninth inning for his second save in two nights, which sealed San Francisco's fourth shutout of the season. But, as he said, "The story is Zito tonight. The guy was on fire."

Zito's flame has burned brightly all month, as his 1.32 ERA demonstrates. Gone, apparently, is the Zito who struggled in the season's first half and approached hitters tentatively. The Zito the Giants now see bears a strong resemblance to the one who captured the American League Cy Young Award with Oakland in 2002. Except the 2010 version might be better, because now Zito complements his fastball, curveball and changeup with a slider.

Giants fans, who watched Zito compile a 31-43 record in his first three seasons with the club, discerned the difference. As the left-hander worked his last inning, they saluted him by chanting his first name, just as they did for home run king Barry Bonds for so many years.

"That was really cool," Zito said. "When they want to support guys, they really do it in a special way."

Zito gave the sellout crowd plenty to cheer about as he allowed three hits and struck out 10. It was Zito's 13th career double-digit strikeout effort and his second as a Giant. The other came on July 5, 2008, against the Dodgers.

Oddly, Zito said that he "didn't feel really in command" until his final three innings, when he mastered his changeup. He finished his outing with a flourish by striking out the side in the eighth inning.

"I didn't want to give them any space to breathe or get their foot in the door," Zito said.

The Cardinals launched their only significant threat in the fourth inning, when Felipe Lopez singled and Ryan Ludwick walked with nobody out. But Albert Pujols, batting .455 (5-for-11) lifetime against Zito, smacked a double-play grounder to third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who made a difficult pickup of a tricky hop.

"You can't practice that," Sandoval said.

Matt Holliday's infield single prolonged the inning and left runners at the corners before Zito coaxed Yadier Molina's fielder's-choice grounder.

"He just threw what he wanted," St. Louis third baseman David Freese said. "He had us off-balance all night. He was using all his pitches and we hit the ball where he wanted us to hit it."

Giants manager Bruce Bochy has noticed Zito's constant confidence.

"Really, every start, he has been that good," Bochy said. "He's in a nice zone right now. It's something we need, too. We're having trouble scoring runs."

Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright (3-1) was just as effective as Zito for seven innings, yielding four hits while permitting one Giant to advance as far as second base.

Then Nate Schierholtz doubled to deep right field on an 0-1 curveball.

"I just reacted to it," he said.

Up came Torres, who fouled off one bunt attempt and missed another. Then he grounded a 1-2 pitch sharply up the middle to score Schierholtz easily.

"I just told myself to stay positive, get a good pitch and put it in play," Torres said.

Torres advanced on Eugenio Velez's sacrifice bunt and almost was trapped off second base on Edgar Renteria's grounder to shortstop, but slid safely back into the bag headfirst. Sandoval's infield single loaded the bases and preceded Huff's sacrifice fly.

The rally rescued Zito from a no-decision, which he received in Los Angeles last Sunday when he left with one out in the eighth inning and a 1-0 lead before Manny Ramirez belted a two-run homer off Sergio Romo.

"That's great to get him a win, with the effort he gave us," Bochy said.

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Lincecum wins first 4 starts for 1st time

John Shea
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The Giants were coming off a 1-5 trip to the Southland. They were opening a homestand against the teams widely favored to win the three National League divisions. They were hitless in 20 straight at-bats with runners in scoring position and had a three-game losing streak against left-handed starting pitchers, and a lefty was on deck.

Yeah, but Tim Lincecum pitched, and that tends to offset an awful lot.

In a game in which last year's Cy Young Award winner (Lincecum) outperformed last year's Most Valuable Player (Albert Pujols), the Giants beat the Cardinals 4-1 with the home team decked out in orange jerseys, supposedly a new Friday night tradition.

Lincecum, who struck out eight batters in seven innings, remains perfect against the Cardinals - 5-0 with a 1.29 ERA - and became the first pitcher to win his first five starts against St. Louis since the Reds' Ross Grimsley won six straight from 1971 to 1973.

"When Tim's on the mound, we have the utmost confidence we could score one run and still win," said closer Brian Wilson, who struck out three of four batters in the ninth inning to preserve the victory. "Anytime Tim pitches, the crowd is electric. We can feel that, and it gives us a sense of confidence as well."

Pujols blasted a double off the wall on the first pitch he saw from Lincecum but was a nonfactor the rest of the night, going 1-for-4 with two strikeouts - one by Lincecum and one by Sergio Romo, a bright moment for Romo in the wake of the game-deciding home run he surrendered to Manny Ramirez at Dodger Stadium on Sunday.

Lincecum threw 120 pitches (his season high by 12), overcoming the first three innings in which five batters reached base. Perhaps the turning point was the third inning - two aboard, no outs and Pujols and Matt Holliday coming up. Pujols popped out, and Holliday bounced into a double play on a 3-0 fastball away.

"You've got to take it up that next notch," Lincecum said. "The focus kind of goes up a little more."

The Cardinals' only run came in the sixth on an RBI single by Bengie Molina's kid brother, Yadier. Lincecum is off to his best start, 4-0 with a 1.00 ERA, but wasn't fully pleased with his performance or his three walks.

"You go back to the chalkboard," he said. "I have to criticize myself more than the next person, just like anybody else in here would. I felt I threw too many pitches, too many balls. I really wasn't working efficiently out there. I'm just a big battler.

" If I don't have my best stuff, I'll still try to throw my four pitches. I've just got to be more fine with it. Not like I was trying to nitpick. I was trying to be aggressive. I just wasn't throwing it where I wanted to."

The Giants, who hadn't gotten a hit with a runner in scoring position since Monday, quickly ended the streak. After Andres Torres doubled to open the first inning - he led off because Eugenio Velez was struggling at No. 1 - DeRosa hit an infield single. The run scored on shortstop Brendan Ryan's throwing error from behind second base.

The Giants scored two more in the third inning, this time aided by second baseman Skip Schumaker's error. Aubrey Huff's grounder bounced right through his legs, scoring DeRosa. Huff scored on Nate Schierholtz's bases-loaded single to Pujols, who gloved the three-hopper but lost a footrace to the bag.

The Giants made it 4-0 in the fifth on pitcher Jaime Garcia's wild pitch.

Briefly: Shortstop Edgar Renteria was scratched with a sore left shoulder, the same shoulder that shelved him 19 of the final 20 games last season. He had surgery Sept. 26 for his right elbow. Juan Uribe moved to short, and Matt Downs started at second. Manager Bruce Bochy didn't know if Renteria would play tonight. ... Wilson, whose ERA is 0.00, had his first save opportunity in 17 days.

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Dispiriting end to Giants' 1-5 road trip

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
It must have been a quiet afternoon in Lake Woe-be-Giants if Todd Wellemeyer was the top-trending Twitter topic in United States on Wednesday.

Fans ground Wellemeyer into tweet-meat after he served up a first-inning homer to Adrian Gonzalez on an awful 3-1 pitch, then walked four consecutive Padres in the second for another run. Again, however, a team-wide failure to hit was worthy of discussion, too.

The Giants scored 68 runs in their first 100 innings. Since then, including Wednesday's 5-2 loss that concluded a San Diego sweep, they struggled to score six runs in the 37 innings that overlay a four-game losing streak.

"Tough series for us. Tough road trip," manager Bruce Bochy said after a 1-5 journey. "We went through this last year and came out of this one even better than last year, which isn't saying much. "

Bochy was referring to the Giants' first trip last season, when they went 0-6 in Los Angeles and San Diego to fall to 2-7. At least they started 7-2 ahead of this year's trip down the rabbit hole.

Actually, the just-concluded series felt more like last May at Petco Park, when the Giants were swept 2-1, 2-1 and 3-2. The next night in Seattle they reached their season nadir, at 19-22, then went 69-52 to finish 14 games above .500.

The near-term schedule will not facilitate a bounceback. On Friday night, the Giants begin a nine-game homestand against three 2009 playoff teams: St. Louis, Philadelphia and Colorado. The struggling bats face three Cardinals starters, Jaime Garcia, Adam Wainwright and Brad Penny, who will carry ERAs of 0.69, 1.50 and 1.29 into China Basin.

"We know who we're facing," Wellemeyer said. "I think we know we're going to have to bring some game. We know we're going to have to hit and pitch our butts off the next nine games."

What an odd year for Wellemeyer. He was rock solid for six innings in his first game against Atlanta. Then he got hammered for three homers and seven runs in two innings at Los Angeles before Wednesday's game, when he could not throw a strike to save his life in the second inning.

At various times, he welcomed pitching coach Dave Righetti, catcher Bengie Molina, second baseman Mark DeRosa and shortstop Juan Uribe to the mound for pick-me-up chats.

Still, Wellemeyer gritted through four innings and handed a 2-1 deficit to Dan Runzler, who surrendered a two-out, two-run homer to Nick Hundley in the fifth that sealed the loss and underscored how poorly the middle relievers have done keeping small deficits small.

Bochy called Wellemeyer's struggles a "hiccup" and gave no indication he plans to yank his fifth starter from the rotation.

Meanwhile, the offense grounded into its 19th and 20th double plays (Nate Schierholtz and Molina), putting the Giants on pace for a team-record 216. Even a line rocket off Eugenio Velez's bat with two on and nobody out in the eighth found the glove of omnipresent second baseman David Eckstein, who started a third double play.

Pablo Sandoval jolted what was left of a tiny crowd with a monster homer to center in the ninth, a 421-foot dose of happy for the Giants that hardly could cure four days of sad.

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Sanchez pitches one-hitter and Giants still lose, 1-0 to Padres

Andrew Baggarly
San Jose Mercury News

Imagine the excitement if Jonathan Sanchez had thrown another no-hitter Tuesday night.

Imagine the odds involved, too. He was facing the San Diego Padres for just the second time since he no-hit them last July.

But on a depressingly drizzly night at Petco Park, even a no-hitter wouldn't have guaranteed a Giants victory. The Padres squeaked out one single in Sanchez's seven innings and that was enough to beat him. The Giants offense ranged between comic and tragic against Mat Latos and two relievers in a 1-0 loss.

How rare was this outcome?

Consider this: The Giants have held an opponent to one hit or fewer 29 times in a nine-inning game in the franchise's San Francisco era. Never before in those 52 years did they lose.

"I can't say I've been in a game like this," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "I don't need to tell them anything. They're very upset, believe me. No way we should've lost tonight's game."

Sanchez (1-1) struck out 10 and retired the side in five of his seven innings. In his last three starts against the Padres, he has yielded just four hits over 211/3 innings.

"Kind of the same game" as last year's no-hitter, Sanchez said.

With a much different outcome. Chase Headley lined a leadoff single in the fourth inning, stole his way into scoring position and scored on Scott Hairston's sacrifice fly as the Padres clinched the series and drew even with the Giants for first place in the NL West.

The Giants outhit the Padres 6-1 but showed uniquely cruel creativity while failing to score. They wasted Nate Schierholtz's leadoff triple in the eighth inning when Eli Whiteside grounded to third base, pinch hitter Bengie Molina popped up and Eugenio Velez struck out.

They put runners at the corners with one out in the ninth against Padres closer Heath Bell, but Juan Uribe wasn't able to reprise his late-inning heroics. His fly out to right field wasn't deep enough to score pinch runner Andres Torres and John Bowker struck out to end it.

Padres second baseman David Eckstein made a leaping catch of Bowker's bloop to prevent a run in the fourth.

This was precisely the kind of game that will infuriate fans who felt the Giants didn't do enough to improve their meager offense over the winter.

Sanchez contributed, too. He failed to bunt over Whiteside, who was thrown out at third base after a leadoff double in the third. He also continued to have problems holding runners and his negligence led to the game's only run. Headley stole second base easily, then tagged and took third when first baseman Aubrey Huff flipped over the rail into the photographer's well while catching Kyle Blanks' pop fly.

Huff landed on the nape of his neck but said he was just a little sore. He said the sting that lingers was Manny Ramirez's home run that beat the Giants Sunday to start the losing streak.

"That (home run) took the wind out of it for the boys," Huff said. "It hasn't been as much fun in the dugout. We need to start having fun again."

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Giants edged despite Uribe's homer

Offense sputters in back-to-back losses on SoCal trip

Chris Haft
MLB.com
Now it's time for the critics of the Giants' offense to have their say.

Those who were skeptical about the Giants' defense have been forced to remain mostly silent so far, and anybody who would question their pitching is just plain nuts.

But the skeptics who claim that San Francisco has little margin for error at the plate can point to the team's current losing streak, which reached a season-high two games with Monday's 3-2, 10-inning loss to the San Diego Padres.

David Eckstein's homer leading off the 10th against Jeremy Affeldt lifted the Padres to their fourth consecutive victory, one inning after Juan Uribe erased a 2-1 Giants deficit by homering off San Diego closer Heath Bell.

But Affeldt's lapse can be regarded as an aberration. Eckstein's homer was only the second long ball the left-handed Affeldt has allowed to a right-handed batter in 140 at-bats dating back to the start of last season.

By comparison, the Giants' hitting might arouse a little more concern.

There's no question that Aubrey Huff and Mark DeRosa have deepened the batting order. But with leadoff hitter Aaron Rowand on the 15-day disabled list and DeRosa hampered by a tight right hamstring that has prevented him from starting the last two games, the Giants have encountered their first slump. They're 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position during their back-to-back losses, and that lone hit didn't even clear the infield. Pablo Sandoval beat out a dribbler to third base in Monday's fourth inning that scored Edgar Renteria.

If you prefer more basic statistics, the Giants are batting .212 (14-for-66) in their last two games. They've scored three runs in that pair of games after averaging 6.2 in their first 11.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy acknowledged that missing Rowand and DeRosa is a handicap.

"But you roll with that," Bochy said, adding that a two-game downturn hardly qualifies as a malaise.

"We did what we wanted and created the opportunities," Bochy said.

They squandered most of them, too. Nate Schierholtz reached second base with one out in the third inning, but nothing came of that. Following Sandoval's RBI single, the Giants loaded the bases before Andres Torres grounded into an inning-ending double play. Huff doubled with two outs in the sixth before Eckstein, who played an excellent all-around game, dove to snare Bengie Molina's one-hop smash up the middle and threw to first to end the sixth inning. Uribe and Torres singled to open the seventh and Schierholtz bunted them along before reliever Luke Gregerson fanned DeRosa, who was pinch-hitting, and Eugenio Velez.

To that point, Matt Cain appeared destined for another luckless PETCO Park defeat. He's 0-4 despite a 3.24 ERA in his last seven appearances here. He would have been 0-5 in that span if not for Uribe's homer with one out in the ninth.

San Francisco's euphoria lasted until Eckstein connected with Affeldt's 1-1 fastball and drove it down the left-field line for his third career game-winning homer.

Affeldt (2-2) offered a simple explanation. He didn't throw his pitch anywhere close to where he wanted it.

"I tried to throw a heater away and I threw a heater in," Affeldt said. "You tip your hat. The ball went where it should have went."

Affeldt explained that he hasn't gained command of his curveball, which has forced him to rely on his fastball more than he'd like.

"It's been hit-and-miss more than I'd like it to be," Affeldt said, nothing that he endured a similar issue at the beginning of last season. "It's something I'd like to fix because I have to be able to throw it early and late in the count. It's something that's obviously fixable. It's something I'd like to fix now."

The Giants (8-5) remained in first place in the National League West but are 1-3 on their two-city Southern California trip. They've also dropped eight of their last 10 games at PETCO Park dating back to the start of last season.

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Manny Ramirez ruins San Francisco Giants' day

Andrew Baggarly
San Jose Mercury News

Eugenio Velez punched the light board on the left-field fence. Sergio Romo snapped a new ball into his glove. The Giants dugout sank as Manny Ramirez rounded the bases, his dreadlocks bobbing along, after hitting the two-run home run that powered the Dodgers to a 2-1 victory Sunday afternoon.

With one swing, Barry Zito's exceptional outing was lost. So was the game. The series, too.

Romo made a mistake to the wrong pinch hitter in the eighth inning — a 1-2 slider over the heart of the plate that was as lethal as a viper bite.

The team bus to San Diego usually shows a movie. A good choice for Sunday evening's ride would've been "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

"I'm not going to reflect on this one at all," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "I'm going to move on."

Romo's laconic analysis: "Slider. (Ramirez is) one of the best for a reason. Short memory."

There wasn't any reason to dwell or to second-guess. Not Romo for throwing his best pitch with two strikes. Not Bochy for bringing in his top right-handed setup man rather than tab closer Brian Wilson for a five-out save.

The stats supported the manager. Right-handed hitters were 1-for-12 with five strikeouts against Romo this season. And he'd been close to unhittable against the Dodgers in nine career appearances, holding them to three hits and no walks while striking out 13 in 111/3 scoreless innings.

So when Zito issued a one-out walk to pinch hitter Garret Anderson, Bochy didn't hesitate to hand the ball to Romo, his fearless little Frisbee thrower.

"Romo has been throwing as well as anybody," Bochy said. "He's one of our setup guys. I like him out there. He made some great pitches. He just caught too much of the plate.

"He and (Jeremy) Affeldt, that's their role. I have no problems bringing those guys in."

Romo painted a pitch on the inside corner to jump ahead 1-2. Catcher Bengie Molina wanted the next pitch to start out on the outer half and sweep away from Ramirez's swing.

"We wanted to let him reach," Molina said. "He didn't have to reach for that one."

"It didn't break," Romo said. "He was looking for it, obviously. His weight wasn't ahead of him or behind him. He was right on it. With that caliber a hitter, you don't expect to get away with it."

It was Ramirez's 548th career home run, and it sent a crowd of 50,433 into elation.

Ramirez, who didn't start Saturday or Sunday because of a sore calf muscle, took a quick curtain call. He was even more nimble after the game, leaving the clubhouse before reporters were allowed inside.

In two previous encounters with Romo, Ramirez struck out both times.

"I throw strikes," Romo said. "That's one of the biggest things I feel I bring to the table. He's one of the best, and I've gotta respect what he's done. But I'm not going to change my game. I attack hitters. I got beat today."

The Giants were lined up to win the series after Juan Uribe's home run off talented young left-hander Clayton Kershaw broke a scoreless tie in the seventh.

Zito shook off a line drive off his hip from Rafael Furcal to begin the game and masterfully mixed his pitches while holding the Dodgers to four singles over seven shutout innings.

He was poised to go 3-0 for the first time in his 11-year career.

But he pitched carefully in the eighth to Anderson, an old AL West adversary, who is a .328 hitter in 64 at-bats against him.

"I'm upset with myself," Zito said. "I tried to do too much there. I threw two curveballs and left them up."

Closer Jonathan Broxton mowed through three hitters in the ninth as the Dodgers took two of three. Still, the Giants already have fared better than last year's April visit to the Southland, when they went 0-6 at Dodger Stadium and San Diego's Petco Park.

"We have to get out of here with our chins up," Molina said. "We know we can compete and we will compete with them."

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Too much Tim Lincecum for the Dodgers

Andrew Baggarly
San Jose Mercury News

Tim Lincecum hit his last growth spurt years ago. No matter how much milk he chugs, he will never stand taller than 5-foot-11 in the most stiletto of baseball spikes.

But his legend? That could be boundless.

Lincecum didn't just toss six shutout innings in the Giants' 9-0 victory at Dodger Stadium on Saturday. He also contributed a 3-for-4 day at the plate, knocked in three runs and hoisted a team that had limped out of Chavez Ravine one night earlier.

"Put it all together, it was a pretty good day," said Lincecum, with a hint of a grin.

It's easy to smile when you've driven in as many runs in one afternoon as you've allowed on the mound in three starts.

How about a Silver Slugger to go along with those two NL Cy Young Awards?

"No, I'm not going to start bragging about my batting average, or giving out hitting lessons anytime soon," he said.

OK, so he isn't Jeremy Affeldt. Being Timmy is quite enough.

Through three starts, Lincecum is 3-0 with a 0.90 ERA. He has retired the first hitter in 19 of his 20 innings. His strikeout/walk ratio is 24/3. Opponents are hitting .178 against him.

He made it impossible for the Dodgers to follow the advice of their sage skipper, Joe Torre, who compared facing Lincecum to those days when his Yankee clubs had to stare down Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez.

"You don't go out to beat Pedro," Torre said before the game. "You hope to stay with him and beat someone out of the bullpen. That's your goal. Don't go out there and say, 'We have to beat Lincecum.' You want to win the game. The way to do it is to get the pitch count up."

That strategy worked when Lincecum was a rookie. Not so much anymore. Lincecum didn't throw a flurry of first-pitch strikes, but he made the Dodgers swing the bat. He has gone to an 0-2 count in nearly 32 percent of his confrontations this season. And he has given up only two hits when it's 0-2.

"The last three outings, I've been aggressive in the zone, and I'm not afraid to let them make contact," Lincecum said.

His changeup remains nearly unhittable, but when he faced a jam in the third inning, he didn't hesitate to throw a slider to Andre Ethier. The Dodgers' red-hot right fielder flied out to strand two runners.

Lincecum's most impressive feats might have come at the plate, though. He maximized a sacrifice attempt in the second inning, putting down a perfect bunt single that got past knuckleball pitcher Charlie Haeger to score Bengie Molina.

Lincecum guessed right that he would get a fastball in the third inning, lining a two-run single that nearly cleared the bases. He led off with another single in the fifth. A strikeout in the seventh prevented him from joining Livan Hernandez and Mike LaCoss as the only Giants pitchers with a four-hit game in the club's San Francisco era.

Bochy marveled that Lincecum never picked up a bat during his collegiate days as a Washington Husky.

"He could be the best bunter on the club. He's got a good swing," Bochy said. "It shows you what a good athlete he is, really, to be competitive against major league pitching. It's impressive."

There are no must-win games in April, but the Giants were happy to drink in a victory. They had gotten tough news from the previous night, when center fielder Aaron Rowand fractured his cheekbone after getting hit with a pitch.

Without Lincecum's early hits, the Giants might have wallowed in frustration. Eugenio Velez ran them out of the first inning when he unwisely tried to score from second base on a wild pitch.

But if Lincecum wouldn't take credit for his hitting, Affeldt was ready and willing.

"He and I worked on how to approach facing a knuckleball," said the goofy left-hander, "and it worked."

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Talkin' Giants Baseball Official Addendum: The Giants place outfielder Aaron Rowand on the fifteen day disabled list and recalled infielder Matt Downs.

DODGERS 10, GIANTS 8

Rowand injured in loss at L.A.

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The Giants' Happy Happy Joy Joy Express was derailed during their first visit to Dodger Stadium on Friday night. Todd Wellemeyer was blasted for three homers and seven runs before he got five outs, the Giants lost 10-8, and that was not the worst of it.

Just before midnight, manager Bruce Bochy learned that center fielder Aaron Rowand sustained two small fractures in his left cheekbone and a mild concussion after he was hit by a Vicente Padilla fastball in the fifth inning.

Team spokesman Jim Moorehead said X-rays and CT scans taken at Huntington Hospital after Rowand left the game will be sent to team doctors in San Francisco for further evaluation. As Bochy headed for the team bus, after his 55th birthday got worse by the moment, he said he had no idea whether Rowand will have to go on the disabled list.

Rowand's likely replacement in center field, Eugenio Velez, hit a three-run homer against Ramon Troncoso in a five-run ninth inning that tightened the score of a game that was 7-0 before most of the beach balls in Chavez Ravine were inflated for the evening.

Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier hit back-to-back homers in the first inning and Ethier a grand slam in the second, settling the affair early and giving Ethier five RBIs. By the fourth inning, Manny Ramirez was ensconced in the clubhouse nursing a sore calf. His bat was not needed.

The thought of a Padilla no-hitter started creeping into the park until Mark DeRosa's duck-snort single started a two-run rally in the fifth. The Giants had runners on first and second with one out when Padilla's first-pitch fastball rode inside and hit Rowand on the left side of his head, catching his helmet and cheek.

Rowand eventually walked to the clubhouse without aid and was lucid.

Padilla is a reputed headhunter, but Bochy said he did not believe it was intentional.

"In that situation, he's in a jam," Bochy said. "You're always going to wonder what the intent was. Certainly in that situation, that's not when a pitcher is going to hit somebody."

Padilla said Rowand was "right on the plate. With that kind of lead, there's no reason for me to start a conflict."

The hit-by-pitch loaded the bases, but before the Giants could cut into the Dodgers' 7-2 lead any further Edgar Renteria lined into a double play, with Velez, a pinch runner, caught too far off first base.

Pablo Sandoval added an opposite-field homer in the sixth.

Wellemeyer has started and lost two of the Giants' three defeats. His first start was not bad, but this one was. He blamed his troubles on a couple of bad pitches and what he termed the "small" strike zone of umpire Dan Iassogna. Before the back-to-back homers in the first inning, Wellemeyer walked Rafael Furcal on a 3-2 fastball the Giants thought was a strike.

"It didn't even leave the plate," Wellemeyer said. "It didn't even get black. It was white the whole way. ... It changes things when you walk the leadoff guy instead of striking him out."

Perhaps the Giants should petition the league not to play on April 16 as long as Bochy is manager. The Padres and Giants have lost seven of their last nine games on his "special day."

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Fred Lewis Traded to Toronto

Mike Lovell
Talkin' Giants Baseball

The Giants traded Fred Lewis to the Toronto Blue Jays for a player to be named later or cash considerations.

Fred Lewis' play in San Francisco was an enigma at best. Lewis, at time showed a lot of potential, followed by lack of concentration. Lewis consistently looked uncomfortable with his outfield play and was not consistent with the Giants at the plate.

It was obvious with this reporter that Lewis had problems with his confidence. Perhaps this move will provide Fred with a new opportunity and will live up to his potential. Then again, maybe not.

Good luck to Fred Lewis except when he plays the Giants.

Huff and a puff ignites power display; 3 homers back stellar outing by Sanchez

Giants 6, Pirates 0

John Shea
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle

After the Giants signed Aubrey Huff in January, the 6-foot-4 first baseman said of his new baseball home, "If Barry Bonds can hit home runs there, I can, right?" Yes, Huff was kidding, but he nonetheless earned bragging rights over Bonds in only his sixth home game at China Basin.

In eight years at the downtown ballpark, Bonds played 494 games and hit 160 home runs. None was an inside-the-parker. None made him as winded as Huff got Wednesday while trudging 360 feet around the bases during the second inning of the Giants' 6-0 victory over the Pirates.

The park's fifth inside-the-parker began a four-run rally, which was plenty for Jonathan Sanchez, who had his "A" game during an eight-inning gem in which he surrendered three hits, issued three walks and struck out 11 batters, matching a career high.

"When I hit it, I thought it was gone," Huff said. "In most parks, it is."

In this park, it took a tricky bounce off the seventh archway in right-center, more than 400 feet from the plate, and ricocheted toward the right-field line, catching the Pirates' outfielders off guard.

There was no play at the plate, but Huff slid anyway because Mark DeRosa signaled for it. "Style points," Aaron Rowand said. Huff pulled himself up and stumbled to the dugout. Asked about his teammates' reaction, he said, "I don't know. I blacked out."

These are good times for the Giants, who had the majors' best record in spring training and have carried it into the season. They're 7-2 after opening last year 2-7, including 0-6 in the first trip to San Diego and Los Angeles.

"We have a more solid lineup than last year, 1 through 8," said Rowand, who hit one of three homers Wednesday, joining Huff and Eli Whiteside. "No easy at-bats for the pitcher."

Huff, the new cleanup hitter, still hasn't hit a ball over an outfield wall and might wonder if he ever will at Third and King. He smacked three balls, also doubling off the right-field wall (minus a goofy bounce) and flying to deep center.

"You know what? I never hit a three-home run game. I'm going to go ahead and chalk this up as a three-home run game in my mind," Huff said. "I just don't know if I can hit a ball any better. Right-center is just ridiculous.

"Everyone in spring training told me, 'When you get to San Fran, you'll see.' I said, 'C'mon, if you get it, it's going to go.' Well, I get it now. It makes it even more amazing what Barry Bonds did. I just can't believe someone can hit 73 homers here. It's mind-boggling."

Whiteside's three-run homer capped the second-inning rally, and Rowand hit his two-run homer in the fifth. Two Pirates reached in the first inning, but Sanchez retired 10 straight batters, six on strikeouts. He was perfect in the seventh and eighth, and manager Bruce Bochy pulled him after 109 pitches and let Brian Wilson finish it.

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Pirates edge Giants 6-5

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

Reliever Jeremy Affeldt is known to get a bit squirrelly when throwing to bases. Giants manager Bruce Bochy jokes that Affeldt has knocked out more season-ticket holders than the recession.

But there was nothing wrong with Affeldt's throw to second base in the eighth inning Tuesday night. He threaded it perfectly to shortstop Edgar Renteria, who promptly dropped it.

The huge mistake set up the tiebreaking run, and the Pittsburgh Pirates scored twice more in the ninth against Brandon Medders as the Giants lost 6-5 at AT&T Park.

The Giants defense, so maligned by scouts and other observers before the season, hadn't cost them as they won six of their first seven games. Even Renteria's mistake probably falls in the column of freak happenings more than any true skill deficiency.

"It's not something you're going to see often," Bochy said. "That was an aberration more than anything. It just didn't stick in his glove. I think our defense is going to be fine."

Renteria said he didn't see the ball out of Affeldt's hand.

"I don't know why," the veteran shortstop said. "Maybe because he wound up and threw. "... I threw up my glove to protect my face."

It was a dispiriting end to a night that otherwise held positives. The Giants rallied from a 3-1 deficit to tie the score in the sixth inning. They made noise in the ninth, too, when Eugenio Velez hit a two-run home run. His shot into the arcade in right was preceded by Nate
Schierholtz's pinch double.

But Octavio Dotel retired the next three hitters, including Pablo Sandoval on a game-ending line drive that first baseman Garrett Jones snagged with a diving effort down the line.

Jones also knocked in the tiebreaking run in the eighth. His soft single scored Andrew McCutchen, who should have been wiped out on the force play after Affeldt fielded a hopper from Lastings Milledge.

But Affeldt bore responsibility for walking McCutchen in the first place — a sin made greater by the fact that the speedy center fielder had scored twice earlier against Matt Cain, both times stealing his way into scoring position.

Cain took awhile to find his bearings. He struggled to work ahead in the count, sweated in the stretch and did well to hold the Pirates to three runs in the first three innings. But he retired the final 10 hitters he faced to complete six innings and give the Giants a chance to get back in the game.

"I was trying to find something mechanically, and I was erratic with my heater," Cain said. "I found it, and I tried to go from there."

Leadoff man Aaron Rowand started two innings with hits, scoring in the third on Sandoval's single and crossing the plate in the fifth on Mark DeRosa's double to right field.

Sandoval was easily thrown out trying to score from first base; he went in high and hard but failed to knock the ball out of catcher Ryan Doumit's glove.

"I'd just assume Pablo slide there," Bochy said. "He's one guy we can't afford to lose."

The Giants used unexpected means to score the tying run in the sixth. Bengie Molina drew a walk, then went from first to third on a single — two things not usually in his repertoire. Molina scored on Velez's pinch ground out.

Molina's walk marked his ninth consecutive plate appearance to reach safely. He was 7-for-7 with two walks dating to the eighth inning of Sunday's game with the Atlanta Braves. The streak ended there, as Molina struck out in the eighth.

Medders hadn't pitched since Sunday, and he threw off a bullpen mound earlier in the day. He surrendered a towering home run to Andy LaRoche and a hard-hit triple to Ryan Church, who scored on Akinori Iwamura's single.Pirates left-hander

Paul Maholm made the play of the game in the third inning, flipping the ball out of his glove to first base while sprawled on his backside to throw out Aubrey Huff.

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Zito, Giants keep rolling, beat Pirates handily

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle

Barry Zito earned his 33rd win as a Giant on Monday night in his 100th start, a ratio that falls far short of the team's desires and expectations, especially against dollars earned.

So, a question to the faithful: If Zito turns it around in 2010 and helps the Giants reach the playoffs, or beyond, will it all have been worthwhile?

Monday's 9-3 victory against the Pirates lifted the Giants to 6-1 and Zito to 2-0, advancing him far ahead of his own curve. In his first three seasons in San Francisco he did not earn his second win until April 21, June 8 and June 5.

New season, new attitude, even a new zip code for Zito, who moved his locker across the clubhouse for "a change of scenery." Plus, he said, "It's nice to be closer to the kitchen."

"Usually in the second half I feel pretty good. My goal is to bring that second-half guy into the first half. Usually I get to the second half and I'm in a place where the year is going to be what it is and I let the baseball gods determine what's going to happen."

This year, Zito said, he wanted to be "carefree" and "let my stuff work for itself."

It did not work as well Monday in six-plus innings of three-run ball as it did when he pitched six scoreless in Houston. But he did not have to be Randy Johnson on a night when San Francisco scored six runs in four innings against Brian Burres, a 2000 Giants draft pick. The Zito-esque lefty was summoned from the minors Monday when scheduled starter Ross Ohlendorf developed back spasms.

Bengie Molina was the big hitter. His two-run homer in the eighth against former Angels teammate Brendan Donnelly gave him four of the Giants' 12 hits and four RBIs, raising his season total to seven in five starts. Pablo Sandoval had three hits and Mark DeRosa a two-RBI single.

The comedy in this game was provided by big first baseman Aubrey Huff, who in successive innings scored from first on a Molina double and then ran three more bases on his own RBI triple into Mirabelli Alley.

"I told Bengie when I scored from first on his double, 'Just hit it out of the park next time,' " Huff said. "Next time I was on second base and he did. I was very appreciative of that."

Huff has been on base a lot lately, all five times Monday (he was hit twice by Burres, a former Orioles teammate) and his last three trips Sunday.

When he reached third after his triple, the dugout was in stitches and Huff shot third-base coach Tim Flannery a look that said, "What do I have to do to hit one out of here?"

Congratulations, Aubrey. You just got AT&T'd.

"That's pretty much all I've got," Huff said of the drive. "If it doesn't go out, it is what it is. If it goes into that corner it's going to be an automatic triple. I haven't had more than two triples in a season in my life. I think I'll match that this year."

Huff sold himself short. He hit five for Baltimore in 2007.

On the minus side, Edgar Renteria struck out his final three times at bat and is 0-for-10 with five strikeouts since his sizzling start. Also, Aaron Rowand took a Joel Hanrahan fastball squarely on the right wrist. He was sore, but X-rays were negative.

For the 2010 Giants seven games in, even the bad news turns good.

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Skies clear long enough for a Lincecum victory

Henry Schulman SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle

Finally, the Giants can stop listening to Jeremy Affeldt rave about his .500 batting average last year, when he was 1-for-2. In the eighth inning of Sunday night's 6-3 victory against Atlanta, Affeldt bailed out on a slider from lefty Eric O'Flaherty that ultimately rode across the plate for strike three. Teammates howled.

Affeldt stood by his locker after his save clutching a television screen-grab of the moment. He did not hit the "print" button.

"The coaches tend to do that to me quite a bit," Affeldt said, before launching into his defense with, "Dude, that slider was going to hit me."

This is what winning teams do. They laugh at themselves and one another. They turn negatives into positives. One week into the season, the 5-1 Giants are looking like masters at the trick.

Take Tim Lincecum, who improved to 2-0 and struck out 10, his 20th double-digit strikeout game in 92 big-league starts. He pitched seven innings in a frigid wind following a storm that wiped out the planned 2000 Giants reunion ceremony and delayed the first pitch of the ballpark's 10th-anniversary game by more than four hours.

No biggie for Lincecum. He just rode out the delay with a nap and some Golden Tee.

In the first inning, he surrendered a two-run Brian McCann homer to right-center into the teeth of that wind to spot Atlanta a 2-0 lead. Not once last season did Lincecum allow a homer at AT&T Park.

McCann's shot into the arcade seemed implausible against that wind until Pablo Sandoval crushed his own homer to right in a three-run eighth inning that widened a 3-2 Giants lead.

"Pablo did it later in the game and it went farther, so that made me feel better giving up that one," Lincecum said of McCann's homer, the only runs the Braves scored until Jason Heyward hit his second opposite-field shot in two days, against Affeldt in the ninth.

This game might be remembered less for Lincecum's strikeout wizardry - he fanned the side in the seventh to end his 108-pitch night - or even the lousy weather, but rather as the night that Sandoval finally found his stroke in 2010.

Sandoval was in the thick of all three scoring rallies. In the fourth, he tripled into Mirabelli Alley almost 10 years to the inning after the former Giants catcher tripled into the same gap to inspire its name. Sandoval then scored on an Aubrey Huff single.

Sandoval also singled to start a two-out rally against Kenshin Kawakami in the sixth. Huff walked, Mark DeRosa drove in Sandoval with his first home hit as a Giant, and the Giants took a lead when Heyward's ensuing throw bounced off a sliding Sandoval at the plate for an error that allowed Huff to score, too.

"I think this game for me is the start of the turnaround for me to help the team," said Sandoval, who said he liked playing in conditions seemingly better suited for a polar bear than a Panda.

Even without much help from Sandoval, the Giants won five of their six games. It was one week out of 26, but a very promising one.

"There's a lot of baseball left, but we did what we wanted to do," manager Bruce Bochy said. "We got off to a good start. I hope it will carry us for a while."

Briefly: Rich Aurilia told several reporters he formally has retired. ... Eugenio Velez made a nice over-the-shoulder catch of Troy Glaus' wind-blown popup to end the eighth inning. ... Lincecum had to bench the only cap he has worn in the majors because the Giants are wearing orange-billed caps on Sundays this year.

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San Francisco Giants suffer first loss

Andrew Baggarly
San Jose Mercury News

The Giants knew they couldn't stay unbeaten forever. But that didn't make their 7-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Saturday night any easier to digest.

As the last remaining unbeaten team in the major leagues, the Giants managed just four hits before the ninth inning and left nine runners on base before a sellout crowd of 42,985 at AT&T Park.

San Francisco (4-1) came away empty after loading the bases in the second and sixth innings and saw another rally end with a missed hit and run in the fourth. Braves starter Derek Lowe had seven walks, but only one of those runners turned into a run.

"We had (Lowe) tonight, we did. And he made pitches when he had to," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "But we created some pretty good opportunities. We were just missing the big hit."

In the second inning, catcher Eli Whiteside and starting pitcher Todd Wellemeyer both struck out with the bases loaded. That began a forgettable night at the plate for Whiteside, who failed to get the ball in play during a hit-and-run attempt in the fourth that resulted in Juan Uribe being tagged out at second base. Whiteside, starting in place of Bengie Molina, also grounded out with the bases loaded in the sixth inning.

The Giants offense accounted for 46 hits during their first four games, which included a sweep of Houston at Minute Maid Park and a 13-inning matinee victory Friday over the Braves. But San Francisco didn't register a hit in the seventh and eighth innings before a short rally in the ninth brought home one run.

"Came up a couple times during the game with guys on to help the ball team out and didn't come through," said Whiteside, who was 0-for-3.

Wellemeyer, in his Giants regular-season debut, allowed seven hits and four earned runs in 61/3 innings.

Bochy would have loved to see Wellemeyer go a bit longer after every member of the bullpen was used Friday. But the Braves loaded the bases in the seventh, and Wellemeyer was removed after his inside fastball grazed Troy Glaus' jersey to bring home a run, which gave Atlanta a 2-1 lead.

Wellemeyer allowed five hits in the first five innings and got out of a bases-loaded jam in the first when Lowe grounded into a fielder's choice with two outs.

Wellemeyer's first big blemish came in the sixth inning when Braves rookie outfielder Jason Heyward took a high fastball the opposite way over the left-field fence for his second home run of the season.

Heyward reached base in all five plate appearances. He had an RBI single in the seventh.

The 31-year-old Wellemeyer, who was making his 65th big league start, has felt a certain amount of pressure since pitchers and catchers reported for spring training in mid-February.

He won the fifth starter's job over prospect Madison Bumgarner after a solid exhibition season in which he was 3-1 with a 2.70 ERA in eight games, which included a seven-inning outing against the Chicago Cubs on March 30.

Bochy said before Saturday's game that he thought Wellemeyer threw as well as anyone on the Giants pitching staff during Cactus League play. But Wellemeyer did give up six walks last Sunday against Seattle at AT&T Park in the final exhibition game and had four walks Saturday.

The Giants opened the scoring in the bottom of the fourth as Uribe singled to right center off Lowe to score Aubrey Huff from third base.

San Francisco outfielder John Bowker was on the move from first base on the play. That caused Braves second baseman Omar Infante to move to his right, which allowed the ball to bounce into the outfield.

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Undefeated Giants open at home with a bang

Henry Schulman SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle In brute-force impact, Aaron Rowand's belly-first slide was the TNT equivalent of his nose-first meeting with the center-field fence in Philadelphia years ago.

"Violent," manager Bruce Bochy said.

"Fitting," reliever Sergio Romo called it. "Fitting for that type of game, fitting that he goes head-first into first base and we're now 4-0."

Indeed, the majors' only undefeated team remained so with a 5-4, 13-inning victory over Atlanta in a home opener Friday that will be remembered for two deafening cymbal crashes.

The first was Edgar Renteria's two-run homer with one out in the ninth, on a hanging slider from Billy Wagner, that tied the game 4-4 and actually prompted the new Atlanta closer to say, "He's not hitting .700 for no reason."

The second was Rowand's slide on his two-out infield hit in the 13th that scored Juan Uribe from third to end a 4-hour, 1-minute fight of attrition - Bochy used his entire bench and bullpen - and the longest home opener by innings in San Francisco history.

"Great team win," said Bochy, who would have had Barry Zito throw next had he needed to replace winner Jeremy Affeldt.

There are no trends this early in a season. The sample size is too small. You look at signs, and a lot of the Giants' are positive.

They went to Houston and swept an inferior team.

They rebounded from a 3-0 deficit to win Friday. Last year, it took the Giants 108 games to win a game when they were trailing by at least three.

They beat a good Braves team despite not playing their best. They hit into two first-pitch double plays against Tim Hudson to erase the only baserunners they had in the first six innings. Giants pitchers walked nine, but the offense did not draw one until Uribe's one-out pass in the 13th, which started the winning rally against Kris Medlen.

Though Uribe had only 10 steals over the last five seasons and 13 innings of wear on his legs, Bochy had him run with Rowand up and two outs. Rowand swung at the 0-1 pitch and hit catcher Brian McCann in the chest with his backswing, forcing McCann's throw into center field. That allowed Uribe to take third.

McCann argued for interference, but home-plate umpire Tim Tschida said no, Rowand did nothing wrong. Manager Bobby Cox might have earned his record 154th ejection arguing that call had he not earned it in the top of the inning arguing a strike call.

Medlen's next pitch was the game's last. Rowand grounded one deep into the hole at short. Yunel Escobar gloved it and heaved a high throw to first. Rowand would have beaten it standing up but took no chances, and thus his hard belly slide.

"I had no idea how close it was," Rowand said. "I had no idea where the ball was. I knew he went deep into the hole. As soon as I saw him glove it, I put my head down. I still don't know how close it was."

It was close enough that any little contribution helped. Dan Runzler walked home a run in the eighth to give the Braves a 4-2 lead but retired the next two hitters with the bags full to keep it close. Eugenio Velez opened the ninth with a double against Wagner that made Renteria's homer a tying one.

And so on.

"We're just trying to keep things rolling," Rowand said. "Everybody's having fun, and 4-0 is not too bad."

4

Final-13 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 R H E Atlanta 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 11 2 San Francisco 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 1 5 9 2

5

W: Affeldt (2-0) L: Medlen (0-1)

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Final Boxscore

Atlanta Braves Player AB R H RBI TB BB K AVG OBP SLG M. Cabrera, CF-LF 5 1 1 0 2 2 0 .111 .273 .167 M. Prado, 3B 4 2 3 0 3 3 1 .625 .700 .750 Y. Escobar, SS 5 0 1 0 1 1 1 .235 .278 .294 T. Glaus, 1B 6 1 2 1 2 0 0 .294 .368 .294 M. Diaz, LF 3 0 2 2 2 0 1 .400 .400 .400 N. McLouth, CF 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .200 .429 .200 O. Infante, 2B 5 0 0 0 0 1 2 .125 .222 .125 J. Heyward, RF 5 0 0 0 0 1 4 .176 .222 .412 D. Ross, C 3 0 1 1 1 1 1 .333 .500 .333 B. McCann, PH-C 2 0 1 0 1 0 0 .300 .533 .600 T. Hudson, P 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 B. Conrad, PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 T. Saito, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - B. Wagner, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - E. O'Flaherty, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - E. Hinske, PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .333 .333 1.000 P. Moylan, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - K. Medlen, P 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 Totals 46 4 11 4 12 9 14 - - -

San Francisco Giants Player AB R H RBI TB BB K AVG OBP SLG A. Rowand, CF 6 1 2 1 2 0 2 .273 .273 .364 E. Renteria, SS 5 2 3 2 7 0 1 .688 .737 1.000 P. Sandoval, 3B 5 0 1 1 2 0 0 .278 .316 .389 A. Huff, 1B 4 0 0 1 0 0 1 .222 .222 .222 B. Wilson, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - S. Romo, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - A. Torres, PH 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .250 .000 J. Affeldt, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - M. DeRosa, LF 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250 .400 .500 D. Runzler, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - T. Ishikawa, 1B 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 .333 .333 1.333 B. Molina, C 4 0 1 0 1 0 0 .273 .250 .273 E. Whiteside, PR-C 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .250 .400 .250 J. Bowker, RF 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 .214 .214 .429 J. Uribe, 2B 4 1 1 0 1 1 0 .375 .389 .500 J. Sanchez, P 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 B. Medders, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - N. Schierholtz, PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .333 .333 G. Mota, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - W. Joaquin, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - E. Velez, LF 2 1 1 0 2 0 1 .333 .500 .667 Totals 43 5 9 5 15 1 9 - - -

2B: Atl 1, M. Cabrera (1). SF 3, E. Renteria (2), P. Sandoval (2), E. Velez (1).

HR: SF 1, E. Renteria (1).

HR Detail: SF, E. Renteria (Inning: 9 , 1 Out, 1 on) off B. Wagner.

Atlanta Braves Player IP H R ER BB K HR BFP Pit B-S ERA OpBA T. Hudson 7.0 3 2 2 0 2 0 23 77 25 - 52 2.57 .130 T. Saito (Hld 1) 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 12 3 - 9 0.00 .000 B. Wagner (BS 1) 1.0 2 2 2 0 1 1 5 20 7 - 13 6.00 .250 E. O'Flaherty 1.0 1 0 0 0 1 0 3 12 5 - 7 0.00 .125 P. Moylan 1.0 1 0 0 0 2 0 4 17 5 - 12 0.00 .222 K. Medlen (L 0-1) 1.2 2 1 0 1 2 0 8 27 7 - 20 0.00 .308

San Francisco Giants Player IP H R ER BB K HR BFP Pit B-S ERA OpBA J. Sanchez 4.1 7 3 3 2 6 0 22 86 34 - 52 6.23 .368 B. Medders 1.2 1 0 0 0 2 0 5 17 3 - 14 9.00 .444 G. Mota 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 12 5 - 7 0.00 .000 W. Joaquin 0.1 1 1 1 1 0 0 3 12 7 - 5 9.00 .500 D. Runzler 1.2 0 0 0 3 1 0 7 28 17 - 11 0.00 .000 B. Wilson 1.2 1 0 0 2 2 0 8 39 17 - 22 0.00 .091 S. Romo 1.1 0 0 0 0 1 0 4 13 4 - 9 0.00 .182 J. Affeldt (W 2-0) 1.0 1 0 0 1 1 0 5 20 8 - 12 0.00 .222

Errors: Atl 2, Y. Escobar (1), B. McCann (1). SF 2, J. Affeldt (1), P. Sandoval (2).

Double Plays: Atl 3, (Y.Escobar to Infante to Glaus; Y.Escobar to Glaus; Infante to Y.Escobar to Glaus). SF 1 (Renteria to Uribe to Huff).

Stolen Bases: SF 1, J. Uribe (1).

Caught Stealing: Atl 1, M. Prado (1).

Wild Pitches: SF 1, W. Joaquin.

Umpires: HP--Tschida, 1B--Davidson, 2B--Marquez, 3B--Muchlinski.

Time: 4:01

Attendance - 42,940