Giants acquire pitcher Chris Ray and PTBNL for Bengie Molina, deal awaiting MLB approval

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

USA Today is reporting that a Bengie Molina deal to Texas is done. The Giants would get right-hander Chris Ray and a player to be named later.

UPDATE: The Star-Telegram is now confirming the report after speaking to Rangers sources. Still no official word from the Giants, but this is a done deal. It won’t be approved by MLB until tomorrow, apparently. Richard Durrett of ESPN Dallas tells me the Giants will send the Rangers cash in the deal to offset the remaining salary difference between Molina and Ray. So roughly $2 million.

The deal still needs to be approved by the Commissioner’s office, which is no rubber stamp if the Rangers will be responsible for paying the roughly $2.5 million still owed Molina this season. That’s because the Rangers are for sale and in dire financial shape.

I am told that Ray, 28, has a minor league option, which is important. He also is making $975,000 this year, so taking him could be big for Texas’ finances.

Ray was 2-0 with a 3.41 ERA and one save in 35 games (34.1 IP) for the Rangers this season. He’d allowed just 24 hits, but a 16/16 K/BB ratio doesn’t look so great. The Rangers acquired him this winter from the Orioles in the deal that sent Kevin Millwood to Baltimore.

Ray was the Orioles’ closer in 2006 (33 saves) and part of ‘07 (16 saves). He missed nearly all of ‘08 rehabbing from “Tommy John” elbow reconstruction surgery.

Rangers GM Jon Daniels did not address Molina with reporters in Anaheim. He only said there has been trade dialogue. Ray is still on the roster and in the bullpen. Don’t expect him to get into the game, though.

Comment Talkin' Giants: Bengie Molina was a good Giant. Good luck Bengie.

Kemp, Furcal homer, Dodgers beat Giants 8-2

Associated Press

A couple of days off put Matt Kemp in a good frame of mind.

Kemp homered and drove in three runs, Vicente Padilla won his 100th game, and the Los Angeles Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants with an 8-2 win Wednesday.

Kemp was out of the starting lineup the first two games of the series, though he replaced the injured Manny Ramirez Tuesday night, and brought a lowly .208 batting average in June into the finale.

"A couple of days off did me some good," Kemp said. "It let my body get a rest and probably rested my mind a little bit too. I think anybody who plays every day appreciates a day off now and then."

Rafael Furcal had four hits, including a home run, and drove in two for the Dodgers, who earned a sweep in San Francisco for the first time in three years.

"He makes us that much more exciting," Dodgers' manager Joe Torre said of Furcal. "He can do a lot of things and not only with a bat in his hands. He elevates us with the way he plays the game."

Padilla (2-2) won for the first time in three starts since coming off the disabled list on June 19.

Ronnie Belliard also drove in a run for the Dodgers.

Aaron Rowand had three hits, including a home run, for the Giants, who lost their fifth straight. Jonathan Sanchez (6-6) allowed five runs on six hits over five innings.

"It was embarrassing," Giants' outfielder Aubrey Huff said. "As an offense we never got anything going this whole series."

Even without an injured Ramirez, who has a strained right hamstring, the Dodgers had more than enough punch. The top three batters combined to go 8 of 13 with four runs scored.

Third baseman Jamey Carroll had two doubles, walked twice and scored three runs as the Dodgers improved to 21-5 within their division.

"Playing well against our own division makes up for some of the sins we've committed elsewhere," Torre said.

Padilla used a masterful changeup to keep the Giants off balance and off the bases. Aside from Rowand's sixth-inning shot over the center field wall, only four others reached base and none went past first against him.

Padilla, who reached the century mark in his 11th big league season, earned his first win since beating the Giants on April 16. He allowed the one run on three hits, walking one and striking out five.

Furcal, who had four hits, hit a two-run shot in the fifth. Two batters later, Kemp hit a solo shot well up into the left field stands.

"He was fighting himself and going through a rough time," Torre said of Kemp. "He realized you really can slow the game down. He looked very calm today."

Kemp and Belliard each drove in a run in the seventh and Carroll scored on a passed ball.

The Dodgers scored twice in the third, on Kemp's RBI single and a fielding error by Pat Burrell in left field.

Sanchez, who walked two and struck out four, is 0-5 in nine starts and 11 appearances against the Dodgers.

The Giants scored a total of 14 runs over their six-game homestand and scored two or fewer runs in each of their past five games.

"There's no sugar-coating it, we didn't play well this whole homestand," Giants' manager Bruce Bochy said. "We got our tails kicked. This was a rough series. Our challenge is to get out of this as soon as possible. We're still in a pretty good position."

The Dodgers have won 26 of their last 39 games in San Francisco.

Juan Uribe drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the ninth.

Box Score

Giants lose to Dodgers 4-2

Alex Pavlovic
Mercury News

Matt Cain didn't say a word, but his silence spoke volumes.

Cain is as baffled as anyone by his continued struggles against the rival Dodgers, who beat the Giants 4-2 Tuesday at AT&T Park. Knocked out after five innings, Cain just stared into space when asked about his 0-8 record in 14 career starts against Los Angeles.

Considering what the right-hander has accomplished in his six big league seasons, the record is unexplainable. But then, so is much of what the Giants have done on this homestand.

With their All-Star pitchers uncharacteristically scuffling and a lineup full of plodders without much pop, the Giants don't have much margin for error.

They need to do the little things to win, and Tuesday, they once again piled up the mistakes.

There was an inning-ending double play, a fielding mistake and a rally-killing baserunning blunder.

And that was just by Pablo Sandoval.

The rest of the Giants weren't much better. Throw in seven runners left on base and one location mistake by Cain (6-7), and the Giants had little chance of stopping their slide.

Losers of six of their past seven, the Giants dropped to 1-4 on the six-game homestand.

"We've just got to tighten things up," manager Bruce Bochy said. "It's the little things that we've got to do better at."

One location mistake cost Cain and kept the growing Dodger-blue gorilla firmly entrenched on his shoulders.

With the score 1-1, Cain loaded the bases with two out in the fifth but quickly put James Loney in a 0-2 hole. Loney hung tough and lined the sixth fastball of the at-bat into right field for a game-changing two-run single.

"It just came down to me not getting a fastball low and away," Cain said. "It's on me. I didn't get the job done."

Cain lasted five innings, giving up four earned runs on seven hits and three walks. He blamed himself for the loss, but the rest of the Giants didn't provide much help.

The Giants were hapless against rookie John Ely (4-5), who scattered five hits over seven innings. After Andres Torres scored in the first inning, the Giants ended several threats with familiar mistakes.

Freddy Sanchez and Pat Burrell were stranded in the first after drawing walks, and Sandoval prevented a one-out, first-and-third situation in the sixth when he overran second base and was tagged out as he tried to return.

The Giants also hit into two double plays, giving them seven in two games and an NL-leading 83 this season.

Burrell put a second run on the scoreboard with a solo homer in the ninth, but with Renteria on first, pinch hitter Buster Posey lined out to shortstop to end the game.

"We're doing all we can to get this offense going," Bochy said. "We're having a tough time getting that extra hit. I think the guys are just pressing."

Cain received one run or fewer for the seventh time in 16 starts, but he didn't blame his teammates. Instead, he implored them to end a four-game losing streak in today's series finale.

"This is not the homestand we wanted," Cain said. "We have to win tomorrow to salvage it."

The task probably will be a little easier, as the Dodgers will be without Manny Ramirez, who injured his right hamstring running the bases in the first inning. Ramirez was the fourth opposing player in five games to leave with an injury, but the way the Giants are going, it might not matter.

Box Score

Giants lose to Dodgers

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

Sometime during the middle innings Monday night, Giants mascot Lou Seal provided a metaphor for the season. His electric cart died on the warning track and had to be pushed off the field.

It was apropos for the Giants, whose old, slow, lifeless and unreliable offense failed them yet again in a 4-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Casey Blake hit a tiebreaking, two-run home run in the eighth off Santiago Casilla, Pablo Sandoval made a monster of a mental mistake on the basepaths, and the "Beat LA" cheer was rendered trite in the first rivalry game of the season at AT&T Park.

It is too early to call the Giants a lost cause in 2010. They wouldn't be the first flawed team to overcome roster shortcomings and long odds.

But the detritus is starting to pile up. All the ground-ball double plays, the undisciplined first-pitch swings, heavy legs and baserunning mistakes have served to kill rallies and undermine pitching efforts.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy sat hope-filled rookie Buster Posey and started his cadre of plodding 30-year-olds. They responded with five double plays. Three came on the ground, giving the club an NL-high 81 this season. Two of those ground-ball twin killings came on the first pitch; the free-swinging Giants have 19 of those this year, too.

"We're finding ways to hit into them," Bochy said. "Put guys in motion and we're (swinging and) missing. It's hurting us now."

Nothing stung worse that Sandoval's mistake in the seventh inning. With runners at the corners and nobody out, Sandoval tried to tag up from first base on Edgar Renteria's fly ball to shallow right field.

Pinch runner Aaron Rowand had broken off third base, but only to draw the throw from Andre Ethier. First baseman Ronnie Belliard cut it off and Sandoval was tagged out after a short rundown.

Renteria clasped his hands to his head when he saw what Sandoval was doing. Cameras caught Aubrey Huff and several other Giants reacting with horror and disbelief, too.

Sandoval jogged back to the dugout and sat by himself, next to the water jug for the rest of the inning.

"We talked to him," Bochy said. "This kid is playing hard. He's doing all he can to help the team win. He's being aggressive. That's what happens with a young player. You can't fault him for his thinking."

Sandoval said he thought Rowand was going to the plate.

"I made a mistake," Sandoval said. "You learn. It's part of the game. "... I have to read that play. It's done. You have to be prepared for that situation, for every pitch."

The Giants still had one more chance to score Rowand with two outs, but third baseman Blake smothered Bengie Molina's ground ball. It would've been an infield hit for many big leaguers. But Molina was out by four steps.

Barry Zito received a 1-0 lead on Huff's run-scoring single in the first inning. But a huge defensive lapse allowed the Dodgers to push ahead in a two-run third. Center fielder Andres Torres tried to make a diving play on Manny Ramirez's drive but let the ball get past him for a double that scored Reed Johnson from first base.

Zito limped through six innings with 113 pitches and seemed destined for a low-scoring loss. Even by their standards, the Giants offense was dreadful in the first five innings against Chad Billingsley.

Travis Ishikawa, who is 9 for 17 as a pinch hitter, took Zito off the hook. He delivered a pinch double in the sixth and scored the tying run on Freddy Sanchez's two-out single.

The Giants were poised to grab the lead in the seventh, after Sandoval singled on the 12th pitch of a spirited at-bat against Jeff Weaver. With runners at the corners and the middle infielders back, even a ground-ball double play would've scored the tiebreaking run.

Instead, the result was more painful. Much more painful.

Sandoval didn't get a chance to win it, either. With the tying runs on base in the ninth, Bochy pinch-hit Posey for Sandoval; the rookie struck out while chasing a high fastball from left-hander Hong-Chih Kuo and Renteria popped out to end it.

Box Score

Lincecum's struggles return, Red Sox win series

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The nearly 130,000 fans who filed into AT&T Park over the weekend to watch the Red Sox take two of three from the Giants could not have witnessed a clearer divide between one team primed to make a run for a division title and another that is treading water.

The headline from Sunday's 5-1 Boston win was Tim Lincecum being knocked out before the fourth inning for the second time in 105 major-league starts, leading to the Giants' third consecutive series loss.

For the record, manager Bruce Bochy and Lincecum said the two-time Cy Young winner is not hurt.

"He didn't have it, so he came out after three," Bochy said.

Lincecum was off kilter almost throughout his 79-pitch, four-run day, reverting to the struggles he had in May before winning three in a row.

The best evidence was not the splash home run he allowed to David Ortiz in the first inning, after Big Papi got a favorable call from home-plate umpire Mike DiMuro on a 2-2 check swing. A better clue was Lincecum going 3-1 on Jon Lester before the Red Sox pitcher blasted a 415-foot sacrifice fly to right-center in the second, helping himself during a complete-game victory.

"In the second inning, I kind of lost my stuff," said Lincecum, who can take some comfort in knowing these Red Sox also battered Ubaldo Jimenez and Roy Halladay this season.

There was no consolation for the Giants in falling 4 1/2 games behind first-place San Diego, matching their largest deficit of the year with the Dodgers arriving tonight for their first 2010 visit to San Francisco.

The broader headline for the Giants is how they do not have the look of a playoff team - in contrast to Boston.

They compete for nine innings. You have to give them that. And their rotation will keep them in the hunt.

But offensively, they do not have the speed to run or stay out of double plays. Aside from Juan Uribe and Aubrey Huff, they rarely slug. They leave far too many runners on base and score too many runs on outs instead of hits. All three of their runs Saturday and Sunday were produced that way, Andres Torres scoring Sunday on a Huff groundball after an infield hit and two steals.

The Giants enjoy a Torres hot streak here and a Freddy Sanchez pick-me-up there, but too few of them have hit consistently enough to sustain any kind of momentum.

Even a member of the Giants family wondered aloud whether the team as constituted could rip off a long winning streak, as the Dodgers did in May and the Rockies typically do every season.

Optimism about "getting these bats going" sounds less convincing when the midpoint of the schedule is a week away.

The Giants have feasted on weaker opponents. Early in the season, they beat some good teams, but they have lost their last five three-game series against those that currently have winning records. Their last such series win came April 30-May 2 against Colorado. Since their 6-1 start, they are 34-33.

The Giants will face a lot of winning teams before the trade deadline, and one wonders if they can hold on while general manager Brian Sabean tries to swing a deal for an impact bat, which has become difficult in the wild-card era, with so many teams remaining in the hunt.

"We've talked about it," Bochy said. "This is an important stretch for us. This is a part of the season that could determine where you're at."

Box Score

Giants retire Monte Irvin's number

20 Monte Irvin 20

Alex Pavlovic
MercuryNews

Monte Irvin's No. 20 retired by Giants

During a news conference before Saturday's game, Gaylord Perry jokingly told Monte Irvin that "it's harder to get your number retired than it is to make it into the Hall of Fame."

At 91, Irvin has now done both.

The Giants retired Irvin's No. 20 on Saturday, making him the 11th player in franchise history to earn the honor.

Irvin and Hank Thompson became the first African-Americans to play for the New York Giants on July 8, 1949, two years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.

Irvin hit .293 with 99 home runs in eight Major League seasons and helped the Giants win the 1954 World Series.

"It's a pleasure to be here. At my state in life, it's a pleasure to be anywhere," Irvin joked during a pregame ceremony. "Now I feel like my life in baseball is complete."

Irvin humbly deflected any talk of being a pioneer, saying that Robinson "was the real hero." His fellow Giants legends respectfully disagreed.

"He went through a lot of the same stuff Jackie Robinson went through," Willie McCovey said. "Jackie was just first."

Irvin, Thompson and Willie Mays formed the majors' first all-black outfield during the 1951 World Series, and Mays credited Irvin, his former roommate, with helping him adjust to the big leagues.

"In my time, you had to have some guidance, and Monte was like a brother to me," Mays said. "Monte would bring me to his house in New Jersey, and I didn't know it at the time, but he was trying to keep me out of (New York) where I would enjoy myself.

"He protected me dearly."

Orlando Cepeda went to see Irvin play in Puerto Rico in 1944. It was Cepeda's first baseball game, and he was disappointed that an injury was keeping Irvin out of the lineup — until Irvin pinch-hit in the seventh inning and hit a one-handed double.

"Just another lucky day," Irvin said with a smile.

Red Sox defeat Madison Bumgarner, Giants

Alex Pavlovic
Mercury News

Madison Bumgarner woke up at 7 a.m. Saturday, too antsy about his second career start to keep sleeping.

Those nerves showed early, and Bumgarner and the Giants paid for a pair of mistakes in the first two innings of a 4-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox at AT&T Park.

Darnell McDonald welcomed Bumgarner back to the big leagues by crushing a belt-high fastball into the left-field stands in the first inning, and an inning later Mike Cameron hit a three-run shot to center, again on a fastball over the plate.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy said he thought Bumgarner was "a little hyped up early on," and Bumgarner admitted that his psyche contributed to the poor start.

Once Bumgarner (0-1) finally found his footing, he showed the promise that prompted the Giants to draft him 10th overall in 2007, retiring 16 of the final 17 batters he faced.

The Giants weren't able to capitalize, despite catching a break when Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz was forced from the game with an injury in the second inning.

After picking up his first career hit, Buchholz hyperextended his left knee running the bases. Boston was already without All-Star second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who was placed on the disabled list Saturday after breaking his left foot Friday night.

The Red Sox were so shorthanded that they used No. 2 starter John Lackey as a pinch hitter in the fifth inning, but thanks to the steady bullpen, they kept the Giants at bay.

Scott Atchison, who made 22 appearances for the Giants in 2007, did most of the heavy lifting. Atchison gave up a run and a hit over 21/3 innings to pick up his first win since 2004.

The path from the visitors' bullpen to the mound was well-worn by the end of the evening, but San Francisco managed just two runs off seven Red Sox relievers.

"You'd like to take advantage of that, but their bullpen bailed them out," Bochy said. "We had a couple of opportunities that we didn't cash in on."

San Francisco had runners on the corners with one out in the fourth, and again with no outs in the sixth but came away with just a single run each time. Buster Posey brought both runs home, picking up RBIs on a fielder's choice and a sacrifice fly.

Freddy Sanchez pinch-hit for Bumgarner in the seventh and led off with a double. Andres Torres, who is 5 for his past 35, struck out, and Edgar Renteria and Aubrey Huff also failed to bring Sanchez home.

Sanchez was the last Giants baserunner of the game, in part because of Cameron.

Pablo Sandoval, who had a long single off the right-field wall in the fourth, hit a ball even harder with two outs in the eighth. But Cameron tracked it down in deep center, crashing into the wall to rob Sandoval of extra bases.

Jonathan Papelbon set the Giants down in order in the ninth to even the series.

While Saturday's battle between young pitchers Bumgarner and Buchholz never quite materialized, today's series finale should keep the focus on the mound.

Tim Lincecum (8-2, 2.86 ERA) faces off against Red Sox ace Jon Lester (8-3, 3.03) in a matchup of two pitchers who feast on the opposing leagues. Lincecum is 5-1 lifetime in interleague play, and Lester is 6-2 in 12 career starts against National League clubs.

Box Score

Giants rebound to overcome Red Sox

Uribe's homer caps comeback from early deficit

Cash Kruth
MLB.com
Juan Uribe hit a tiebreaking home run in the third inning and the Giants survived the wildness of starter Jonathan Sanchez and their bullpen in a 5-4 win over the Red Sox on Friday night at AT&T Park.

Sanchez gave up a three-run homer to Boston's Kevin Youkilis as part of a 37-pitch first inning, but the Giants tied the game in the second.

Buster Posey hit an RBI single up the middle to score Pablo Sandoval, who led off the inning and advanced to second on a wild pitch. After Aaron Rowand walked, Eli Whiteside reached on an infield single, loading the bases with one out for Sanchez.

Sanchez laid down a beautiful, well-placed bunt just beyond the reach of pitcher Tim Wakefield, who, after finally retrieving the ball, wildly flipped it over the head of Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia at first, as both Posey and Rowand scored.

Uribe hit his team-leading 12th home run of the season in the third inning to break the tie.

Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla each experienced their own adventures in the sixth -- Romo inheriting two runners and loading the bases with a walk -- and seventh, with Casilla walking three batters and throwing three wild pitches.

With two outs in the eighth, closer Brian Wilson also joined in, allowing the first two batters to reach before getting the final four outs to earn his 21st save. Wilson, who loaded the bases after allowing a run in the ninth, had an extra cushion thanks to Freddy Sanchez's eighth-inning sacrifice fly.

Box Score

Cain clobbered as Giants lose series

Double plays wipe out several San Francisco rallies

Chris Haft
MLB.com
An aberration haunted the Giants in their series against the Houston Astros. And a season-long shortcoming plagued them Thursday.

The Giants completed a hollow 2-4 trip with a 7-5 loss that looked mostly unfamiliar. Matt Cain, who has combined consistency with excellence, yielded all of Houston's runs in 2 2/3 innings. Meanwhile, the Giants, who should consider purchasing a copyright to the double play, grounded into four more twin killings to hike their National League-high total to 78 and prevent themselves from overcoming a 7-0 deficit.

San Francisco must purge itself of this performance quickly. The Giants will begin perhaps the most challenging homestand of the season Friday. The formidable Boston Red Sox visit for three Interleague games, followed by a three-game series against the NL West rival Los Angeles Dodgers. Then comes a three-city, 11-game trip that opens with four games at Colorado, another division foe.

To a large extent, every series is critical for a contending club such as the Giants. "We'll be saying that the rest of the year, where we are," manager Bruce Bochy said.

Still, center fielder Aaron Rowand indicated that the star power of the upcoming competition can't be ignored.

"It's obviously a tough stretch of games against quality teams -- teams you can test yourself against, being where we are in the standings," Rowand said. "I think everybody has the confidence that with our starting pitching, we can be competitive and have a chance to win every [series]."

For that very reason, losing two of three games to the woeful Astros (28-45) wasn't what the Giants had in mind when they arrived here. In five previous series when Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito and Cain were scheduled to pitch, the Giants went 12-3 as their top three starters personally combined for a 10-3 record with a 1.92 ERA.

Lincecum did his part as San Francisco captured Tuesday's series opener, allowing an unearned run in eight innings. But Zito lasted a season-worst four innings Wednesday while allowing five runs. Cain also turned in his shortest outing of the season.

"We happened to have back-to-back off days by two starters who have been throwing the ball great all year," Bochy said.

Cain complained that he never worked himself into favorable counts to be able to throw his secondary pitches. Astros left fielder Carlos Lee, whose first-inning, two-out double preceded Hunter Pence's three-run homer, confirmed that Houston's hitters tried to prevent Cain from establishing control.

"That's a guy that throws a lot of strikes, so ... everybody was aggressive and we made sure we got a fastball and went out and swung," Lee said.

Cain had posted an 0.92 ERA in his previous six starts and entered the game with the NL's fourth-best ERA, 2.16. That rose to 2.72 after the Astros knocked him around. Cain's woes continued in the second inning as Astros catching prospect Jason Castro belted his first Major League home run and Lance Berkman added a two-run double. Michael Bourn's third-inning RBI double finished Cain, who fully expected to keep thriving.

"You don't sit there and wait for a bad day to come," Cain said. "You keep going out there like you're going to pitch well or you're going to hit well."

Giants hitters must share Cain's outlook, particularly after Thursday's indignities. Ignoring the 7-0 deficit, they put their first two runners safely aboard in each inning from the fourth through seventh. But double-play grounders blunted their momentum in the first three innings of that span.

"Nobody's trying to hit into them," Bochy said. "We know that with this club, we'll have a few more than usual, the way we've been set up. [But] I don't want them to get in their minds where they're thinking not to hit into one. That's going to compound the problem."

The Giants generated enough offense to make matters competitive. Pat Burrell socked a two-run homer in the fourth inning. Pinch-hitter Andres Torres and Aubrey Huff rapped RBI singles in the seventh. In the ninth, Edgar Renteria's RBI single and pinch-hitter Travis Ishikawa's single brought the potential go-ahead run to the plate with one out. Astros closer Matt Lindstrom responded by coaxing a popup from Huff and striking out Juan Uribe.

If it's any comfort to the Giants, the Astros felt fortunate to scratch out a series victory.

"This is a tough team," Berkman said of the Giants. "I expect they're going to be in contention the whole year."

Box Score

Zito zapped

John Shea
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle

Manager Bruce Bochy sat Buster Posey for another day, reasoning that the Giants' lineup that beat Roy Oswalt the previous night deserved to have a crack at Brett Myers.

Problem is, an Astros team that was shut down by Tim Lincecum on Tuesday resurrected with a vengeance against Barry Zito on Wednesday. Zito took his quickest exit of the season, and the Giants finally fell to the Astros 6-3 in the teams' eighth meeting of 2010.

Zito was pulled after four innings because he surrendered five run and seven hits and never kept the Astros off balance. Zito's first batter, Jason Bourgeois, singled and scored on Lance Berkman's ground-rule double, and Jeff Keppinger's three-run double in the second made it one-sided in a hurry.

The leadoff man reached in three of Zito's four innings, including the fourth - even though Zito struck out Chris Johnson. Strike three was a curve that bounced away from catcher Bengie Molina, enabling Johnson to take first base. He scored on Myers' second two-out hit of the game.

The same Myers who entered 1-for-26 with 12 strikeouts.

Myers' first hit was even more damaging. Zito issued a bases-empty walk to No. 8 hitter Jason Castro, and Myers followed with a single. Zito walked Bourgeois to load the bases for Keppinger, who smoked his double to left to clear the bases.

Before the game, Bochy explained why he didn't play Posey in consecutive games:

"He hasn't had a break. He came up here and has been grinding pretty hard. He could use a break. I gave him a day yesterday, and the way we played, I decided to give him an extra day. We faced a good pitcher (Roy Oswalt) yesterday and won the game. We're throwing the same guys out there."

Bochy said Posey will return to first base today and play the weekend's Boston series - including a starting assignment behind the plate on Saturday. Pitcher Joe Martinez still is scheduled to start that game, though he pitched the seventh inning Wednesday.

If Martinez is needed again in relief today, he won't start Saturday, Bochy said. That would mean Posey's battery mate could be Triple-A Fresno's Madison Bumgarner, who'd be pulled from his scheduled start Friday at Portland.

Martinez wasn't sharp. He yielded two singles and walked a batter but didn't allow a run.

The Giants scored two runs in the fifth on Andres Torres' RBI triple and Aubrey Huff's grounder to Keppinger at second. Heads-up baserunning by Freddy Sanchez - backtracking from Keppinger and forcing him to throw to first, too late - enabled Torres to score.

The runs were unearned because the scorer ruled a questionable error on Aaron Rowand's hard grounder past third.

Meantime, Bochy spoke of the importance of going deep into his roster and keeping guys fresh, saying it "creates a sense of oneness. You want everyone to be involved as much as you can."

Box Score

Giants, Lincecum beat Astros again

John Shea
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
If Roy Oswalt is traded this summer, perhaps he wouldn't mind getting dealt to a team that wouldn't play the Giants the rest of the season.

That way, he'd erase Tim Lincecum from his mind.

The sixth Lincecum-Oswalt duel, featuring two of the toughest and hardest-throwing little men in the game, played out at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday, and Lincecum prevailed for the fourth time - the third in 2010.

The Giants beat the Astros 3-1, because Lincecum surrendered one run (unearned) while Oswalt gave up two runs in the seventh. Lincecum, respectful of the pitcher who's seven years his elder, said he never spoke with Oswalt other than to say hi but wished he had in 2007, his first year, when the comparisons between the two pitchers began being emphasized.

"He's a competitor. You can see that in him," Lincecum said. "He's got great pitches. He throws a lot of stuff. I don't know. I guess it was just unfortunate for him. It's the baseball gods. I don't control that stuff."

But he does.

If Lincecum didn't have his A game, he had his A-minus game. He had just two 1-2-3 innings and threw 119 pitches in eight innings. But every time he needed to, he revved it up and got outs. He struck out seven, walked two and surrendered seven hits in his best start in weeks.

In starts against each other, Lincecum is 4-0. Oswalt is 1-4.

It was 1-0 Astros until the Giants rallied for two runs in the seventh. Pat Burrell hit an RBI single, and Pablo Sandoval avoided an inning-ending double play when he beat the throw to first base, prompting the second run of the inning. But the inning's key was Juan Uribe's 11-pitch walk with one out, which moved Aubrey Huff to second and set up the Burrell at-bat.

The Giants scored an insurance run in the ninth on Nate Schierholtz's two-out single.

The Astros' run came in the second, and it was a gift. Jason Castro, who was promoted from the minors Tuesday and played at Stanford, opened the inning with his first big-league hit. Bengie Molina allowed him to reach second on a passed ball. Shortstop Edgar Renteria, in the lineup because of decent career numbers against Oswalt, dropped a basket-catch attempt of Tommy Manzella's popup.

The Giants caught a break when Oswalt popped up a bunt, but Michael Bourn doubled home the game's first run.

After Lincecum walked Jeff Keppinger to load the bases, second baseman Freddy Sanchez bailed him out. Lance Berkman hit a sharp grounder heading to center field that went off Lincecum's glove, enabling Sanchez to masterfully turn a double play.

"He did all the work," joked Sanchez. "He knocked it down for me."

"That won the game for us," Bochy said.

Buster Posey, with just two hits in his last seven games, was out of the Giants' lineup. Sandoval played first base.

Box Score

Even victory can be pure torture for Giants

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
Bruce Bochy is paid handsomely to manage his team, so he probably cannot wear a T-shirt that reads, "Giants baseball - torture."

Still, the manager had to summon Brian Wilson to save Sunday's 9-6 victory against the Blue Jays after the Giants had started the ninth inning with a six-run lead.

"Yeah, that's us," Bochy said afterward.

The Giants would love to enjoy another reputation, as a team that grinds at-bats and makes the opposing pitcher sweat. They have improved there and did so in averting a sweep as they finished Shaun Marcum after five innings and 102 pitches. He led 3-2.

Then, an offense that managed two runs over the two losses that began this series pasted left-handed reliever Brian Tallet for five runs in the sixth inning.

Edgar Renteria walked, Aaron Rowand doubled for his first extra-base hit in 10 days, Andres Torres grounded the tying one-out single to left, and Freddy Sanchez delivered the most important and stunning hit of the series, a three-run homer that hooked into the left-field foul pole to give the Giants a 6-3 lead.

Sanchez had not homered in 198 at-bats dating to August, by far the longest drought on the team.

Aubrey Huff kept the rally going with a single, and Juan Uribe's RBI double against new pitcher Casey Janssen gave the Giants a 7-3 lead, which Pat Burrell extended to 9-3 with a two-run homer in the eighth made possible by Fred Lewis dropping an easy Huff flyball.

"We kept giving ourselves opportunities to score," said Burrell, whose homer was his first in 16 at-bats. "If you keep giving yourself chances with guys on base, runners in scoring position, the law of averages says you're going to get a big hit. That was Freddy's today."

Fans might roll their eyes at that statement after watching the Giants consistently fail to get big hits. Bochy wished his boys could have delivered one or two for Barry Zito and Matt Cain in the preceding losses.

"This game is hard to figure sometimes," Bochy said. "We get two great starts, one guy scuffles and that's the game you win."

The scuffler was Jonathan Sanchez, whose fastball command eluded him as he walked five batters and allowed three runs in 2 2/3 innings, his shortest start since July, 2008. With two more of Sanchez's runners in scoring position in the third, Bochy yanked him in favor of Denny Bautista, who retired Edwin Encarnacion on a foul pop to launch a terrific run by the bullpen.

"Bautista won the game for us," Bochy said. Indeed, Bautista was awarded the win for 2 1/3 shutout innings. Guillermo Mota followed with two more and Sergio Romo another until the ninth, when the Jays scored three against a still-struggling Jeremy Affeldt. Thus came the call for Wilson, who struck out Lyle Overbay on a high fastball for a one-batter save.

The first of three Giants homers was important, too. Huff's solo shot off Marcum in the third inning, his team-high 12th, seemed to wake the Giants from a serieslong stupor and infused some life into their dugout. Like Sanchez's homer, Huff's was very high and barely fair.

Neither Bochy nor Freddy Sanchez thought the second baseman's homer would stay fair.

"Off the bat I didn't," Sanchez said. "The man upstairs kept that thing fair. I know I stayed inside it, but it looked like it kept hooking and hooking, and then it faded back."

Box Score

Blue Jays beat Cain, Giants with eighth-inning homer

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

The cast might feature a few fresh faces, but the script was all too familiar for Matt Cain and the Giants.

With the momentary updraft of Buster Posey's promotion and Pat Burrell's arrival no longer lifting their wings, the Giants failed to support Cain and left him prone to lose on one mistake.

Despite his impeccable run, Cain made two of them as the Blue Jays broke a scoreless tie in the eighth inning. First, he issued a two-out walk to Fred Lewis. Then he threw a 1-1 fastball into Aaron Hill's happy zone for a two-run home run as the Giants lost 3-0 Saturday at Rogers Centre.

It was the second consecutive game in which a Giants starter was beaten on a home run in the eighth inning; Barry Zito gave up a tiebreaking long ball to Edwin Encarnacion on Friday.

"It's Groundhog Day," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "Another great pitching effort. The bats are quiet. That's what it comes down to."

Yes, they celebrate Groundhog Day in Canada. In fact, they have multiple furry little guys across the provinces that go by names like Wiarton Willie, Balzac Billy and Shubenacadie Sam.

The Giants lineup is in the grip of a deep freeze again. They had few hard-hit balls against right-hander Jesse Litsch, who was making his second start since coming back from elbow reconstruction surgery and got blasted by the Colorado Rockies last Sunday.

Posey was 0 for 3 to deepen a 2-for-26 funk over his past seven games. His average has fallen from .450 to a not-as-glitzy .310, although he has hit into two hard outs during this series.

Posey has gone through dry spells at other levels. Is it any tougher to have one in the big leagues?

"No, it's frustrating at every level," he said. "You just try to do the same thing and put the barrel on the ball and try not to hit it at 'em."

Posey said he hasn't noticed pitchers attacking him any differently, and he's happy with the approach he is taking.

"I feel I'm seeing the ball well, and team-wise, we're a big inning away from winning these last two ballgames," Posey said.

Bochy said: "He wasn't going to stay at the pace he was at. I thought he's swinging good. He looked real good in (batting practice) today. Throughout the lineup, we weren't hitting their guy today."

Bochy called Litsch "effectively wild" while he held the Giants to three hits and a hit batter in seven innings. He didn't issue a walk, and the Giants seemingly have regressed to their free-swinging ways.

Despite the influx of patience from hitters like Posey and Burrell, the Giants still rank last in the major leagues with 3.69 pitches per plate appearance.

Not all statistics tell a story, though. Some are just darn misleading.

For instance, the Giants have scored exactly the same amount of runs as their opponents in the eighth inning this season. It only seems as if all their losses implode in the eighth.

Cain (6-5) matched Litsch through seven to extend a dominant stretch in which he'd allowed just two earned runs over a span of 48 innings. But the Blue Jays lead the major leagues in home runs, and the walk to Lewis extended the eighth.

"A huge no-no," Cain said. "That's why a two-out walk will hurt you so much, because these guys will beat you with the long ball. You can't give those guys extra chances."

Adam Lind followed with a single to drive Cain from the game, and Santiago Casilla gave up two more hits as the Blue Jays tacked on a third run. Cain took his first loss since May 22.

"You just get comfortable throwing in tight ballgames like today," Cain said. "It comes down to one or two mistakes that decide the ballgame. You try not to be that guy. Today, I was that guy."

Nobody likes to be typecast. Especially as the hard-luck loser.

Box Score

Encarnacion's late homer sinks Zito, Giants

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
How many losses that should have been wins does a team get if it has serious playoff aspirations? Five? Ten?

The Giants already had a few before adding another galling defeat to their collection Friday night.

In a 3-2 loss to Toronto, they twice failed to bury former Cal pitcher Brandon Morrow. Manager Bruce Bochy eulogized one of those opportunities by saying, "We shot ourselves in the foot."

Barry Zito outpitched Morrow hands down in a complete game but took his third loss, the victim of big mistakes by teammates.

Zito made only one, on the first pitch of the eighth inning in a 2-2 game, and Edwin Encarnacion slammed it over the left-field fence for his ninth homer of the season and the Jays' 104th, which leads the majors.

Zito fell to 3-10 against the American League since he joined the Giants in 2007, but this one should not have been.

"The baseball gods are for you sometimes, and sometimes they're not," he said. "You've just got to keep grinding and give your team a chance to win."

Zito called the changeup that Encarnacion hit out "a good pitch. I'd throw it again."

Encarnacion had all three RBIs for Toronto. He produced the first two with a broken-bat dunker into short left field in the fifth inning, which began with an Alex Gonzalez infield single for Toronto's first hit. After Zito grazed Jose Bautista with a pitch, Pablo Sandoval momentarily fumbled a Lyle Overbay bouncer and retired nobody, leaving the bases loaded for Encarnacion.

Meanwhile, the offense made Morrow throw 33 pitches in the first inning yet scored only once on a walk to Sandoval. That was a mere trifle compared with the frustration of what could have been a big sixth inning.

Aubrey Huff led off with a drive to deep right-center field and briefly stood at the plate admiring what he thought was a home run. Instead, it ticked off the glove of a leaping Fred Lewis. Huff had a double when he might have had a triple.

Huff said he might not have risked making the inning's first out at third base anyway, "but that's still no excuse. I've got to get going there. That's unacceptable. I've got to bust it out of the box. That's my fault."

After Juan Uribe was hit by a pitch, Pat Burrell sent a line drive over Bautista's head in right. Huff read it poorly and retreated to second to tag. Only when he saw the ball fall did he start for third.

Third-base coach Tim Flannery could have cut Huff's losses by holding him. The Giants would have had the bases loaded with nobody out. Instead, Flannery sent Huff to an easy out at home.

Asked if Flannery was too aggressive, Bochy said, "You think a (ball) off the wall, he's going to score."

The Giants scored once in the inning to tie the game on a Sandoval groundout, but once clearly was not enough. Zito was left with no margin for error, and it cost him.

One consolation for the Giants: They were not beaten by their former teammate Lewis, who said before the game he was not eager to mete out vengeance. In other words, his old team was old business.

"Anything that's dead should be buried," Lewis said. "That's over and done with. I'm moving on."

He did not move on well Friday. Zito retired Lewis in all four encounters, including a strikeout and a groundball double play.

Box Score

Early exit for Lincecum in win over Orioles

Rusty Simmons
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The Giants' 6-3 victory over Baltimore on Wednesday afternoon left Tim Lincecum and Aubrey Huff in joyfully foreign situations.

Lincecum joked about the possibility of using ice on his right shoulder for the first time in his major-league career, and Huff found himself contributing the biggest bat on a team in contention.

Huff went 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs as the Giants completed a 5-1 homestand. Lincecum gutted out an 111-pitch effort that included taking a line drive off the back of his right shoulder.

"They wanted me to put ice on it, so I could tell you that I finally iced my arm for once," said Lincecum, who struck out 10 batters for the fourth time this season and 23rd time in his career.

Miguel Tejada's sixth-inning liner glanced off Lincecum's shoulder and caromed to second baseman Freddy Sanchez, who made an excellent play for the inning-ending out. The pitcher-turned-gymnast rolled on the ground before heading back to dugout.

"I was more shocked than anything," Lincecum said. "I didn't know what to do, so just lie there.

"I was like, 'OK, I'm fine. I can get up now.' "

Lincecum had four walks and three wild pitches, and he had to work out of trouble throughout his two-run, six-inning performance. Huff and Juan Uribe hit back-to-back homers in the sixth to give the Giants a 4-2 lead, and closer Brian Wilson recorded a five-out save to make Lincecum a seven-game winner.

With a 4-3 lead in the eighth inning, Wilson pitched out of a first-and-third, one-out jam. He retired the side in order in the ninth after back-to-back RBIs by Travis Ishikawa and Nate Schierholtz provided some insurance.

Huff smacked a 3-2 slider from Baltimore starter Jeremy Guthrie into McCovey Cove to the delight of a sun-drenched crowd of 38,485. In his first nine full seasons in the big leagues, Huff played for Tampa Bay and Baltimore squads that averaged 97.3 losses a year.

"At this time of year, I'm used to being 20 games out," Huff said. "I've never been a part of something like this.

"It's an amazing experience. I used to be counting the days until vacation by now."

Huff had a slow start, during which he was admittedly frustrated about AT&T Park's dimensions. Since the start of May, however, Huff has batted .333 and has become one of the Giants' best power hitters.

"Early, he was complaining, saying 'What's up with this field? I can't hit homeruns,' " Lincecum said. "Then, all of a sudden, he has hit started to hit them.

"It's fun watching his bat come to life."

It's equally fun for Huff.

"I'm having the best time of my life playing baseball right now," he said. "I've been on the other side, and it's not fun. I had nine straight years of that, and it kind of wears on you.

"I finally feel like I'm in the big leagues, and I'm having a great time."

Box Score

Giants stymied by Orioles rookie

Baltimore finds holes in Martinez's season debut

Chris Haft
MLB.com
Starting pitching, which the Giants typically use to great advantage, became a great equalizer Tuesday night as they dropped an Interleague decision to Jake Arrieta and the Baltimore Orioles, 4-1.

Possessing the Major Leagues' worst record (18-47) mattered less for the Orioles than Arrieta's presence on the mound. Fresh off defeating the Yankees in his Major League debut last Thursday, the right-hander delivered an impressive second act by limiting the Giants, who entered the game with the National League's second-highest batting average (.267), to three hits in seven-plus innings.

Arrieta not only halted the Giants' four-game winning streak but also their momentum in the National League West race. San Diego and Los Angeles both won, thrusting the Giants back into third place after they had enjoyed a second-place tie with the Dodgers, a half-game behind the division-leading Padres, for one fleeting day.

Right-hander Joe Martinez made his season debut for the Giants and did his job too well, if anything. Coaxing ground balls is what Martinez does best, and he did exactly that against the Orioles. Unfortunately for Martinez, too many of the bouncers traveled a little too far out of range. He allowed all of Baltimore's runs in 6 1/3 innings, and five of the eight hits he yielded were infield singles or grounders that infielders deflected.

That didn't count the run-scoring groundouts Baltimore's Ty Wigginton hit in the first and third innings, or Wigginton's bases-loaded, double-play grounder that generated the Orioles' final run in the fifth.

"It's going to happen to everybody," said Martinez, who replaced injured Todd Wellemeyer in San Francisco's rotation. "You can make great pitches and get hit; you can make terrible pitches and they hit it right at people. Today they kind of found some holes on me. Guys are laying out all over the place trying to knock them down and get outs, but it didn't happen, unfortunately.

"Another day, maybe they're hit at people and it's a closer game."

That last remark applied to the Giants' offense.

While Pablo Sandoval's third-inning homer accounted for the Giants' lone run, they made solid but fruitless contact on other occasions. Andres Torres hit promising drives to right field in the first and sixth innings. Freddy Sanchez lined out to third base in his initial at-bat. Pat Burrell opened the seventh inning with a rocket to center field that Adam Jones reached for to catch. And in the ninth against Orioles closer David Hernandez, Juan Uribe launched an opposite-field drive to the right-field warning track before Sandoval ended the game by hitting a scorcher to third baseman Miguel Tejada.

"We had a little bit of buzzard's luck tonight," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said, employing one of his most familiar lamentations. "We hit some balls right at them, they played well and they got the ground balls that just went through."

Buster Posey, who went 0-for-3 against Arrieta, offered mostly praise.

"He's deceptive," Posey said of Arrieta. "We hit some balls hard right at people, but he located his fastball well and had good movement on it."

Hernandez implied that after subduing the Yankees on three runs and four hits in six innings, Arrieta was ready for any challenge.

"No offense to the Giants, but they don't have the Yankee firepower," Hernandez said. "I think that enabled him to go out there and pretty much pitch his game. He definitely has the quality stuff to do that."

The 162-game season enables even the lowliest of teams to enjoy nights of redemption. This was one of those respites for the Orioles.

The club that had lost 16 of its previous 18 games, including nine in a row on the road, bested a San Francisco team that had won five consecutive decisions at AT&T Park and was tied for second in the Major Leagues for most home victories (23).

Baltimore had allowed opposing pitchers to record quality starts in 17 of 18 games entering Tuesday, but avoided that fate against Martinez, who still approached the minimum standard (three earned runs or fewer allowed while pitching six innings or more).

Having mustered three home runs in their last nine games, the Orioles supplemented their offense with a leadoff fourth-inning long ball from Jones.

The Giants will enter Wednesday's series finale filled with the hope that starter Tim Lincecum always brings. The Orioles will again try to persevere, as they did to secure this victory.

"It's big and it's not because we're going to face Lincecum tomorrow. It's because we needed it," Tejada said. "We've been losing too many games, and to win today gives us energy to come back tomorrow and win another game."

Box Score

Giants rout Orioles 10-2

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

Andres Torres and Jonathan Sanchez were teammates six winters ago in Puerto Rico. Torres wondered how a kid so skinny could throw so hard. Sanchez wondered how a flyball-catching outfielder and dynamic switch hitter could be deprived an everyday job in the big leagues.

"You see what he's doing now," Sanchez said.

Torres did a little of everything to help Sanchez and the Giants claim a 10-2 victory over the downtrodden Baltimore Orioles at AT&T Park on Monday night.

The 32-year-old center fielder is a late bloomer, but he would be the star of any hothouse. He tripled and scored in the first inning, hit a run-scoring double during a five-run second inning and made a sliding catch that saved a run.

Pat Burrell started the second-inning rally with a home run as the Giants won for the seventh time in nine games.

"I just try to make something happen," said Torres, who has sparked the Giants to a 19-8 record since he was moved to the leadoff spot. "You have to be patient, show everybody what the pitcher's got. But sometimes you jump on that first fastball, too."

Everyone is jumping on the Orioles these days. They own the worst record in the majors, at 17-47. They have lost 18 of their past 20 games. Manager Dave Trembley was relieved of his duties two weeks ago.

For the Giants, the boys from Charm City picked a perfect time for their first interleague visit since 2002.

Sanchez pitched into the eighth inning to win for the third time in four starts. He gave up a season-high eight hits but issued only one walk and avoided stressful innings. He never faced more than five batters in any inning.

"Go out, relax and make pitches," said Sanchez, who received zero run support in five of his first nine starts.

Asked if he could remember the last time he pitched with a five-run lead, Sanchez stared at the questioner for a good 10 seconds. The silence said everything.

Sanchez and Torres faced each other over the years in the Puerto Rican winter league; Sanchez played for Carolina and Torres was on the Mayaguez team. In 2004, Mayaguez went to the Caribbean Series and picked up Sanchez for the playoff run.

"The first time I saw him, I thought, 'He is so skinny but he has a good fastball,' " Torres said. "He broke my bat once, but I got a few hits, too."

Responded a smiling Sanchez: "He had no chance."

Torres also recalled that they both nearly missed a flight to Mexico because their passports weren't in order.

They're going places now.

"We had quality at-bat after quality at-bat," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "And it's always nice when your leadoff hitter starts you off with a triple.

"We're showing more patience up there. We're not quite the free-swinging club that we were."

Torres keeps making contributions in the outfield, too. He made a tumbling catch of a sinking line drive from Nick Markakis in the first inning, saving Sanchez a run and allowing him to settle down.

Sanchez saw plenty of those plays in Puerto Rico, too.

"He'd play center field, and if there's a fly ball to left, he'd just go get it," Sanchez said. "He wouldn't let anybody catch anything. I think, 'What's going on with this kid?' He's amazing. The things he is doing here, getting on base all the time, stealing bases, making all these catches — he's doing everything."

Freddy Sanchez continues to complement Torres in the No. 2 spot, too. He collected four RBIs, hitting a sacrifice fly to score Torres in the first inning and a run-scoring single in the second inning. He added a two-run single in the eighth after Orioles right-hander Frank Mata had issued two walks with the bases loaded.

Box Score

Huff homers twice in Giants win

Associated Press

Aubrey Huff backed Matt Cain with two big swings, and cracked on the surging right-hander after another Giants win.

Huff hit a pair of two-run homers, Cain powered his way to his fourth consecutive win and San Francisco beat the Oakland Athletics 6-2 on Sunday to complete a three-game series sweep.

"I already stole your thunder Cain," Huff joked as the pitcher spoke with reporters in the clubhouse.

"That's the answer to all your questions," Cain laughed in response.

Huff signed a one-year deal with the Giants in the offseason and got off to a sluggish start. He batted .247 with two homers in April but has been a tear since then, hitting .336 since May 1.

The veteran slugger, who had 15 homers with Baltimore and Detroit last season, has six homers and 13 RBIs over his last 16 games alone.

"The first month of the season I really tried to beat it and got in a lot of bad habits," Huff said. "I just got to a point where I stopped caring and just started seeing the ball and hitting it. If it goes, it goes. If it doesn't you take your doubles and triples."

The Giants, who were swept by the A's last month in Oakland, improved to 8-4 in June after scuffling to a 14-14 mark in May. They moved a season-high eight games over .500 and pulled within 1 1/2 games of first-place San Diego in the NL West.

Manager Bruce Bochy altered his lineup before the game, moving Pablo Sandoval into the No. 2 slot while dropping Juan Uribe to fourth in the order.

The changes worked nicely.

Sandoval walked in the sixth and scored on Huff's ninth homer. Uribe, batting cleanup for only the sixth time this season, followed with a drive to left to make it 4-1.

Sandoval also walked in the eighth before Huff hit a 2-2 pitch from Craig Breslow over the wall in right for his 10th career multihomer game.

"We got shut down at their place and we certainly wanted to return the favor," Bochy said. "There's no getting around that. We wanted to get even with them and guys played well."

Cain (6-4) allowed one run and eight hits over seven innings. He is 4-0 with a 0.55 ERA in four starts since his last loss May 22 at Oakland, when the A's got an unearned run off the hard-throwing righty in a 1-0 victory.

"I'm just trying to get guys to swing early," Cain said. "I think I'm locating both sides of the plate a little better. That carries into being able to get other stuff working as well."

Jack Cust had three singles for Oakland, which dropped its sixth straight game at AT&T Park.

"We made too many mistakes," A's manager Bob Geren said. "There were some positive things but there were errors that led to runs. It wasn't a good series, it really wasn't. We had too many things go wrong in a three-game series to overcome."

Vin Mazzaro (2-1) pitched a season-best six innings for Oakland, yielding four runs, three earned, and six hits.

Cain ran his scoreless streak to 16 innings before Landon Powell hit a two-out RBI single in the fourth. Cliff Pennington then doubled to right but Powell was thrown out trying to score, ending the inning.

Cain pitched out of another jam in the sixth. With one out and runners at the corners, he struck out Adam Rosales and retired Powell on a bouncer to second.

San Francisco's bullpen nearly let Cain's latest gem get away. Reliever Dan Runzler's throwing error set up Kevin Kouzmanoff's RBI single in the eighth. Guillermo Mota then came in and walked two batters to load the bases before Santiago Casilla got pinch-hitter Mark Ellis to pop up for the final out of the inning.

The Giants grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second. Pat Burrell singled, took second on a throwing error by third baseman Kouzmanoff and scored on Bengie Molina's single.

Box Score

Wilson helps Zito finally beat old team

John Shea
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
Barry Zito was destined to beat his old team one of these times. He pitched well enough to do it Saturday night, but the Giants' bullpen pitched poorly enough to ruin it.

Almost.

Closer Brian Wilson entered in a virtual lose-lose situation in the eighth inning and turned it into a win-win. He escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam and earned his 17th save, preserving the Giants' 5-4 victory and Zito's first win over the A's.

"It was about Brian Wilson tonight," Zito said. "He stole the show."

Wilson, however, wanted to pay his respect to Zito now that the lefty has beaten every big-league team.

"Yeah, we were aware of that," Wilson said. "I was thinking about a little beer shower afterward, but he's got 10 years in. It ended in dramatic fashion. That's how you like to do it."

Before Saturday, Zito had lost all four of his starts against Oakland (while producing an 8.85 ERA), and none of the games was close - the Giants were outscored by a combined 32-5. On Saturday, he completed seven innings for the first time against the team for which he played the first seven years of his career.

Then he waited for the relievers to wrap up the win. Not an easy task.

The bullpen issued four walks in the eighth inning, including two on eight consecutive balls thrown by former A's reliever Santiago Casilla and Jeremy Affeldt.

Guillermo Mota began the conga line by failing to retire any of his three batters, walking Mark Ellis, surrendering an RBI double to Kevin Kouzmanoff and walking Jack Cust.

One out later, Casilla four-pitch-walked Ryan Sweeney to load the bases, and Affeldt four-pitch-walked Gabe Gross to make it a one-run game.

Manager Bruce Bochy had seen enough and called on Wilson for his first five-out save since May 9 in New York. One little mistake would have kept Zito winless against the A's, but Wilson struck out Adam Rosales on an 88-mph slider and got Rajai Davis to bounce to shortstop.

In the ninth, Wilson overcame more drama after giving up singles to Ellis and Cust.

"That's what I signed up for," he said. "You get a chance to be a hero or a failure. I always like to choose the hero option. It's more lucrative, and fans like it."

Zito gave up homers to Matt Carson and Rosales and exited with a 5-2 lead.

Andres Torres doubled and scored in the first inning and singled home a run in the second. The Giants added two in the third on an RBI triple by Aubrey Huff, followed by Juan Uribe's single.

Pablo Sandoval homered in the sixth - his first homer since May 28 and second in 45 games - but not before telling Torres he'd do exactly that.

One month after the Giants were swept in Oakland, the Giants could return the favor with a win in today's matinee.

Box Score

Lincecum gets first win since May 15

Rusty Simmons
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
Tim Lincecum returned to being his old self, Pat Burrell returned to his old home, and the Giants returned to their winning ways Friday night with a 6-2 victory over the A's.

Lincecum backed Giants fans away from their collective panic button by tossing eight dazzling innings and winning for the first time since May 15. Burrell, who went to Bellarmine High in San Jose, homered in his home debut.

Lincecum threw most of his fastballs in the 90-91 mph range but he kept the A's off balance with a steady diet of offspeed stuff.

"That's the Timmy we know," manager Bruce Bochy said. "He had a rhythm going and you could see his confidence growing. He looks like he is back on track, and that's big for us."

Lincecum struck out seven batters, the most he has had in a game since May 9, and showed glimpses of dominance. He retired 11 in a row at one point and allowed only one ball to leave the infield during the second through sixth innings.

When he got Ryan Sweeney to ground out for the final out of the eighth, Lincecum received a standing ovation.

"I wasn't scared to throw a fastball in the zone, I relaxed and I remembered that I can do this," Lincecum said. "I have quit doubting myself."

Lincecum discarded the "erratic" tag along with his jacket as he celebrated Burrell's two-run, third-inning home run off A's starter Gio Gonzalez. Bengie Molina added a two-run shot in the sixth inning, and Buster Posey had an RBI triple in the two-run seventh in getting a little payback for last month's series in Oakland.

The A's held the Giants scoreless for the final 20 innings of that series and allowed only one run in a three-game sweep.

"We're not trying to make this series the most important of the season, but we remember," Molina said. "We definitely remember what happened over there, and we were all pumped."

Six runs were more than enough for Lincecum, who settled into his groove after an eventful first inning. He allowed only one baserunner - a one-out walk to Mark Ellis in third inning - between the second and sixth.

Ellis greeted a 92 mph Lincecum fastball with a double down the left-field line to lead off the game. Daric Barton sacrificed Ellis to third, but Posey fielded a Sweeney grounder and threw out Ellis on a questionable call at the plate.

Sweeney advanced to third base on two wild pitches and scored on Kevin Kouzmanoff's single to left. That was about as sketchy as it got for the suddenly fallible Lincecum.

"I don't want to say that woke me up, but I guess it kind of did," Lincecum said.

Box Score