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."
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