Lincecum second best in battle of aces

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle

Fans of the Giants and Colorado Rockies can look forward to many fantastic duels between Tim Lincecum and Ubaldo Jimenez in the years to come - maybe later this year.

They did meet Monday in front of a sold-out stadium on a brilliant Memorial Day afternoon, but with Lincecum still gasping for air and grasping for answers, it was not a fair fight. Colorado won 4-0 as Cy-to-be Jimenez improved to 10-1.

That the Rockies would triumph seemed a fait accompli once Lincecum walked Troy Tulowitzki and Brad Hawpe to start the second inning and both scored on a two-out single by Clint Barmes. Again, a stolen base cost Lincecum a run.

The only outstanding question is whether Lincecum, in his 100th career start, might have discovered something positive to carry into No. 101. He had his moments, but an 0-2, 90-mph fastball down the pipe, which Todd Helton redirected 400 feet for an RBI double in the fifth, bespoke the work that Lincecum still must do.

Bruce Bochy said Lincecum should be happier after what the manager termed "a better outing." Bochy also said Lincecum was "close." Also, unlike last week, Bochy is not concerned with Lincecum's state of mind.

But Lincecum's state of mind did not seem too good when he said, "I think the more frustrating thing for me is continuing to struggle here. It's hard to find a way out of it. Like I say after every game, I try to take something positive out of it. There's too much negative going on right now."

Lincecum allowed four runs (three earned) in 5 2/3 innings, threw 121 pitches, and failed to finish six innings for the third consecutive game. The only time that had happened was in June 2007, in the seventh, eighth and ninth starts of his big-league career.

Lincecum seemed loose before the game as he sat by his locker and played with his dog, and the first inning provided hope as he retired the side on 11 pitches.

However, he needed 32 pitches to get through the second. He threw a decent pitch to Barmes, a changeup down, for the two-run single; the two walks and stolen base that preceded it were more worrisome.

"I put a lot of pressure on myself in that second inning," Lincecum confessed.

Bochy showed faith in Lincecum by letting him face Barmes with first base open, two outs and Jimenez on deck, largely because Barmes was hitless in 11 career at-bats against him. Bochy also admitted he was not comfortable making Lincecum throw strikes with the bags full, given his control problems.

Throwing strikes was all Jimenez did, with four different pitches, in extending his shutout streak to 26 innings. As Aaron Rowand summarized it, "He has electric stuff."

Pablo Sandoval owns the magic potion. He had three of the Giants' four hits, including a ninth-inning double, but apparently the stuff is nontransferable.

Buster Posey went hitless in three trips. He knew he was not in Billy Bucknerland anymore in his first at-bat, when Jimenez opened with a 99-mph fastball for a strike and got him to chase a high 98-mph heater for strike three.

Bochy said he had planned to shield Posey from Jimenez but changed his mind after the rookie went 6-for-9 with four RBIs over his first two games.

"He's got to be out there," Bochy said. "There are going to be tough matchups. These are the guys you do face in the majors. He's got to find a way to figure them out."

Box Score

Giants rally to beat Arizona

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

The Giants' 6-5, 10-inning, come-from-behind victory arrived with all the euphoric accouterments Sunday afternoon: grown men rushing the field, surrounding the hero, slapping his helmet and bouncing around him like soda bubbles.

But when Buster Posey tried to join the celebration, wizened veteran Aubrey Huff interceded. Faster than you can say "Kendry Morales," Huff dropped his forearm like a railroad crossing gate and separated the golden boy from the scrum.

The Giants sustained a few injuries in the making of their celebration, but none during it. Torres, the hero in the middle, took some wear but was no worse for it.

"They punched me. They hit me. I was trying to cover up," said Torres, whose line single to right field scored Juan Uribe to win it. "It was a lot of fun."

Torres also scored the equalizer in the ninth as the Giants rallied from a two-run deficit. Uribe, Eli Whiteside and Torres hit consecutive two-out singles in the 10th as the Giants frolicked away with a three-game sweep over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

"Actually, you do have to watch it," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, fully aware of Saturday's freaky finish in Anaheim, when the Angels' Morales broke his leg while celebrating a walk-off grand slam.

"You get that euphoric feeling, and guys go wild."

The feeling extended to the stands. The sellout crowd buzzed with energy while delighting in Posey's second consecutive three-hit game. The prized prospect hit two doubles and a single in his first three trips while receiving more applause breaks than a State of the Union address.

Posey is 6 for 9 in two games. And although he doesn't approve when teammates call him nicknames with religious overtones, it's clear his promotion is having a halo effect on the club.

The Giants have scored 18 runs and pounded 31 hits in 19 Posey-ized innings.

"You hear 40,000 fans going nuts for him, and then you see him keep rolling with it," Giants closer Brian Wilson said. "It gets the energy going in the dugout, that's for sure."

Bochy said he won't shy away from starting Posey today against the Rockies' Ubaldo Jimenez, who might be the best pitcher in baseball at the moment.

"Oh, yeah," Bochy said. "He'll be in there."

So will Torres. The 32-year-old leadoff man didn't have a rocket trip through the minor leagues or a top-prospect pedigree, but he continues to maximize this everyday opportunity.

With the Giants down to their final two outs in the ninth against Arizona closer Chad Qualls, Torres followed Travis Ishikawa's pinch double with a line single that set up the tying rally.

Torres' speed continued to form a perfect combination with Freddy Sanchez's bat control in the No. 2 spot. The duo executed a perfect hit-and-run, with Sanchez's single scoring Ishikawa and moving Torres to third.

Diamondbacks third baseman Mark Reynolds made a diving stop on Pablo Sandoval's grounder that nearly resulted in a game-ending double play, but Sandoval beat the wide relay, and Torres scored to tie it.

"Believe me," said Bochy. "That would've crushed us."

The Giants sustained two casualties. Shortstop Ryan Rohlinger almost certainly will go on the disabled list after pulling his left hamstring while getting thrown out at the plate in the seventh inning. And left-hander Jeremy Affeldt could join him after acknowledging his strained hamstring "didn't hold up as well as I would've liked."

Affeldt, pitching for the first time in a week, threw four consecutive balls to Adam LaRoche with the bases loaded to force in the tiebreaking run in the eighth. Affeldt's trouble began when Kelly Johnson rolled an infield single, and Uribe, who had just entered cold in place of Rohlinger, sailed an off-balance throw into the Diamondbacks' dugout.

"I don't exactly want to tank it so we can come back for a big win," said Affeldt, smirking. "But you want to feel you're always capable of coming back. A few days ago, we couldn't make anything happen."

Then Posey arrived with the buzz. And Torres had the last sting.

Box Score

Posey's an instant hit

3 RBI singles loudly announce his arrival

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The 37,400 fans basked in one of those precious moments in San Francisco when they could rise to their feet, cheer a young hitter just up from the minors and say with conviction, "This could be the one."

Think Will Clark, Matt Williams, Royce Clayton or - man, it's been a long time - Buster Posey, whose first big-league game of 2010 on Saturday night was a success.

Posey's contribution in a 12-1 creaming of Arizona was not some Herculean blast to the Coke bottle in left field, but three silky swings that yielded three scoring singles in four at-bats and his first three career RBIs.

Thus, the 23-year-old already delivered on his first promise, just to do his little part and not try to play savior.

"Great job the kid did," manager Bruce Bochy said. "I'm sure he didn't get much sleep last night, and he goes out there and gets some big hits for us. He swung it well down there in Fresno and carried it into tonight. It was a good debut. We needed it."

Officially, Posey was promoted from Triple-A to play first base and get some at-bats until some injured players return. Unofficially, let's just see management send the 2008 first-round draft pick back to the bushes if he hits like this against all foes, not merely the last-place ones.

In his first big-league at-bat of 2010 and the 18th of his career, Posey accomplished in three pitches what took Pablo Sandoval 152 at-bats this year: a two-out hit with a runner in scoring position. Posey's single to center, on a 1-1 fastball from a generally overmatched Billy Buckner in the first inning, brought home Freddy Sanchez.

Posey also hit the last of four consecutive singles in a three-run fifth against Buckner, the other three by Sandoval, Aubrey Huff (now the left fielder) and Juan Uribe. With the bases full and nobody out in the seventh, Posey singled through the hole against Saul Rivera for his third RBI.

That one impressed Huff, who said, "Bases loaded, nobody out. A lot of guys go out and try to do too much. He just took a nice, easy swing, got his hit and got the line moving."

Once Posey got to first after that third hit, he chuckled when base coach Roberto Kelly said, "It's that easy, huh?"

"It's not," Posey said with a laugh.

Sandoval had three more hits and Uribe and Eli Whiteside homered in support of Jonathan Sanchez, who was forced out after five innings because of pitch count but held the Diamondbacks to two hits, including a Rusty Ryal homer, for his first win since April 26. Sanchez walked four and struck out seven.

Even reliever Denny Bautista and little-used Travis Ishikawa joined the offensive fun with RBI hits.

In fact, Posey's first question after the Giants' biggest scoring day of the season must have been, "This team doesn't hit?"

Bochy said Posey was promoted now because the Giants were down two position players, Edgar Renteria and Mark DeRosa, and "this was a good opportunity for Buster to get some at-bats up here at first base."

Posey's .349 batting average and .995 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) at Fresno might have forced the Giants' hand, too.

Bochy would not commit to Posey being here for the rest of the season, saying his status will be reassessed once Renteria and DeRosa return.

Bochy had not met with Posey before batting practice to give him the "be yourself" speech, but maybe he did not have to. When Posey was asked how aware he was of the clamor for him, he said, "I can honestly, honestly say I've tried my best to focus on Fresno and working each day and staying out of the articles and whatnot. I heard things here and there, but I focused on each game.

"There are a lot of good hitters on this team. I don't feel I have to do a lot of extraordinary things to help us get a win."

Box Score

Cain throws 1-hitter in 5-0 win

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
Maybe it's those cornea-burning uniforms the Giants wear Friday nights. They won for the fourth time in four games in 2010 while wearing la grande orange. Or perhaps it's something more basic.

Maybe, just maybe, you give Matt Cain a few runs and more times than not, he will carry you to the handshake line.

In this case, Cain needed only one. He jumped on a first-inning 1-0 lead and pitched his second career one-hitter in a 5-0 victory against Arizona. The hit was a second-inning drive off the right-field wall by Mark Reynolds for a double that barely eluded a leaping Nate Schierholtz.

Freddy Sanchez singled home the first-inning run to give Cain a precious lead. Pablo Sandoval hit his first home run in 125 at-bats and drove in three runs as the Giants beat the Diamondbacks for the first time this season and improved their meager record against the NL West to 5-12.

Cain looked as good as ever in his second consecutive complete game and third career shutout. He struck out a season-high nine and did not walk a batter for the second time this season, though he did hit Reynolds in the fifth.

"I felt good from the beginning," Cain said. "I was just trying to keep doing things and not try to think about a lot of stuff. I just let Bengie (Molina) call the game and stay in rhythm."

Cain's success was no mystery. Of the 122 pitches he threw, 83 were strikes. A lineup that swatted seven home runs and scored 21 runs in two games against the Giants in Phoenix last week had to swing defensively.

The scuttle on the field was that Reynolds' double would have been a home run in Arizona. It had a lot of backspin and its carry fooled Schierholtz, who crashed into the wall about the time the ball did, a foot or two from his glove. Schierholtz jammed his injured right shoulder into the fence.

"I'm just bummed I didn't catch up with the ball, especially with the outcome of the game," he said. "I felt I was pretty close. I didn't see it on TV. It just kept carrying and carrying. I didn't know the wall was there."

The other significant development besides Cain's great start was Sandoval's first homer in May and first three-RBI game since Sept. 22. The Panda started the night with a terrible three-pitch strikeout against Edwin Jackson and said that served as a good reminder to wait for a decent pitch to hit.

He did so in the third inning when he hit a sacrifice fly, in the fifth when he singled home a run and again when he took Chad Qualls over the center-field wall to start the eighth.

Sandoval was 0-for-4 on Thursday and decided that Friday night would begin "a new season."

"That's what I put in my mind," he said. "When you've got your last game and you struggled a little bit in the season, you try to put something new in your head. My mom told me that."

May was not a big power month for Sandoval last year, either. He hit two homers in May before pounding eight in June on the way to 25 for the year.

Asked if he was ready to predict a big bang next month, too, he nearly jumped out of his chair and said with a laugh, "I don't know. I don't want to say anything, just keep playing."

Cain in a groove

Matt Cain's third career shutout was also his second straight complete game without allowing an earned run. His past two starts:

Innings17

Hits6

Runs1

Earned runs0

Walks1

Strikeouts13

Record1-1

Note: In addition to his three career shutouts, Cain threw nine scoreless innings, allowing only three hits, in a 1-0, 10-inning win last year.

Box Score

Freddy Sanchez leads Giants to a win over Nationals

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

Freddy Sanchez finally experienced joy in a Giants uniform. He also got kicked in the face.

He could have done without the flying cleat to his jaw, which happened while he covered second base on a steal attempt in the second inning Thursday. But he showed a little toughness while shaking it off, then he put his talents on full display at AT&T Park.

A little more than a week after making his season debut, Sanchez became the difference-maker that the Giants long envisioned in a 5-4 victory over the Washington Nationals. He made several tough defensive plays, got on base four times and hit the two-run single that put the Giants ahead in the seventh inning.

The three-run seventh propelled the Giants to a series victory and kept them above .500, where they've resided all season.

"It's something we needed," manager Bruce Bochy said. "We needed somebody to pick us up, and he certainly did today. He's a professional hitter. He's going to put the ball in play and put good wood on it. That's his forte.

"This guy can hit, and he'll get comfortable the more he plays."

The Nationals led 4-2 in the bottom of the seventh before John Bowker reached on first baseman Adam Dunn's error and scored on Nate Schierholtz's pinch single. Andres Torres followed with a double to put the tying and go-ahead runs into scoring position for Sanchez.

Sanchez got a fastball he could handle from former Giant Tyler Walker and didn't try to do too much with it, serving his single to left field. Torres scored ahead of Josh Willingham's off-line throw.

"Those are the situations you want to be in as a player," Sanchez said. "You won't always get it done, but when you do, it feels good. I haven't had much going on here."

Sanchez also saved a run in the fourth when he stayed with Cristian Guzman's hard grounder, which took a wicked hop off the mound. And he showed quick hands while deftly flipping to start a double play that eased Guillermo Mota's burden in the eighth.

Sanchez said he didn't necessarily need an all-around game to build confidence. But it's something the fans probably needed to see. Ever since arriving hurt from the Pirates in a highly scrutinized trade last July, Sanchez has been in the news more for his injuries, surprise surgeries and deliberate rehab pace than any exploits on the field.

Sanchez has looked more and more comfortable since his debut but said he isn't where he wants to be.

"I'm just trying to battle every pitch," he said. "I've got a lot of making up to do. I'm just trying to see pitches and make contact."

But not shoe-to-the-face contact. Sanchez called timeout after Justin Maxwell inadvertently kicked him in the jaw while stealing second base. Sanchez didn't have any lacerations and said he was fine.

Later in the game, Sanchez was thrown out trying to steal — and where do you suppose Washington shortstop Ian Desmond applied the tag?

Right on the kisser.

The Nationals reserved a few smacks for Barry Zito, too. The left-hander had allowed just one home run in his first nine starts but gave up two in the first two innings. Dunn found the right-field arcade in the first, and Josh Willingham led off the second with a blast into the left-field bleachers.

Dunn came within inches of a two-homer afternoon, but his shot in the seventh hit the concrete facing at the top of the arcade. Umpires ruled it a double, and replays upheld it.

Santiago Casilla got the final two outs of the seventh and received credit for the victory — his first since May 19, 2009, with the A's. Mota filled in for ailing setup man Jeremy Affeldt, and Brian Wilson retired the final three hitters to end it.

Box Score

Lincecum struggles in loss to Nationals

Cy Young winner gives up six runs in 4 2/3 innings

Rick Eymer
MLB.com
Giants ace Tim Lincecum would rather avoid wearing his emotions on the sleeves of his San Francisco baseball uniform but there are times when the simple act of throwing a baseball toward a target is anything but simple.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner expects more out of himself than any of the fans who were in attendance Wednesday night when Lincecum delivered another disappointing effort in the Giants' 7-3 loss to the Washington Nationals.

"It's completely frustrating," Lincecum said of his second straight below-average performance in which he exacerbated the situation with uncommon wildness and a lack of concentration when it came to baserunners. "I have to go back to the chalkboard, again, and try to figure it out."

The Nationals stole four bases on Lincecum, twice when the runner had such a huge jump there was no reason for catcher Bengie Molina to even attempt a throw.

Three of those swipes came during a three-run rally in the top of the fifth, when Lincecum issued two of his five walks and hit a batter. The Nationals turned Ian Desmond's chip shot of a single into a pair of runs and Lincecum knew where the blame lay.

"It's rhythm and timing," he said. "Those are the keys for me. I had guys running all over me and I was walking guys. That doesn't help my cause. I have to work on holding runners, and it's more being focused on every pitch."

Lincecum (5-1) lost in the month of May for the first time in his career as he lasted a season-worst 4 2/3 innings, giving up six runs on six hits. He struck out five.

Lincecum has allowed 11 runs over his last two starts after giving up 11 over his first eight.

"There's no question he's having trouble with the command of his fastball," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "He was out of sync and he lost focus with runners on base. He's just going through a stretch where he's struggling."

Ten short days ago, Lincecum was the proud owner of a 1.76 ERA. After Wednesday's little setback, it's at 3.00 for the season.

A short history lesson about Lincecum: After 100 appearances, 99 starts, his career ERA stands at 2.91, mostly due to the 11 runs he's allowed over the last 9 2/3 innings. He's never finished a season with an ERA over 2.62. Perhaps it's time he cut himself some slack.

At the same time, Lincecum knows what it takes to be successful, and the fire that stokes his competitive nature will ultimately lead him to some answers.

"The biggest issue is his command," Bochy said. "It's getting away from him. We have a lot of work to do. His next bullpen will be important."

What is not a source of complaint is a blister problem that seems to have gone viral. He developed one during Spring Training and has dealt with them through his entire professional career.

"It's a non-issue," Bochy said. "We wouldn't pitch a guy with a blister. He's fine and he's going to make his next start."

Lincecum confirmed the non-issue. "It's nothing," he said. "I go through them all the time. It had nothing to do with anything."

In case you're looking for a premier matchup, his next scheduled start comes Monday, when he faces the Colorado Rockies and their bright pitching star Ubaldo Jimenez, who won his league-leading ninth game Wednesday night.

On Wednesday, Juan Uribe hit a home run, Pablo Sandoval doubled home a run and Aaron Rowand, who had two hits, scored on a throwing error for the Giants, who lost their sixth in the last seven games.

Andres Torres tripled and scored a run and has a .362 batting average (17-for-47) over his last 13 games.

Nationals starter Luis Atilano took a one-hitter into the fifth inning and pitched well enough to win for the fourth time in five decisions.

Box Score

Giants end scoreless streak with 4-2 win over Nationals

Alex Pavlovic
Mercury News
Edgar Renteria's flare to left field won't look like much in the box score, but the way the Giants offense had been going, it might as well have been a 550-foot blast into McCovey Cove.

The fifth-inning single on Tuesday night brought Todd Wellemeyer home, snapping a streak of 24 consecutive scoreless innings. The Giants had gone 25 at-bats with a runner in scoring position without a hit, but Renteria's knock opened the floodgates.

San Francisco tacked on three more in the inning and snapped a five-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over the Washington Nationals at AT&T Park.

"You really could (feel a change) throughout the dugout when we got the hit from Edgar," manager Bruce Bochy said. "When you go a period of time without the big hit, it mounts up a little bit, but he came through for us. Sometimes it gets contagious, and we had some great at-bats."

Wellemeyer (3-4) more than held up his end on the mound. The right-hander had been in danger of losing his spot in the rotation but looked sharp Tuesday, giving up two earned runs on four hits in six innings.

"I had the vibe going, and I think they fed off it," Wellemeyer said. "Mechanically, I felt good. A lot of it (tonight) was just rhythm. Rhythm and timing."

The Giants hitters haven't had rhythm or timing during a scoreless streak that started in the eighth inning of Friday's loss to Oakland. They got off to an ominous start Tuesday, with Andres Torres and Renteria being stranded in scoring position in the first four innings.

But after three games of hitting hard shots in all the wrong spots, the Giants finally caught a break with two outs in the fifth inning when Wellemeyer's soft fly ball landed just inside the right-field line. Torres followed with a single up the middle, setting up Renteria's slump-busting hit.

Mired in a season-long losing streak, the Giants had repeatedly stressed that all it would take was one or two guys to get the whole lineup going.

Renteria's single did the trick, making an unlikely clubhouse hero of Wellemeyer.

"A pitcher starts a rally for you "... it's just the breaks you get," Aubrey Huff said. "You get these things started in the most unlikely places. Those are the kinds of things that get you out of your ruts."

Freddy Sanchez followed with a two-run double to right, and Pablo Sandoval brought him home with a double to deep center.

The win didn't come without a price, however, as Renteria left in the eighth after suffering a right-hamstring injury running out a sacrifice bunt in the seventh.

Renteria, who returned from a right-groin strain Saturday, said the hamstring "grabbed him" halfway to first base. He will have an MRI exam today and miss at least one game.

The injury put an end to Bochy's defensive experiment, which was designed to put more bats in the scuffling lineup. Juan Uribe moved to third base, Sandoval moved to first base, and Huff started in left field.

It was the first baseman's first start in the outfield since 2006, but Huff didn't have any trouble catching three balls hit his way, including a liner on the game's first batter.

"I wanted to get one out there early, so it worked out good," said Huff, who spent a couple of weeks shagging flies before games to prepare.

Bochy was pleased with the changes but expressed disappointment that Renteria's injury will keep the Giants from employing Tuesday's successful lineup for the time being.

"You're hoping to get some continuity," Bochy said. "That's what's frustrating. That makes this a tough win for us."

Box Score

Giants' offense is worse than ever

Rusty Simmons
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle

The Giants moved Andres Torres into the leadoff spot and dropped Aaron Rowand to No. 6 on Sunday in hopes of breathing life into a sputtering offense. Then they were shut out for the second consecutive time, 3-0, and swept by the A's in the three-game series at the Coliseum.

"Well, we didn't get a run today, so I can't say the lineup change worked," said Bochy, who is planning to stick with Torres as the leadoff man. "We're just going through a tough stretch right now.

"These are the times that test you."

The Giants have lost five in a row, their longest skid of the season. They have scored one run or none in five of their past seven games. And they are batting a league-worst .230 with runners in scoring position.

With only three hits, the offense made a tough-luck loser of Jonathan Sanchez, who has zero run support in five of his nine starts. Sanchez went seven-plus innings against the A's, allowing two runs on three hits.

"I don't know what I can say," Sanchez said with a look that said way more than his seven words.

"It's really tough. It's frustrating. It's very sad," catcher Bengie Molina said. "Every day they go out there and we don't score for them, and they end up pitching the way they do.

"It's a waste. It's a big waste."

The Giants went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position Sunday and have failed the last 18 times in those situations. The most frustrating inning for the Giants was the seventh, when, in a 0-0 ballgame, three straight hitters got out with Aubrey Huff standing on second base.

Juan Uribe struck out swinging, Rowand lined out to third and Edgar Renteria dribbled one back to reliever Michael Wuertz.

"It's obvious that we've got to start getting hits with runners in scoring position," Bochy said. "It's tough for these guys when they're struggling, and they hit the ball well and still don't get any results.

"That makes the frustration mount."

The Torres-Rowand flip-flop did nothing to change that.

Torres, who had hit safely in eight of his past 10 games, went 0-for-3 in the new role. Rowand, who batted .248 in the leadoff spot, went 0-for-3 and is in a 2-for-22 skid.

There were moments of cherishing small victories, and when you haven't scored in 20 innings, small victories seem much larger. Torres saw 18 pitches, drew a walk and stole a base, and Uribe and Rowand each made loud outs with a runner in scoring position.

"As hitters, we have to take it very seriously," Molina said. "The pitching has been amazing, and we don't score. We're going to have to step up and find ways to score runs.

"Overall, I've seen a lot of hard-hit balls that could have gone either way, but they've all gone against us."

Pablo Sandoval had one such at-bat, when he smoked a ball that Gabe Gross caught in right field. The third baseman went 1-for-4 but appeared more comfortable at the plate than he has for much of his .193-hitting May.

"With one at-bat, we have been trying to bring home all of the guys that we have left on base in the past," Sandoval said. "I've calmed myself down a little bit and am waiting for pitches that I can drive.

"I'm not trying to hit home runs anymore. I'm just trying to put the ball in play and help my team score runs."

One run would be a good place to start.

Box Score

Another hard-luck loss for Giants' Matt Cain

Alex Pavlovic
San Jose Mercury News

Even by Matt Cain's standards, this was a tough one to swallow.

Cain, who has crammed a career's worth of hard-luck losses into his six seasons in San Francisco, went the distance Saturday at the Oakland Coliseum but received little help as the Giants fell to the A's 1-0.

The loss dropped Cain to 2-4 on the season despite a 2.88 ERA. He allowed the leadoff hitter to reach base five times but induced two double plays and struck out four to limit the damage to one unearned run.

"He pitched his heart out," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "He had to pitch out of (jams), and he did it. That's why this is another tough one, and we've had some gut-wrenching losses."

The past two have been particularly painful for a Giants club that has dropped four straight and is 1-5 on a seven-game trip.

After leaving seven runners on base in a 6-1 loss Friday night, the Giants stranded five Saturday. San Francisco is 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position in the series and is last in the National League with a .234 average in those situations.

"They're pressing, there's no getting around it," Bochy said. "We're in a tough rut. We're getting shut down, and we know it."

The Giants were baffled by Gio Gonzalez (5-3), who retired the final 20 batters he faced. Gonzalez didn't allow a runner in his final six innings, outdueling Cain, who scattered five hits and a walk in eight innings. It was the third time this season that Cain has allowed two or fewer runs and ended up with a loss.

"It's very embarrassing for me, when we have this kind of pitching, to waste a day," catcher Bengie Molina said.

Bochy talked before the game about the need to "do the little things," but it was the A's who put that strategy to use for the game's only run.

Cain had great command throughout, but he plunked Adam Rosales when an inside pitch got away from him at the start of the third inning. Cliff Pennington followed with a slow roller to first, but the potential double-play ball was muffed by Aubrey Huff for an error.

After Rajai Davis bunted the runners over, Rosales scored on Coco Crisp's sacrifice fly to left.

"It came down to one situation, and it worked out in (Oakland's) favor," Cain said. "It was definitely a tough loss."

Cain ended the threat by striking out Daric Barton and later struck out Jack Cust with a runner in scoring position. The A's also hit into double plays in the second and seventh innings to erase leadoff hits.

"Matt knows when to strike a guy out and when to let them put the ball in play," Molina said. "He mixed the ball around and hit his spots well "... but he can't hit for us. We've just got to do it ourselves."

The Giants finally threatened in the ninth, when Gonzalez was replaced by closer Andrew Bailey. Edgar Renteria reached on a one-out infield single before Freddy Sanchez struck out swinging on three pitches. With Pablo Sandoval batting, Renteria stole second. After falling behind 0-2, Sandoval fouled off four 96 mph fastballs before drawing a walk on the 10th pitch of the at-bat.

Molina then struck out to end the game.

"Every year you're going to hit a skid like this, it's just how you deal with it that's the most important thing," Molina said. "It usually takes a couple of guys to start swinging the bat, and the rest will follow."

Box Score

Zito remains winless vs. former team

Giants starter gives up six runs in opener with Oakland

Chris Haft
MLB.com
Barry Zito's improvement Friday night over his previous appearance at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum was vast. It just wasn't reflected in the numbers.

Zito maintained the control, in his demeanor as well as with his pitches, that he has displayed for most of the season. But a pair of bloop doubles gave the Oakland A's three third-inning runs and propelled them to a 6-1 victory over the Giants in the renewal of the cross-bay Interleague rivalry.

Without historical context, Zito's pitching line looked ugly. He allowed all of Oakland's runs and nine hits in 6 2/3 innings. His career record against his former team is 0-4 with an 8.85 ERA in four starts. The A's remain the only existing Major League franchise he has not defeated.

But Zito's outing sparkled compared to 2007, when he was adjusting to life away from the A's and under the glare that his seven-year, $126 million Giants contract cast upon him. On May 18 of that year, Zito worked four shaky innings here and surrendered seven runs and six hits while walking seven in a 15-3 Giants loss.

"Today was a lot different than it was three years ago," said Zito (6-2). "It was just like any other game, pretty much. I didn't know how it was going to be coming out, but it was like any other park. I didn't have a lot of the thoughts going on my head that I did back in '07, like 'It's weird on this side of the field' and all that stuff."

This also marked Zito's first time to last at least six innings against the A's. He walked one batter -- a welcome development for the Giants, who issued 29 free passes in the previous four games.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy agreed that Zito's statistics didn't match his performance.

"He pitched better than what the numbers show," Bochy said. "He had some bad luck in that one inning. They placed the ball just right. I thought his stuff was actually pretty good tonight."

That unlucky inning Bochy cited was the third, which began with Adam Rosales' solid single to center field. He advanced to third base on Cliff Pennington's double, a pop fly that landed in shallow right field down the line. Rajai Davis drove them in with another double that landed about 20 feet behind first base. Davis scored on Coco Crisp's sacrifice fly.

"We didn't exactly crush the ball against him," A's manager Bob Geren said of Zito.

Zito's reaction to the A's good fortune was simple.

"You just can't do anything about it," he said. "... I definitely felt better than the results. Sometimes that happens."

The left-hander didn't entirely shrug off his effort, however.

"I definitely have adjustments to make," Zito said. "I'm not content at all. I just have to stay low and keep grinding."

Oakland added a sixth-inning run on Daric Barton's leadoff double and Ryan Sweeney's RBI single. The A's chased Zito in the seventh as Davis hit a sacrifice fly and Crisp launched an RBI double.

Meanwhile, the Giants went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, dropping their batting average in such situations to .169 (10-for-59) over the last six games. They wasted Andres Torres' third-inning leadoff double, singles by Pablo Sandoval and Aubrey Huff to open the fourth inning and Freddy Sanchez's hustling one-out double in the sixth. Sandoval and Huff singled back-to-back again in the eighth, but by then there were already two out.

After being blanked for six innings on four hits by A's starter Trevor Cahill (2-2), the Giants scored their lone run in the seventh on John Bowker's two-out infield single and Torres' RBI double.

"You have to get the hit when you need them and we were missing it," Bochy said. "We created some pretty good opportunities and we didn't execute well -- didn't get guys over, things like that."

Bochy lamented the disappearance of shortstop Juan Uribe, who left after two innings with tightness in his left hamstring.

"That was tough," Bochy said.

The next time Uribe's would-be turn at bat arrived, the Giants had runners on first and second with one out. But instead of having their RBI leader at the plate, the Giants sent up Uribe's replacement, Ryan Rohlinger, who grounded into a double play.

Box Score

Frustrating finish for Giants

Andrew Baggarly
MercuryNews

The surprises began when Giants bench coach Ron Wotus posted an unconventional lineup that had pitcher Tim Lincecum batting eighth.

It only got stranger from there in an 8-7 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night.

For the second consecutive start, Lincecum was erratic while tying a career high with five walks. For the second consecutive game, the Giants pitched at the belt as the Diamondbacks lashed a series of extra-base hits.

Arizona scored the tiebreaking run on Jeremy Affeldt's wild pitch in the eighth inning, then it all boiled over in the ninth.

With two outs and the tying run at first base, plate umpire Mark Wegner ejected Giants manager Bruce Bochy after he argued a called first strike against Juan Uribe.

"It was a buildup of things," Bochy said. "It gets frustrating after awhile."

Uribe struck out swinging to end it, then had to be restrained by first-base coach Roberto Kelly.

"He said the pitch was down the middle," Uribe said. "I tell him, 'Say it's a good pitch but don't tell me it's down the middle. I know when a guy throws a pitch down the middle.' "

The Giants threw plenty of those while getting swept in this two-game series. Of Arizona's 20 hits, 16 went for extra bases.

"We pitched up in this series," Bochy said. "We had trouble getting the ball down and throwing quality strikes."

Even their ace wasn't immune.

Lincecum entered with a 5-0 record, 1.76 ERA and major-league-leading 69 strikeouts, all flashy numbers that belied the constant battle he's been waging to find rhythm on the mound.

He could hide his issues for only so long. He skirted a walk in each of his first three innings, but a head-on collision arrived in a five-run fifth. He walked two more, and both scored — one on Stephen Drew's tying, two-run triple, the other on Mark Reynolds' two-run homer that landed in the upper deck.

"It all has to do with your mindset," Lincecum said. "Be positive you'll throw strikes and be confident in all your pitches. I'm not saying I don't have that right now. They're just not going where I want them to go and it's definitely costing me."

Lincecum escaped the inning with his 100th pitch, and with his spot due up third in the sixth, it was automatic that he'd leave for a pinch hitter as the Giants trailed 5-2.

The Giants did better than take Lincecum off the hook. They scored five runs in the sixth to put him in line for a victory.

Uribe hit a leadoff homer, John Bowker made it back-to-back shots, and pinch hitter Travis Ishikawa scored the tying run on Freddy Sanchez's sacrifice fly. Aubrey Huff's two-run double gave the Giants a 7-5 lead.

The Diamondbacks tied it against Dan Runzler and Guillermo Mota in the seventh, then used moxie on the basepaths to take the lead against Affeldt in the eighth.

Earlier in the inning, Justin Upton's hard slide disrupted Uribe from turning a double play. Affeldt's curveball in the dirt scored Conor Jackson; the left-hander struck out Reynolds with the next pitch.

"It was the same pitch — one too late," Affeldt said. "They broke up the double play when they needed to and they took home plate. That's all she wrote."

The story would've been different had the Giants won behind a suddenly productive lineup. For the first time in anyone's memory, the Giants batted the pitcher eighth. Andres Torres hit ninth.

"I don't know what the game's coming to," said Bochy, smirking before the game.

Bochy said he didn't anticipate batting the pitcher eighth often, but the stars aligned this time.

"I wanted to get Freddy Sanchez back in the No. 2 hole where he's comfortable," Bochy said. "And if there's ever a game it would make sense, it's today. Andres Torres gives us another speed guy in front of the 3-4-5 hitters. Timmy handles the bat well. Torres can run a little bit. And it changes things up."

Bochy added that Torres would continue to hit ninth this weekend — when the Giants have a designated hitter for their interleague series at Oakland.

Box Score

D'backs' 6 homers inflict Giant beating

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
Freddy Sanchez ended his rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Fresno and went 0-for-4 in his 2010 Giants debut Wednesday night. Soon, the front office might want to promote one of Sanchez's former Grizzlies teammates, Madison Bumgarner.

Bumgarner has a 1.54 ERA over his last six starts for Fresno, and Giants starter Todd Wellemeyer is not making a compelling case to keep Bumgarner on the farm.

Wellemeyer got hammered again on the road in a 13-1 embarrassment against last-place Arizona, which hit three of its six home runs against the starter. The last time the Giants surrendered six in a game was 1996. This was the fourth time a San Francisco team has done it.

"I don't think there were any cheap ones, either," manager Bruce Bochy said. "We pitched in the nitro zone tonight, and we paid for it."

Two of the six were hit by Adam LaRoche in his first game against the Giants since he signed a one-year, $6 million contract with the Diamondbacks after initially receiving a two-year, $17 million offer from the Giants, that he said was reduced to one year as negotiations progressed.

LaRoche hit a solo homer off Wellemeyer in the second inning and a three-run shot to center in a six-run eighth against Brandon Medders. LaRoche just missed a third homer, off Wellemeyer in the fifth.

LaRoche insisted this was not a vengeance performance and said he had no hard feelings against the Giants' front office, adding, "I may end up there one day, so I'm not bitter about anything."

More pressing for the Giants is the fifth-starter situation. Bochy said he might use Monday's off day to skip Wellemeyer a second time this season, but beyond that, Bochy sidestepped the Bumgarner question.

"These are things we talk about internally," he said. "I'm not going to talk about that. (Wellemeyer) had a rough night tonight coming off a good start. You do want consistency there. I'm not going to speculate on what we're going to do right now."

Wellemeyer has done a swell job in three starts plus a relief appearance in San Francisco, where he is 2-1 with a 3.04 ERA. Away from home, he is 0-4 with a 9.35 ERA.

He finished five innings on the road for the first time, but that was a pyrrhic victory after he surrendered solo homers to LaRoche and Justin Upton before Stephen Drew settled the game with a three-run homer in the fifth. That's seven homers and 17 walks in 17 1/3 road innings for Wellemeyer.

Meanwhile, Ian Kennedy held the Giants to three hits in eight innings with a career-best nine strikeouts.

The Giants scored a first-inning run for the first time in 20 road games this year when Aaron Rowand hit a leadoff double and newly installed cleanup hitter Pablo Sandoval got him home with a single - the Panda's first two-out hit with a runner in scoring position all year.

Maybe it was the park. Sandoval's single upped his average in 52 Chase Field at-bats to .500.

Bochy made Sanchez the No. 3 hitter and dropped Sandoval to cleanup because the manager liked what Rowand and Andres Torres were doing in the top two spots. When Aubrey Huff rejoins the lineup tonight, he probably will hit fifth behind Sandoval, with Bengie Molina sixth.

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Giants finally beat the Padres

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

The Giants must move heaven and earth to beat the San Diego Padres this season. So they might have found some hope in the magnitude 5.1 quake that gently rocked Petco Park before the first pitch Tuesday.

As for the rest? Heaven helped them.

It took 12 innings and their last drop of depth, but the Giants finally stopped their losing streak against the Padres. Matt Downs hit a two-run double that brought in Ryan Rohlinger and Eli Whiteside, then Eugenio Velez added a run-scoring single as the Giants took a 7-6 victory in front of a crowd of 19,565.

The parade of unlikely heroes actually began in the eighth inning, when Andres Torres crushed a tying, two-run home run off stingy setup man Mike Adams.

And it ended with another dramatic finish from Brian Wilson. The Giants closer allowed a two-out, two-run double to David Eckstein, then manager Bruce Bochy gambled by putting the potential winning run on base. He had Wilson intentionally walk star slugger Adrian Gonzalez to get to Chase Headley, who struck out on a wicked slider to end it.

"Oh, Willie," Bochy said. "I told him, 'Go by my grave site and say I helped put you there.' "

The 4-hour, 7-minute game wasn't easy, but it was satisfying. The Giants are 1-7 against the Padres and trail them by a half-game in the NL West. The two clubs have 10 games remaining, but they won't see each other again until Aug. 13.

"It saves a little sanity around here; I'm not going to lie," Bochy said. "There's a good chance it could have happened again. They fought. They were determined to break this streak."

The lopsided series will be a topic when it resumes in three months. But perhaps it won't be as urgent now that the Giants have one in their column.

It took 68 innings and eight games, but they finally took a lead against the Padres in the fourth. Their two-run rally also represented their first runs against young right-hander Mat Latos, who had thrown 19 scoreless innings against them this season.

The Giants grabbed the lead with four singles and some aggressive baserunning. Pablo Sandoval went from first to third on Juan Uribe's single and scored when Nate Schierholtz lined a single to right field. Uribe also went from first to third and scored when Eli Whiteside's ground hugger barely scooted past the diving attempt of second baseman David Eckstein.

Jonathan Sanchez retired the first 12 hitters he faced, but any thoughts of a perfect game were disrupted when Headley singled to lead off the fifth. It turned out to be the first of four consecutive singles, and five in the inning. The Padres took a 4-2 lead on Jerry Hairston Jr.'s two-out, two-run single to left field.

Until then, Sanchez had mastered the Padres. In his previous four starts against them — a run that began with his July 10 no-hitter — Sanchez had allowed just seven hits and four runs in 291/3 innings.

Now the Giants go to Chase Field, the liveliest ballpark in the NL West, and home to a miserable Arizona Diamondbacks staff that has the worst ERA in the league.

After the game, Bochy said the Giants would activate second baseman Freddy Sanchez from the disabled list today.

Bochy will have some lineup decisions to make. It seemingly makes sense for the Giants to install Torres in the leadoff spot and stick Sanchez behind him, but Bochy resisted the idea of moving Aaron Rowand from atop the lineup.

Rowand entered Tuesday's game in a 2-for-27 slump; his .304 on-base percentage was unimpressive for a leadoff hitter.

"Right now, that's where he's at, and he's done a really nice job there to start the season," Bochy said. "But sure, it's an option if we think we need help down the order."

Bochy hinted that he might leave Torres in the No. 2 spot and bat Sanchez third, which would bump Sandoval into the cleanup role.

"This team has a lot of movable parts," Bochy said. "That's why we're having some of these lengthy discussions here."

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Padres continue mastery over Giants

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

Maybe the Giants made a devil's bargain for all those baseballs that Barry Bonds pounded over the palm trees at old Jack Murphy Stadium.

Or maybe the San Diego Padres have an airtight scouting report on the Giants, and their pitchers are following it to the letter.

Or maybe fish tacos enhance performance.

Comic or cosmic. Whatever the reason, the Giants simply cannot beat their thrifty neighbors to the south. There comes a point when frustration becomes farce, but nobody was laughing after Monday night's 3-1 loss at Petco Park.

It bears emphasizing: The Giants are 0-7 against the Padres and 21-9 against everyone else.

Frustrating, a radio reporter asked losing pitcher Matt Cain?

"Does that really need to be asked?" Cain said. "It's obvious. We need to win. We've got to win."

Chase Headley hit a tiebreaking single off Cain in the fifth inning, and the Giants were unable to rally. Their offense tallied just four hits off left-hander Clayton Richard and two relievers.

The Giants have scored nine runs in seven losses to the West Division-leading Padres, all closely contested affairs.

"The games have been very similar," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "They're pitching a little better, and we're not hitting. It's pretty simple. "... We've been in every game and come up short. The only way it's going to turn is to swing the bats a little better."

After finishing this two-game series today, the Giants and Padres won't renew acquaintances until Aug. 13. Then they will pack in 10 more games against each other down the stretch.

Maybe they will match up differently in late summer. Maybe the cash-strapped Padres will have traded Adrian Gonzalez and the Giants will have acquired another hitter or two. Maybe the Padres won't be so fortunate to continue missing Tim Lincecum's start.

But for now, what's a frustrated skipper to do? Pull the lineup out of a hat?

"Yeah, I know it's been done," Bochy said. "But we're in the thick of things. I don't think now is the time to start doing that."

Every Giants mistake is a back-breaker against the Padres, and it was no different this time.

Cain missed his outside target with an 0-2 fastball that Gonzalez pounded for a solo home run in the first inning. After Headley put the Padres ahead, they added a run in the seventh when Sergio Romo threw a bases-loaded pitch that plunked Kyle Blanks, who is in an 0-for-26 rut with 13 strikeouts.

In case you were wondering, since 1969, when the Padres sprang into being, neither team has swept a season series from the other. The Giants lost 11 of 13 to the Padres in 1996. And thanks largely to a torrent of Bonds home runs, the Giants destroyed the Padres for a 14-5 record each season from 2001-03.

As if it mattered, the Giants entered this series as the hot team. They swept the Houston Astros last weekend while the Padres fell cold at home and lost three games to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Giants managed a run in the fourth when Pablo Sandoval, Bengie Molina and Juan Uribe strung together singles.

As usual, San Diego had the final answer. David Eckstein reached on a single that glanced off third baseman Sandoval, moved up on a one-out walk to Gonzalez and scored on Headley's single.

Closer Heath Bell's ninth inning was interrupted twice when fans ran onto the field. But after giving up a leadoff double to Aubrey Huff, he struck out Uribe and pinch hitter Eugenio Velez. Nate Schierholtz flied out to end it.

The Giants thought they caught a break before the first pitch, when the Padres put Giants killer Scott Hairston on the disabled list with a strained hamstring.

But this season, the Padres do not lack for heroes. Not against the Giants, anyway.

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Zito, Giants complete sweep of Astros

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The baseball deities were bored Sunday. There were no perfect games working and the "Survivor" series finale was hours away. Yes, even baseball deities have their guilty pleasures.

So they determined that one day after Brian Wilson needed 15 pitches to retire Kaz Matsui for the final out, they had to see another Wilson-Matsui duel with two outs in the ninth and the game in the balance.

It had to be a disappointment to the gods, then, when Wilson struck out Matsui in an economical seven pitches, with runners on the corners, to end a 4-3 Giants victory that completed their second sweep of Houston this season.

"Hard to believe," manager Bruce Bochy said. "It's Groundhog Day again."

The Giants again did to Houston what San Diego has done to them twice in 2010 - sweep.

After a 3-3 homestand constructed with the oh-for against the Padres and three wins against Houston, the Giants rise this morning precisely where they did Tuesday morning, a half-game behind first-place San Diego with the Pads up next, this time for two games at Petco Park.

Actually, there is one difference. The Giants were able to regain the three games in the standings they lost to the Padres because Los Angeles swept San Diego this weekend. Despite an odd pinkie injury to the league's hottest hitter, Andre Ethier, the Dodgers are charging quickly behind the Giants. Colorado is playing well, too.

In fact, every team in the National League West except for Arizona owns a winning record.

"The division is tightening up," Bochy said. "The Rockies had a good series (against Washington). The Dodgers did, too. I know we've had our troubles with San Diego. It's going to be that way the whole season. We're going to have to find a way to win some games in our division. We haven't had a good start."

If history is a guide, a good start from Matt Cain is what the Giants will get tonight. He has pitched well in San Diego with hard luck.

On Sunday, rotation-mate Barry Zito had what Bochy called "one of his guttier outings," holding Houston's weak lineup to three runs in seven innings despite lacking his best stuff or command.

"That was a battle from the beginning," Zito said. "I just had to keep attacking the zone and let guys get themselves out because the defense behind me was great today."

Actually, it was mixed. Aaron Rowand misread a Kevin Cash drive into a double that produced a run and cut the Giants' lead to 4-3 in the seventh. But that inning ended with nice defensive plays by Matt Downs and Aubrey Huff on both ends of a Brett Myers grounder that would have scored the tying run had Myers been safe.

Zito allowed his first homer of the season, to a slumping Carlos Lee, in the fourth inning.

But the long ball also helped Zito improve to 6-1. Andres Torres bounced a two-run homer into McCovey Cove in the first inning with Rowand aboard after his fifth walk of the year. With the score tied 2-2 in the sixth, Rowand hit a go-ahead homer for the second consecutive Sunday. Torres doubled and scored an insurance run in the inning for a 4-2 lead.

It had to be 4-3 in the ninth, and it had to be Wilson and Matsui after pinch-hitters Geoff Blum and Cory Sullivan singled with two outs. It made for great theater. Again, Wilson took the curtain call.

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Lincecum beats Oswalt, Astros in pitchers' duel

John Shea
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
When they crossed paths in the congratulatory high-five line after the Giants' 2-1 victory over the Astros on Saturday, Brian Wilson had a couple of playful questions for Tim Lincecum:

"Why does it always have to be in your starts? Can you give me a bigger lead maybe?"

Wilson was referring to the ninth-inning zaniness he got himself into - and out of - after relieving Lincecum, who pitched eight innings and was hoping the bullpen would maintain his lead for the first time in four starts.

In an outing as weird as it was memorable, Wilson went from having little control to pinpoint control in a matter of moments. He walked two batters, and half of his first 24 pitches were balls. The result: bases loaded, two outs, Kaz Matsui up.

That's when Wilson machined up. Little did he know the .154-hitter would be such a prolonged challenge.

A 15-pitch at-bat ensued. Fourteen fastballs. Twelve strikes. Nine foul balls - five in a row before Matsui finally flied to left field to end the at-bat, inning and game. At last, Lincecum got his fifth win, Wilson his eighth save.

"After a while, it was kind of comical," Wilson said. "How long of an at-bat was it? Felt like a half-hour. So many things going on in my head. I just had to step off and laugh and look in the dugout - 'What are they thinking right now?' "

Well, Timmy, what were you thinking?

"I didn't feel too nervous," he said. "Wilson was pumping strikes to Matsui. So it was just a matter of whether Matsui was going to put it in play or miss it."

Wilson mixed in one slider on a 2-2 count. Sure enough, Matsui foul-tipped it, and it was too hot to handle for catcher Bengie Molina. So the at-bat resumed. Wilson kept throwing fastballs in the high 90s, and Matsui refused to strike out. One pitch out of the zone would have meant a blown save for Wilson, another no-decision for Lincecum and a faster heart beat for manager Bruce Bochy.

"He had the nerve to ask me after the game, 'Were you worried?' " Bochy said.

Wilson certainly wasn't worried. He said he learned as a closer that it's wiser to be loose than tight, adding, "Can't think of a better time to have recess."

If Matsui had reached base, Bochy said, Jeremy Affeldt would have replaced Wilson. No need. Wilson got it done, and all he needed was 39 pitches.

"I feel bad for the crowd to have them stand that long," Wilson said. "They're probably thinking, 'Gosh, we'd really like to get out of here. Let's go.' "

The Giants scored both runs in the fourth inning on Juan Uribe's homer off Roy Oswalt after Molina's two-out single. The Astros' run came in the first on a wild pitch by Lincecum, who walked five and struck out five.

"Today," Lincecum said, "was one of those days where I was battling more than pitching."

Wilson did both.

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Giants feast on change, defeat Astros 8-2

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

The Giants changed their jerseys. They changed their pregame routine. And most significantly, they changed their opponent.

With the San Diego Padres a safe distance from Willie Mays Plaza, the Giants took out their frustration on the less fearsome Houston Astros in an 8-2 victory on a chilly Friday night at AT&T Park.

The Giants rebounded after a dispiriting three games against the NL West-leading Padres in which they scored just four runs. The sum of their offense Thursday was Eli Whiteside's infield single.

The Giants might be 0-6 and stymied for 1.3 runs per game against the Padres, but when taking on everyone else, they're 19-9 and receiving a healthy 5.2 runs per game.

"We're better than what we showed the previous three games," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "You credit good pitching, but this is a team that should score more runs."

Battle stations were fully operational again Friday, and Andres Torres made the most of a rare start against a right-hander. He doubled twice and tripled as the Giants strung together hits, ran the bases aggressively and remained undefeated in three games while wearing their bright — the fashion police might say garish? — orange uniform tops.

"I knew we were coming to play today," said Todd Wellemeyer, who threw strikes after receiving an early lead and pitched into the eighth inning. "I knew we were going to score runs."

How in the name of Karnak did Wellemeyer (2-3) come to such a premonition?

"I don't know," he said. "I could just feel it. Good energy. Plus it was power orange night."

Bochy and hitting coach Hensley Meulens made a few pregame adjustments. As usual, the club took batting practice on the field. But Bochy and Meulens shut off the lights and locked the door to the indoor cage, hoping to give a mental break to their eager hitters who normally line up early to take extra swings.

"I think it worked," Torres said. "Sometimes we take too many swings. Sometimes I hit off a tee and just keep going. Take soft toss. Do one-hand drills. (Meulens) said, 'When I played, we didn't take so many swings. Just go take BP on the field and go play.'

"It's a long season and you can get fatigued. I think it's true."

Each starting position player reached base at least once, and Torres made Bochy look smart by starting him against a right-handed pitcher.

In a long meeting after Thursday's loss, Bochy and GM Brian Sabean decided more speed near the top of the lineup could be the trick to get the offense going — hence Torres instead of John Bowker.

"He really helped us get it going," said Bochy, "and keep it going."

The Giants hadn't scored in 16 innings before Aubrey Huff snapped that streak with a two-out single in the first off right-hander Felipe Paulino.

Following that icebreaker, they scored three runs in the second inning — their biggest single-inning output since the previous Thursday in Florida. They had gone 59 innings between the three-run rallies.

Nate Schierholtz started it with a single and stole second base after coaches encouraged him to be more aggressive on the base paths. Matt Downs doubled in Schierholtz, and Torres provided more extra-base power, but the club also mixed in a good sacrifice bunt from Wellemeyer, a walk to Aaron Rowand and a productive out by Pablo Sandoval, whose ground ball scored a run.

It was just Sandoval's second RBI in 11 games in May.

Sandoval also hit a pair of singles for just his second multi-hit game of the month, too. He decided to wear his prescription glasses again, this time deciding to keep them on in the field, too.

Sandoval left for a pinch runner in the eighth after getting hit by a pitch on the left foot, but X-rays did not reveal a fracture, and he walked without a limp in the clubhouse. He had played in all of the club's 3101/3 defensive innings this season before sitting out the ninth.

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Giants avoid infamy but not sweep

Whiteside's hit breaks up perfecto; Sanchez a hard-luck loser

Chris Haft
MLB.com
Maybe Mat Latos is among the next wave of National League pitching stars. Perhaps, right now, the San Diego Padres are extremely lucky and the Giants are exceedingly unlucky.

The Giants can't do much about any of that. But they can try to fix their offense, whether the hitters refresh their hitting approach or manager Bruce Bochy changes personnel. Because very little worked for the Giants in this series, which ended with San Diego's 1-0 victory Thursday that concluded a three-game sweep.

Making his 17th career start, Latos (3-3) looked like a potential ace while allowing just one hit, Eli Whiteside's sixth-inning infield single, in pitching his first career complete game. Latos also drove in the game's lone run. Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez (2-3) sparkled for eight innings, yet lost his second game in a row to the Padres. He has allowed a grand total of two runs and four hits in 15 innings in those defeats.

San Francisco's brain trust refused to accept being outclassed. Shortly after the Giants fell to 0-6 this year against first-place San Diego, which leads them by 3 1/2 games in the NL West, manager Bruce Bochy huddled in his office with general manager Brian Sabean and hitting coach Hensley Meulens to consider ways of reviving the offense, which scored four runs in this series and has amassed eight all season against San Diego.

They had a lot of brainstorming ahead. Trades typically aren't engineered at this early juncture of the season. Sabean recently told the San Jose Mercury News that Buster Posey, who entered Thursday hitting .355, isn't ready to catch on the Major League level. Besides, the positions Posey plays, catcher and first base, are occupied respectively by Bengie Molina and Aubrey Huff, two of the few Giants who have hit consistently.

Still, something's bound to change by Friday, when the Giants open a three-game weekend series against the Houston Astros -- even if it's just the hitters' attitudes.

"We've got some guys who are cold right now," said Bochy, whose team has dropped five of its last six games. "They're not comfortable at the plate. It's obvious as you watch. ... We're a better-hitting club than this. We're in a bad rut right now. We have to get these guys relaxed. We're trying to do too much. I thought a few times we were overswinging."

A team might begin overthinking after losing to a opponent 10 times in 13 games, as the Giants have done against the Padres since last July.

"It seems like they've got our number," said Huff, who in the next breath downplayed San Diego's dominance.

"We've got a lot more games with them [12], but it's too early to be looking at playoff implications," Huff said. "We have a long way to go."

With just a few shreds of good fortune, the Giants would have been discussing another resurgent victory. Huff hit two smashes that first baseman Adrian Gonzalez adroitly plucked, Juan Uribe and Aaron Rowand hit promising-looking drives that died in center fielder Scott Hairston's glove and Matt Downs opened the ninth inning with a line drive that looked like a double up the left-field line -- until third baseman Chase Headley reached up and snared it.

"It felt like their guys were in the right position every single time," Huff said. "It was like they knew it was coming. You have to credit their scouts, I guess, or somebody."

Said Bochy, "The ball occasionally has to bounce your way in this game. ... We can use a break in this rut we're in."

Had the Giants been completely luckless, they might have endured a no-hit defeat. Whiteside's leadoff smash struck the heel of Latos' glove and caromed toward third base. Whiteside barely beat Headley's throw.

"Just see it and hit it," Whiteside said, describing his strategy at the plate. "[Latos] showed early in the game that he was going to come out and throw strikes."

Downs hit a grounder to shortstop but reached second base as Whiteside, who was forced out at second, made a hard slide that forced Lance Zawadzki's overthrow for an error. Latos escaped as Sanchez lined out and Rowand flied out.

Sanchez faltered only in the fifth, victimized by the very bottom of San Diego's order with two outs and nobody on base. Zawadzki, in his 10th Major League at-bat, prolonged the inning by doubling to right-center field. Latos poked his bat at a fastball and singled home Zawadzki.

"When you're going good like they are right now, things like that happen," Bochy said.

Or they happen like this: The Padres scout who drafted and signed Latos was none other than Joe Bochy, Bruce Bochy's brother.

"No way," Huff said upon hearing this piece of trivia. "Baseball's so weird, isn't it?"

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