Lincecum's new look helps Giants hold off Dodgers

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

Tim Lincecum is more than a two-time Cy Young Award winner, the ace of the Giants' staff and the master of a thousand movie quotes.

He's also an inventor of the English language.

Lincecum made a fairly significant change to his delivery Friday night, raising his arms over his head from the windup — just one of many odd twists and turns during the Giants' 6-5 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Afterward, Lincecum described it as a "twirk." Perhaps it's a hybrid of a tweak and quirk. That's for the good folks at Merriam-Webster to figure out.

It certainly was a twirky evening at 24 Willie Mays Plaza. Aubrey Huff's two-run double gave the Giants the lead in the third inning, his 20th home run of the season added to it, and two strong defensive plays helped to preserve it.

With closer Brian Wilson unavailable as a precaution because of back spasms, No. 4 starter Jonathan Sanchez faced two batters in the ninth inning, and with the tying run at third, right-hander Chris Ray got Casey Blake to ground into a force out to end it.

In front of a feisty, standing-room crowd, the Giants finally made AT&T Park a hostile place for their archrivals. The Dodgers had swept a three-game series here in June and put their feet on the ottoman entirely too often in enemy territory, posting a 26-13 record here since 2006.

"Beat L.A." still has some life in it, after all.

"That was the biggest atmosphere I've played on," said Huff, who recorded an assist from right field and made a running catch on the warning track after moving to left. "It was a blast. That was the kind of atmosphere I was waiting my whole life for. I've never been on a team playing for something this late in the year."

Reminded that Huff rose to meet that environment, the longtime Oriole and Devil Ray responded without hesitation:

"If I don't go out there and perform," he said, "those nine years of losing mean absolutely nothing."

Lincecum is having a much different season of self-discovery. His two Cy Young Awards have provided little comfort in his quest for consistency, and so he proposed to pitching coach Dave Righetti that he try something he once used in college.

Rather than begin his windup with his hands at his waist, he raised them over his head. Lincecum said the "twirk" helped him stay back longer and keep a direct line to the plate.

He struggled at the outset, needing 62 pitches to get through three innings. But he was more efficient the remainder of the way, allowing him to get through seven innings while holding the Dodgers to two runs.

"It felt really comfortable, considering I hadn't done it all year," said Lincecum (11-4), who was practicing the motion in the clubhouse just before the first pitch. "I feel smooth, in rhythm and collected. "... I'm trying to get better, trying to prove myself."

That summarizes the Giants these days. Even their most decorated player is trying to prove himself. So is a team that hasn't reached the postseason since 2003 and hasn't dominated their archrivals in years.

"They pretty much had their way with us," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "Same with San Diego. It's vital to play better against these teams. "... That's why we're trying to do everything we can to win in the end."

Everything but risk Wilson, whose back locked up earlier in the day but said he felt fine following treatment and lobbied to pitch. Wilson said he expected to be available today; Bochy said that was his hope, too.

"I wanted to pitch," Wilson said. "And I'm going to pitch tomorrow."

Sanchez will take his turn in the rotation Tuesday at Colorado, too. With the Giants' bullpen lacking a left-hander, Sanchez agreed to hold off his side session so he could be available to face hitters such as Andre Ethier and James Loney.

The Giants entered the ninth with a 6-2 lead, but they needed help after Scott Podsednik's triple deflected off center fielder Andres Torres' glove for a triple.

Sanchez entered and struck out Ethier for the second out but missed a shot at his first major league save when he hit Loney with a pitch. Ray gave up a run-scoring single to Matt Kemp before the former Orioles closer retired Blake to end it.

That was enough twirks for one night.

Box Score

Posey's hit streak ends in quiet loss

Giants held to three baserunners against Marlins' Sanchez

Cash Kruth
MLB.com
Marlins right-hander Anibal Sanchez allowed only one hit on Thursday afternoon.

And, no, it wasn't to Buster Posey.

Sanchez tossed a one-hit shutout -- snapping Posey's hitting streak at 21 games -- as the Marlins beat the Giants, 5-0, at AT&T Park.

Sanchez was perfect until the fifth inning, when Juan Uribe reached on an error and Pablo Sandoval singled to center field for the team's only hit.

Sanchez (8-6) walked only one batter while tying his career high with eight strikeouts in his second career shutout, the other being a no-hitter against the D-backs in 2006.

"We had three baserunners, so there's not much to say about that game; we just got shut down," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "Their guy pitched well today. ... We just couldn't come up with anything offensively. Our biggest rally was an error and a bloop. He kept us off balance."

Posey struck out in the second and fifth innings, and in the seventh, he grounded into a 6-4-3 double play after Aubrey Huff led off the inning with a walk.

"Indifferent, I guess," Posey said in reaction to the streak ending. "I had fun with it. I concentrated on winning ballgames as much as possible, but I guess, in a way, it's kind of nice that the attention will go back to that instead of the streak."

Posey's streak ended with him on the cusp of joining Giants history, as he was one game away from tying Willie McCovey for the longest hitting streak by a rookie in the San Francisco era. Although the chance to have his name next to a Hall of Famer in the record book was a neat thought, Posey said he didn't see it as that big of a deal.

"It would have been something cool to have, but at the same time, I know who Willie McCovey is and I didn't know he had the Giants' rookie record for a hitting streak," Posey said.

Instead, the rookie catcher's streak will end as the second-longest rookie hitting streak in San Francisco history, and it ties him with the Royals' Jose Guillen for the second-longest streak in the Majors this season.

Only Josh Hamilton's 23-game hitting streak has been longer this year.

When asked if he learned anything during the streak, Posey said he gained even greater appreciation of Joe DiMaggio's record of 56.

"If somebody breaks the hit-streak record in my lifetime, I'd be shocked," Posey said. "Because pitching's so good, defense is so good -- guys are fast -- I think it's going to have to be a guy that's extremely fast, has some luck. There's a lot of attention on it, so you've got to try to keep your mind right as much as you can."

Giants starter Madison Bumgarner (4-3) pitched well enough to post his fifth quality start of the season, but he took the loss. After Dan Uggla starred in the batter's box during the first three games of the series, Florida's Mike Stanton was Thursday's big run producer, hitting RBI doubles in the second and fourth innings and scoring in the fifth on Ronny Paulino's sacrifice fly.

"There are a couple of pitches I'd like to have back, but you're going to miss some spots during the game, and there's not much you can do about," said Bumgarner, who allowed three runs on six hits in six innings. "I felt pretty good, and I feel it was a pretty decent start. Three runs -- a lot of games, we scored a lot more than that. We just happened to face a pitcher who was really on."

The loss split the four-game series at two games apiece for the Giants and Marlins, marking the first time since the beginning of the month against the Rockies that the Giants didn't win a series.

On Friday, the Giants and Dodgers will begin a three-game series at AT&T Park, giving Posey a chance to start another hitting streak. That wouldn't surprise Bumgarner.

"I don't know if he was putting any of the pressure on himself about it, but I think it's definitely not going to hurt him," Bumgarner said. "He could come back tomorrow and get three or four hits. He's that great of a player."

In that event, fans and the media can watch Posey intently all over again,

Box Score

Torres single lifts Giants past Marlins in 10

Associated Press

Andres Torres hit a ground-rule single with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift the San Francisco Giants to a 10-9 victory over the Florida Marlins on Wednesday night.

The Giants hit three straight one-out singles off Florida reliever Clay Hensley before Torres hit a long fly ball over the Marlins' drawn-in outfield. The ball hit on the warning track then bounced over the fence.

Juan Uribe matched his season-high for the Giants with three hits and four RBIs while Buster Posey extended his hitting streak to 21 games, longest in the majors.

Ronny Paulino, Donnie Murphy and Dan Uggla homered for the Marlins, who overcame deficits of 7-1 and 9-2 to force extra innings.

Torres, who hit a two-run home run that landed in the waters of McCovey Cove in the sixth inning, had four hits to lead the Giants, who had 17 hits and won for the 17th time in 21 games.

Aubrey Huff singled twice to surpass 1,500 hits for his career while Aaron Rowand and Edgar Renteria added two hits apiece.

Much of the attention in San Francisco these days has been centered around Posey, the Giants' young catcher who has been a smashing hit since being called up from the minors on May 29. Posey is on the verge of breaking numerous franchise rookie records and has been one of the top hitters in the majors since joining San Francisco.

Posey's streak is one shy of the Giants' rookie record of 22 set by Hall of Famer Willie McCovey in 1959.

Uribe has been just as critical for the Giants, who have trimmed four games off San Diego's lead in the NL West since July 3.

He hit a tiebreaking home run leading off the eighth inning in Tuesday's 6-4 win over the Marlins, then came up big again Wednesday.

Uribe had a two-run single in the first then drove in two more with a triple in the third. He also beat out an infield single in the fifth. Over his last 11 games, the veteran infielder is batting .356 (16 for 45).

Chris Ray (4-0) pitched the 10th for the win.

Jonathan Sanchez earned a fourth straight no-decision despite leaving with a 9-5 lead. The left-hander, who hasn't won since July 5, allowed five runs and seven hits.

Sanchez gave up an RBI double to rookie Logan Morrison in the third - Morrison's second hit in the big leagues since being called up Tuesday - and a solo home run to Paulino in the fourth. Murphy hit a pinch-hit three-run homer off Sanchez in the sixth to cut San Francisco's lead to 9-5.

Uggla hit a two-run shot off reliever Denny Bautista in the seventh to make it 9-7. Uggla's homer, his sixth in six games, tied the franchise career record of 143 set by Mike Lowell. It came after a wild pitch with two outs and two strikes allowed Gaby Sanchez to reach base.

The Marlins then scored twice off Giants closer Brian Wilson in the ninth to tie the game. Sanchez had an RBI groundout while Uggla hit a ground-rule double to drive in pinch-runner Emilio Bonifacio.

Florida's Alex Sanabia was shelled in his fourth major league start. The right-hander lasted two innings and was tagged for seven runs and nine hits.

Notes: The Giants are 18-5 since July 3, the best mark in the majors. ... Wilson was fined $1,000 earlier Wednesday by MLB for wearing bright orange cleats during Tuesday's game. Wilson took the shoes - a gift from Nike that were presented to him at the All-Star game - and partially colored them in with a black marker before Wednesday's game. ... Posey needs one RBI to break the franchise rookie record for one month. He currently has 24, tied with Jim Ray Hart (1964). ... This is the first time the Marlins have lost consecutive games since July 2-3. ... San Francisco is 5-1 against Florida this season.

Box Score

Juan Uribe's tie-breaking homer lifts Giants past Marlins

Carl Steward
Mercury News

Buster Posey's emergence is a story unto itself, but there is also little question his addition has had a profound psychological effect on the entire Giants lineup in terms of delivering quality at-bats.

While Posey extended his hitting streak to 20 games Tuesday night with a third-inning RBI single, the real story of the Giants' 6-4 victory over the Florida Marlins was how the entire lineup seemed eager and focused for the matchup against the National League's ERA leader, Josh Johnson.

"Everybody's battling right now, and it's a lot of fun,'' said Posey.

Indeed, the Giants have the look of a very tough lineup right now with their rookie catcher as the anchor. Johnson came into the game with a 1.61 ERA, but he had a very hard night's work over seven innings, surrendering three runs before departing with a no-decision.

Once Johnson was done, Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria took it from there. Uribe hit a solo homer to lead off the eighth inning against Johnson's replacement, Brian Sanches, and Renteria added a two-run shot later in the inning as the Giants closed to within 21/2 games of San Diego in the NL West, the closest they've been to first place since June 26.

But the notable thing may have been how the Giants performed against Johnson. Leadoff man Andres Torres reached base all four times against him, with two doubles and a pair of runs. Freddy Sanchez had a couple of hits, one of which drove in a run. Aubrey Huff

---

had a double and two walks. And the Giants scored all three of their runs against the Florida ace with two-out hits — one each by Sanchez, Huff and Posey.

"When you're going against the elite pitchers, hopefully you look forward to the challenge,'' said manager Bruce Bochy. "You know you've got to battle up there and it comes down to competing. We faced one of the better pitchers in the game, and we battled hard. We had some great at-bats, some big two-out hits, and then both Juan and Edgar came through big time.''

That Uribe appears to be heating up again is excellent news for the Giants' fortified lineup. It hasn't been the best of months for the veteran infielder, who pretty much carried the Giants offensively earlier in the season. Entering Tuesday night, he had just 19 hits in his last 107 at-bats (.178), dropping his season average from .289 to .255. Twelve of those 19 hits came in the last nine games.

Uribe's 14th homer of the season was a rocket over the left-center wall and was a nice followup to the grand slam he launched in Arizona.

"He's been swinging the bat better,'' Bochy said. "Everybody goes through tough times, but he's been getting some good swings off. He's hitting in the middle of the order, so we need him.''

Renteria's homer, his second of the campaign and only his seventh in two seasons with the Giants, was a nice bonus that turned out to be the critical blow when Dan Uggla hit his second solo homer of the game in the ninth off Brian Wilson.

The standout pitching matchup of Giants starter Matt Cain, who was coming off eight innings of shutout ball against Arizona, and Johnson wound up being a standoff. Both pitched seven innings and left the game for pinch-hitters with the score tied 3-3.

Cain surrendered just four hits over seven innings and struck out six, but twice was tagged for home runs that erased Giants leads.

"No-decisions are not very fun, but when you look back at what happened, I made a couple of mistakes and they took advantage,'' Cain said. "They're a team (that) if you make mistakes over the plate with heaters, they're going to take advantage of you with the long ball. But the guys stepped it up through the whole game staying aggressive and they got it done.''

Box Score

Late rallies not enough for Giants

Rowand's pinch-hit homer upheld after video review

Cash Kruth
MLB.com
Throughout the course of their red-hot July, the Giants have thrived on stellar pitching and timely hitting.

On Monday, the Giants got a solid pitching outing from Barry Zito, despite the left-hander saying he knew during warmups that he didn't have his best stuff.

They also managed a timely hit -- a pinch-hit, two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh by Aaron Rowand to bring them within one.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Giants still needed to find the magic that has surrounded them this month. San Francisco found a glimmer of it -- getting runners on second and third with one out and scoring once -- but couldn't scrape together another comeback, falling to the Marlins, 4-3, at AT&T Park.

"We created some pretty good opportunities, we were just missing the hit," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "We battled back hard in the ninth, getting back-to-back hits, and we had the right guys up there."

For much of the night, the Giants bats were stymied by Marlins starter Ricky Nolasco, who held the Giants to four hits and struck out six. Despite keeping the Giants off the basepaths -- the Giants only got a runner past first once, and that was in the second inning -- San Francisco hitters constantly battled Nolasco deep into the count and, after issuing a one-out walk in the seventh inning, Nolasco exited having thrown 114 pitches in 6 2/3 innings.

"He mixed speeds well and did a really good job of mixing pitches," said Buster Posey of Nolasco, off whom he singled in the second inning to extend his hitting streak to 19 games.

Taylor Tankersley entered to face Rowand, who hit his first career pinch-hit homer to bring the Giants within one at 3-2.

The homer, to left field, was looked at on replay after Marlins left fielder Emilio Bonifacio and center fielder Cody Ross claimed a fan reached over the wall to catch the ball. After about five minutes of watching the video, the umpires came back onto the field and awarded Rowand the homer.

"I actually knew it might be a tough call, because it was kind of borderline there, but it was beyond the fence, so that's a home run," Bochy said.

Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez agreed with what the umpires told him, despite the crew having a tough angle to work with.

"The angle that they had, it was hard for them to make the call," Rodriguez said. "They can't assume that Boni would make that play. They said the fan touched it, but the ball was over the fence. Again, I have to rely on what they're telling me.

In the ninth, Rowand and Freddy Sanchez led off with back-to-back singles and moved up a base on a sacrifice bunt. Rowand scored on a ground-out to first before Edgar Renteria struck out to end the game.

"It was a good late surge," Zito said. "We didn't roll over, that's always good, and we'll take that into tomorrow and win a series."

While Nolasco held the Giants in check as long as he could, Zito admittedly struggled, but still looked as if he had good enough stuff to win.

He only made a few mistakes, most notably solo homers to Dan Uggla and Mike Stanton in the fourth and fifth, respectively, and then a deep sacrifice fly by Cody Ross that came after back-to-back singles by Uggla and Jorge Cantu in the sixth inning.

"[My stuff was] winnable, but I've just got to do better than that," said Zito, who tied a season high by allowing nine hits and lost to the Marlins for the first time in his career. "The pitch to Cantu, the base hit to right, that's one I'd take back, the one to Uggla I'd take back. The other ones, you just have to tip your hat."

The sixth inning could have put the Giants away for good. Uggla scored on a sacrifice fly to deep center by Ross, but a sensational catch by Andres Torres kept the Marlins from having a big inning.

Torres, who has made numerous spectacular catches this season, called it his best catch of the season.

An RBI single in the eighth by Stanton gave the Marlins what turned out to be a much-needed insurance run.

Afterward, Bochy said the loss was simply a matter of the Giants having to lose. After all, no matter how hot the Giants are -- still having won 15 of their past 19 games -- a team can't win every game.

"You lose games. We've been playing great; we just got beat tonight," Bochy said. "The other guy pitched well and we just didn't get the bats going until late. This is going to happen. As well as you're playing, you're going to get beat; it might be at home, and it just happened tonight. We have a tough game tomorrow with a tough pitcher and we've got to put this game behind us."

Box Score

Posey lifts Giants to sweep

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
Millions of words might be spoken and written about Buster Posey if he has a great career, but none will capture him as succinctly as Tim Lincecum did.

"He's pretty (darn) talented," Lincecum said, and you can reach into your imagination to guess the adjective he really used.

When the Giants rode Posey's leadoff double in the 10th inning and Travis Ishikawa's two-out scoring single to a 3-2 victory against Arizona on Sunday, they completed a four-game sweep and a 6-1 trip while winning for the 15th time in 18 games. In a stretch of 22 games that began July 1 and included 18 on the road, the Giants went 16-6.

When the month began, the Giants were three games above .500 in fourth place in the National League West, 5 1/2 games behind division-leading San Diego and sixth in the wild-card race. Now, they are in second place in the West, 13 games over .500, three back of San Diego and leading in the wild-card standings.

Rarely can you peg a hot streak to a single event as neatly as this. It began the day the Giants traded Bengie Molina to Texas and installed Posey as an everyday player.

On Sunday, Posey had his third four-hit game this month to extend his hit streak to 18 games. His July stats are insane: He has 38 hits with a .432 average, .511 on-base percentage and .815 slugging percentage.

"This guy is on cruise control right now as far as swinging a hot stick and making good calls behind the plate," closer Brian Wilson said after earning his 29th save, which co-leads the majors. "What he's doing is getting big hits with two outs instead of ending innings. Normally you can't expect that out of a 23-year-old. He's going out and proving time and again he's the best rookie out there."

Now for a deep breath and acknowledgement that Posey and the Giants have feasted on bad teams this month. Though their schedule gets easier from a home-road standpoint, the competition gets much harder. Of their 63 remaining games, only 19 come against teams that currently have a losing record.

They must consolidate their gains in a seven-game homestand that begins tonight against Florida. Bad competition or not, manager Bruce Bochy is content.

"I like how the club has come together," he said. "They've kept their focus every day and not looked at the schedule.

"We think we're pretty good. I'm proud of the guys with this schedule, how hard they've gone. It's been a good run for us. We've done a lot of good things. We've pitched well and scored some runs. That's what it's going to take from this point on."

Sunday's win was the toughest of the weekend. Tim Lincecum provided eight solid innings but the Giants needed circus escapes from Lincecum in the eighth and Sergio Romo in the ninth to stay alive.

Lincecum induced a line-drive double play by Miguel Montero to end a rally that began with runners on the corners and nobody out. Romo created his own mess by failing to cover first on Stephen Drew's grounder. Drew beat Ishikawa to the bag. When Romo struck out Cole Gillespie and Chris Young with Drew at third to send the game into extras, his customary point to the heavens had more of a snap to it.

Posey, who already had an RBI double, greeted Esmerling Vasquez with another double to start the 10th. With pinch-runner Eli Whiteside at third and one out, Nate Schierholtz was caught stealing second for the second out. Ishikawa then rolled the winning single through a small hole in the right side of the infield.

Box Score

GIANTS 10, DIAMONDBACKS 4 With win comes relief Velez's frightful injury in dugout is just a concussion

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The standard "win mix" of music filled the Giants' clubhouse after Saturday night's 10-4 victory, which was a good thing. On a day that could have been much worse and left the room silent, the news from a nearby hospital brought relief.

In the fourth inning, Pat Burrell hit a vicious line drive into the Giants' dugout that hit utilityman Eugenio Velez squarely on the left side of the face. He was screened by players standing along the rail and did not see it coming. After trainers and a team doctor treated him in the dugout, Velez left on a stretcher.

The team said Velez sustained a concussion, but nothing more, "no skull fracture, nothing," manager Bruce Bochy said after learning the results of a CT scan.

"I saw it. It was a scary moment. It hit him good. We were all concerned about him. He wasn't real responsive early, but he's fine."

The Giants did not announce a roster move but almost certainly will place Velez on the disabled list before they try to complete a four-game sweep of the Diamondbacks and a 6-1 trip behind Tim Lincecum this afternoon. They already will be a man down because Pablo Sandoval was to fly to Venezuela for a personal matter and miss the next two games.

Infielder Ryan Rohlinger was pulled from Saturday's game at Triple-A Fresno in the second inning, which might mean he will be promoted.

As Velez was examined at the hospital, the team won for the 14th time in 17 games.

Madison Bumgarner won his fourth consecutive start with seven innings of two-run ball. Juan Uribe hit a grand slam in the seventh inning to blast open a 3-1 game.

The Giants clinched their fourth consecutive road series win, a first since 2004.

Bumgarner continues to baffle hitters during his first tour through the league. During his win streak, opponents have touched him for only four earned runs in 26 2/3 innings. On Saturday, he walked three and struck out seven.

"The team scored 10 runs. It's not too hard to get a win when they hit like that," Bumgarner said. "I've definitely been getting a lot of run support and good defense behind me, which is great."

Edgar Renteria, hitting second as a slumping Freddy Sanchez watched from the bench, had a productive game with a double, single, walk, two runs scored and two scoring groundballs.

Buster Posey quickly eliminated any doubt over his hitting streak when he extended it to 17 games with a first-inning single. He caught Orlando Cepeda for the second-longest streak by a San Francisco rookie. Willie McCovey holds the record with 22.

Posey also hit an RBI single and drew a walk that loaded the bases before Uribe barely cleared the left-field wall on the first pitch from reliever Sam Demel. After the game, Uribe's thoughts were with Velez.

"He's a friend, my teammate," Uribe said. "Everybody feels bad when a ball hits a guy like that, the other team, too. Nobody wants to see a ball hit a player."

Play was stopped briefly as Velez went to the ground in the dugout. Burrell stared at the scene. He fouled out when play resumed and was removed after six innings for defense.

"Baseball's not exactly a contact sport, but it can be dangerous at times," said Burrell, who did not recall one of his foul balls ever hitting a player. "I'll tell you. It's a tough situation. Obviously you don't want to hit anybody, let alone somebody on your team."

Box Score

San Francisco Giants defeat Arizona 7-4.

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

Jonathan Sanchez threw a zillion pitches in five innings, the Giants' bullpen blew his lead in a nanosecond, Jeremy Affeldt sustained a troubling side injury, and Arizona's Kelly Johnson hit for the cycle Friday night.

Yet somehow, the Giants managed to come out on top in a 7-4 victory at Chase Field. Yes siree, playing a last-place team has its advantages.

Aubrey Huff hit two home runs, and Andres Torres crushed a tiebreaking, two-run triple in the seventh inning — a rally that Diamondbacks pitcher Edwin Jackson set up with two throwing errors after fielding sacrifice bunts.

The Giants weathered Johnson's cycle, the third in the major leagues this season, and a bullpen bereft of Affeldt held together for the club's 13th victory in 16 games.

With two more games to play in the Sonoran Desert, the Giants already clinched a winning trip. But the bullpen is a concern. After Dan Runzler's knee injury this month, Affeldt was the only left-hander in the bullpen. And he is likely going for tests today after feeling pain in the side of his left back area on his second warm-up pitch.

With Affeldt out, Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson combined to throw the final three innings.

"I have no idea what I'm dealing with," Affeldt said. "I hope it's not bad."

Giants manager Bruce Bochy said he and GM Brian Sabean would discuss potential roster moves.

"We'll have to have guys step up when this happens," Bochy said. "We've got the arms. They've just got to go out and do it."

The trade market is thin on relief, but the Giants are looking. Along with Affeldt's injury, Santiago Casilla and Chris Ray didn't inspire confidence while blowing a 3-1 lead in Arizona's three-run sixth inning. Johnson's two-run triple off Casilla tied it.

Sabean and top lieutenant Dick Tidrow watched from a suite and were joined by Arizona special assistant Bob Gebhard, who has much more authority under Arizona's new management regime. The Diamondbacks' bullpen has been brutal, but if spare arms such as Aaron Heilman and Chad Qualls interest the Giants, they could be had.

Huff had joked before the game that he didn't feel too good after his round of afternoon batting practice. Pouring himself a drink from the cooler, he sighed and said, "Looks like 0 for 4 with four strikeouts."

Pro tip: If Huff looks bad on the golf driving range, don't take him up on that $2 Nassau.

Huff hit solo home runs in the first and sixth off Jackson — his third multi-homer game of the season and 12th of his career. He had two chances at the first three-homer game by a Giant since J.T. Snow did it in 2004, but he struck out and singled in his final two trips.

There were even a few "MVP" chants for Huff in the late innings.

"I've never heard that in my life, especially on the road," Huff said. "We've got a lot of fans wherever we go. It's pretty cool. It's been a fun ride so far."

Johnson made the most of his milestone chance. He homered in the first inning, doubled in the fifth, tripled in the sixth and received a standing ovation after rapping a single off Romo in the eighth.

Johnson joined Jody Gerut and, yes, Bengie Molina as the only big leaguers to hit for the cycle this season.

The way Torres is hitting, it seems a matter of time before he turns the trick. He came to bat after Jackson made poor throws on bunts by Eli Whiteside and Eugenio Velez, but Bochy didn't try to test Jackson with a squeeze.

Torres is doing far more damage when he swings away. His triple over center fielder Chris Young's head snapped the tie.

"He keeps coming through for us," Bochy said.

Sanchez struck out 10 in five innings while holding the Diamondbacks to one run, but he also walked five and needed 35 pitches to escape a fifth-inning jam that couldn't have been stickier without the Smuckers factory exploding.

With the bases loaded and one out, Mark Reynolds swung through a gutsy, full-count slider to end an eight-pitch battle. Then Rusty Ryal worked Sanchez for 11 pitches before swinging at a full-count changeup in the dirt to end the inning.

Box Score

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

Giants manager Bruce Bochy is a lot more shrewd than the ol' galoot lets on, as the Los Angeles Dodgers discovered while rifling through the rule book a couple of nights ago.

So do you think Bochy can find some creative means to pit Matt Cain against the Arizona Diamondbacks, oh, 10 more times this season?

It was a dream matchup again in the Giants' 3-0 victory Thursday night at Chase Field.

Cain (8-8) continued his utter dominance over the NL West's worst team, limiting the Diamondbacks to three hits over eight innings. He also continued the Giants' run of terrific starting pitching out of the All-Star break.

And while it's a little early to be anything beyond symbolic, the Giants moved into the NL wild-card lead, a half-game in front of the Cincinnati Reds.

"What a game he pitched," Bochy said. "He had everything going tonight, locating the fastball in and out, locating his breaking ball. You don't see too many games like that here."

Buster Posey extended his hitting streak to 16 games with a run-scoring single in the first inning, and little Andres Torres showed more than popgun power with a solo shot in the third that soared over the 413-foot marker in center field.

The Diamondbacks are ready to lock Cain in a broom closet and swallow the key. The right-hander tossed a one-hit shutout against them at AT&T Park on May 28, and the frustration began anew Thursday.

In two starts, Cain has held Arizona to four hits and three walks in 17 shutout innings. He also matched his season high with nine strikeouts Thursday — the same number of Diamondbacks he fanned in May.

Arizona first baseman Adam LaRoche was so defeated that he tried to bunt his way on base in the seventh inning. Justin Upton simply threw his bat and helmet after striking out in the eighth.

Cain enjoyed the feedback.

"It definitely gives you some confidence to see that," he said. "But it's a day-to-day thing. It can change. So you keep going back to your game plan and keep finding ways to get these guys out."

Brian Wilson pitched the ninth for his 27th save as the Giants won for the 13th time in 17 games.

The Giants keep riding a few unexpected contributions, including Torres' consistent production and Posey's rapid arrival to stardom. Cain credited Posey with calling a simple game plan behind the plate, too.

"I was just trusting him and going along," said Cain, who noted that Posey studied video on hitters from takeoff to landing on the previous night's flight. "He's watching to see what guys are hitting. He's not just trying to figure it out as he goes along."

Posey has a few things figured out with a bat in his hands, too. And he's starting to climb a list of legendary names.

In the Giants' San Francisco era, the only rookies with longer hitting streaks are Orlando Cepeda (17) and Willie McCovey (22). In addition to being Hall of Famers, both won the NL Rookie of the Year award, too.

"Pretty good company, isn't it?" Bochy said. "I'm not surprised. Buster is going to run off some nice streaks in his career. He's disciplined, his bat stays in the zone so long, and he's a smart hitter. He finds out how they're going to pitch him."

No Giant has surprised more than Torres, who is combining speed and power atop the lineup with Gold Glove-worthy defense. He raced to position himself perfectly at the wall and leapt to take an extra-base hit away from Chris Young in the third inning.

"He's as good an outfielder as any in the game right now," Bochy said.

And when the ball finds the barrel of Torres' 35-ounce, tree-trunk-thick bat?

"I guess dynamite comes in small packages, as they say," Bochy said, smiling.

Box Score

Zito goes unrewarded against Dodgers

Lefty is sharp through 7 1/3 innings while bats fall silent

Chris Haft
MLB.com
After defeating their archrivals in the first two games of this series, the Giants may have been due to return to earth. That they did, quite literally.

They eroded Dodger Stadium's earth by hitting into 16 groundouts against Los Angeles' Chad Billingsley, who pitched his second career shutout in a 2-0 decision Wednesday night.

"I didn't see this coming, the way we've been swinging the bats," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

Losing this one hardly constitutes a letdown for the Giants, who have won 11 of 14 games while capturing four series in a row. But San Diego's 12-inning triumph over Atlanta restored the Padres' four-game lead in the National League West, which should remind the second-place Giants that setbacks such as this one must be kept to a minimum.

The Giants should be able to avoid prolonged slumps if they continue to receive the quality of pitching Barry Zito provided. The left-hander allowed six hits and both of Los Angeles' runs in 7 1/3 innings, sustaining the momentum he established on Friday, when he permitted the Mets two hits in eight innings.

Zito's primary lapse occurred in the second inning, when he threw what he described as a "flat slider" that Casey Blake lofted down the left-field line for a home run. Zito proceeded to subdue the Dodgers until the eighth inning, when he yielded Rafael Furcal's leadoff single and walked Andre Ethier with one out. In came Sergio Romo, who surrendered Blake's RBI single.

"He kept us off-balance pretty good," Blake said of Zito. Referring to his homer, Blake said that he "just happened to catch one on the barrel and something good happened. Fortunately that was enough for us."

The suggestion that repeating such efforts will generate more victories than defeats didn't console Zito (8-5), who bellowed briefly but angrily as he stalked back to the dugout after being removed.

"I'm not content," Zito said. "I'm frustrated giving up that bomb to Blake and frustrated with the walk to Ethier. Those are things I need to get better at."

The Giants still need to get better at hitting in the clutch, despite entering the game as the NL's highest-scoring team in July. They went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position against Billingsley (8-5), who recorded Los Angeles' first complete game of the season.

Dodgers second baseman Ronnie Belliard inhaled Freddy Sanchez's sharp third-inning grounder up the middle and shoveled the ball from his glove to shortstop Furcal for a forceout at second base, ending a two-on, two-out threat.

Aubrey Huff doubled to open the fourth inning for San Francisco's first hit and moved to third on Buster Posey's groundout to second base, but Billingsley responded by retiring Pablo Sandoval and Juan Uribe on two more grounders.

Bochy noted that the Dodgers' infield played back on Sandoval until the count reached two strikes. At that point, the infielders moved halfway across the dirt. Had Sandoval put the ball in play earlier in the count, Huff likely would have scored.

The Giants wasted Nate Schierholtz's one-out double in the fifth inning, as well as singles by Sanchez and Posey in the sixth. The latter extended Posey's hitting streak to 15 games, but San Francisco's scoreless streak continued as Sandoval flied out and Uribe grounded out.

Sanchez collected a one-out infield hit in the eighth before center fielder Matt Kemp ran down line drives by Huff and Posey.

Billingsley gave the Giants no chances in the ninth, as he continued to throw his fastball at 96 mph. Travis Ishikawa, who grounded out to end the game, was suitably impressed.

"For me, he had a fastball, cutter, and good command of his curveball," said Ishikawa, who went 0-for-4 after beginning the game 6-for-12 in his career off Billingsley. "He's got good stuff, so he can still make a mistake and you can just miss it."

Box Score

Giants use coach's gaffe to beat L.A.

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle

If you say you knew the little-known codicil of Rule 8.06 that manager Bruce Bochy used as a cudgel to help the Giants complete a huge comeback and beat the Dodgers 7-5 Tuesday night, well, you're a liar and your pants are on fire.

In a stunning and wacky end to a game that already was a novella, the Giants scored three runs in the ninth inning to overcome a 5-4 deficit after acting Dodgers manager Don Mattingly spent two visits on the mound on one trip to talk to closer Jonathan Broxton. After Bochy informed the umps, they invoked an obscure part of the rule and forced Broxton to leave the game.

George Sherrill relieved him, and Andres Torres responded with a two-run double into the left-center gap to give the Giants a lead. Buster Posey added an RBI single.

Jeremy Affeldt earned the save in place of a resting Brian Wilson, and so ended an already eventful game in which an ineffective Tim Lincecum was knocked out in the fifth inning after knocking down and then hitting Matt Kemp, and Clayton Kershaw retaliated against Aaron Rowand and earned one of three Dodgers ejections.

"I think that's the craziest win we've had all season," Affeldt said. "I'm sure we'll put our heads on our pillows and smile."

They can smile because they overcame a 5-1 third-inning deficit and secured their first series win against the Dodgers since May 2009.

The Giants loaded the bases with one out in the ninth. Mattingly went to the mound to talk strategy with Broxton, then started to return to the dugout. He wanted to say something else, swiveled back toward Broxton and returned to the mound. According to Rule 8.06, once you step off the dirt, the first visit is over.

"I guess those two little steps off the mound helped us," Lincecum said.

Mattingly said home-plate umpire Adrian Johnson yelled, "No, no, no" when he started back toward the mound. The umps knew what happened, but they would not have forced Broxton out had Bochy not complained.

Bochy knew the rule well. He used it in this same stadium in 2006 to force then-Dodgers manager Grady Little to remove Brad Penny.

"It's an easy mistake to make," Bochy said. "I saw it. Once he went back to say a few more words, I was sitting in a pretty good position, that's all. What's important is that Torres came through with that double. He delivered big-time."

Lincecum's fifth-inning drilling of Kemp - accidental, he said - set off the daisy chain. Kemp took a couple of steps to the mound and Lincecum took a couple of steps toward Kemp, later saying, "I was just doing my part, whatever the hell that was, standing there wearing it."

The Giants then scored three off Kershaw in the sixth to close to 5-4. Sandoval had the big hit, a two-run double down the left-field line. In the bottom half, Denny Bautista nearly hit Russell Martin. Dodgers bench coach Bob Schaefer was ejected arguing that Bautista should have been ejected.

Kershaw retaliated in the seventh by hitting Rowand, an odd move with the Dodgers leading by only a run. That got Kershaw ejected. Equally important, manager Joe Torre was ejected automatically, putting Mattingly at the helm.

Lost in the hubbub and crazy ending was an unnerving outing by Lincecum, who struggled to hit 90 mph on the gun, could not throw strikes and even had a pitch slip out of his hand and fly into the air. He allowed five runs in 4 2/3 innings.

Box Score

Rookies help Giants beat L.A.

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

The Giants were abysmal against NL West clubs before the All-Star break, losing 20 of 29 games. But as they began an important series Monday night at Dodger Stadium, there were two reasons to hope for a better outcome down the stretch.

One was Madison Bumgarner. And the other was Buster Posey.

Neither rookie looked intimidated while making his first start at Chavez Ravine, and both contributed to a tense, 5-2 victory over the Giants' archrivals.

Bumgarner (3-2) didn't overpower the Dodgers but confounded them while taking a shutout into the sixth inning. And Posey extended his hitting streak to 13 games while knocking in the Giants' first run with a single in the third inning. The young catcher scored from first base on Pablo Sandoval's double, too.

"It was fun at our place, and it's fun here," said Posey, who also showed poise while helping Jeremy Affeldt and Brian Wilson wiggle out of bases-loaded jams in the seventh and ninth. "That's why rivalries are so great. It makes it fun for the players as well as the fans."

Could Posey look forward to being booed here as much as Barry Bonds did?

"I guess," he said, "for the right reasons."

Nate Schierholtz might as well be another new face, for as little action as he saw in the first half. He contributed the biggest swing of the night, rapping a two-run homer off right-hander James McDonald in the fourth inning.

And notably, the Giants received lifts from Sandoval and Affeldt, two first-half underachievers who simply must be better the rest of the way. Affeldt's contribution loomed especially large, getting dangerous RBI man Andre Ethier to ground out with the bases loaded and then working a scoreless eighth.

"I don't know if it was the biggest pitch of the year," Affeldt said of his inside fastball that jammed Ethier. "You're just happy you beat a good hitter."

With their 10th victory in 12 games, the Giants moved within four of the front-running San Diego Padres and leapt over the Colorado Rockies into second place.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers are 0-5 following the All-Star break and are six games out.

Bumgarner took advantage of the Dodgers' unfamiliarity with him while winning his third consecutive start. He had faced the Dodgers only once, tossing a scoreless relief inning last season.

The Dodgers hit the ball progressively harder the second and third time through the lineup, but Bumgarner helped his cause along the way by picking off a runner and inducing a double-play grounder.

"The focus and mentality you'd like from a pitcher, he's got it," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "It's good for Buster, too. Same as Madison, you like the way Buster handles himself back there. He's got a calmness in tight situations."

The Giants had plenty of them.

Wilson loaded the bases in the ninth before striking out nemesis Casey Blake on three pitches, including a 97 mph fastball to end it.

Last year, Wilson was upset when cameras caught Blake mocking his post-save gesture, which honors his faith and his late father. But Wilson claimed he had no extra motivation as Blake stood in the box Monday.

"I don't have a history with anybody," Wilson said. "Bases loaded, the bat boy could've come up, and it'd still be pretty heated."

Rafael Furcal broke up Bumgarner's shutout with a leadoff home run in the bottom of the sixth, then Bumgarner gave up a single and a walk to end his night. One of Bumgarner's runners scored because of two mistakes: Guillermo Mota's errant pickoff throw and Sandoval's decision to tag a runner for the third out rather than throw for a force play.

Plate umpire Mike Everitt ruled that Jamey Carroll crossed the plate before Sandoval tagged James Loney, crediting the Dodgers with a run to make it 4-2. Replays appeared to show that Carroll hadn't scored before the tag, though.

Box Score

Giants lose 4-3 in 10 innings, fail to sweep Mets

Associated Press

Ike Davis doubled home the go-ahead run in 10th inning after the Mets wasted a two-run lead in the ninth, and New York beat the San Francisco Giants 4-3 Sunday to avoid a four-game sweep.

Pinch-hitter Travis Ishikawa hit a tying, two-run single in the ninth inning, but he was thrown out at the plate on an infield chopper as the potential winning run. Replays showed Ishikawa appeared safe as he slid into home.

Giants closer Brian Wilson (2-1) got the first two outs of the 10th before giving up Jason Bay's third single of the game. Davis, who also drove in a run in the eighth, doubled high off the right field wall for the go-ahead run.

Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez (3-2) blew his fourth save in 26 chances — and wasted a stellar start by Johan Santana — but earned the win when Davis delivered.

The 10th wasn't easy for Rodriguez either. He gave up a two-out double to Edgar Renteria and intentionally walked Juan Uribe before striking out Eli Whiteside on a full-count pitch to end the game.

David Wright led off the fourth inning with his 15th home run of the season.

Santana had his 16-inning scoreless streak snapped in the first when Buster Posey hit a sacrifice fly to give the Giants a 1-0 advantage. But that was all he allowed, giving up eight hits and one walk. He struck out five.

Santana has still allowed a mere two runs over his last 31 innings for an 0.56 ERA.

Rodriguez walked Pablo Sandoval and gave up a single to Uribe to start the ninth. After Whiteside sacrificed the runners up a base, Ishikawa delivered his hit, scoring Renteria, pinch running, and Uribe.

Andres Torres followed with a double, sending Ishikawa to third. Freddy Sanchez hit a short chopper to Wright, who threw high to Henry Blanco, who made the tag.

Wright took over sole possession of fourth place on the Mets' all-time home run list with 156, breaking a tie with Dave Kingman. Bay finished 3 for 5 after going 3 for 28 over his previous eight games.

Sanchez and Aubrey Huff each had two hits for the Giants, who lead the majors in runs scored this month.

Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez allowed two runs on six hits over seven innings. He walked one and struck out five.

NOTES: Wright took a hard grounder off the side of his right knee in the sixth but stayed in the game after walking it off. He has hit safely in 11 of his last 13 games. ... Posey extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single to lead off the sixth. ... INF Luis Castillo (bruised right heel) will join the Mets in Phoenix on Monday, when INF Jose Reyes is also expected to return to the lineup after missing five games with a sore side. ... Giants RHP Chris Ray has allowed five of the last seven hitters he's faced to reach base. ... Ishikawa has a batting average of .478 (11 for 23) as a pinch hitter.

Box Score

Is Brandon Belt The Next Buster Posey?

Ray Brennan
Bleacher Report

Brandon Belt has been on the radar of die-hard San Francisco Giants fans since the start of the season when he established himself, at least statistically, as the best hitter in the entire organization.

What's hard to believe is that the guy can sustain his amazing performance because it just is never done much past high school and to a lesser extent college.

At High Single-A ball in San Jose, Belt had a .383 BA, 1.121 OPS, 10 HR, 18 SB, 62 RBI, and 62 Runs in 77 games. These are ridiculous numbers at any level of baseball.

By comparison, in 2009, Buster Posey for the same team and in the same league had a .326 BA, .967 OPS, 13 HR, 6 SB, 58 RBIs, and 63 Runs in 80 games.

Similar numbers, but with a .60 point lead in BA and .150 point lead in OPS, one of these guys' numbers are significantly superior to the others, and it's not Buster Posey!

That's an extraordinary phenomenon to think about.

Instantly, skeptics will point out that Belt is 6'5", 195 lbs., and anecdotally players with that build seem to rarely if ever sustain long, productive Major League careers.

It seems like tall guys need to bulk up and become power hitters. But there are some exceptions to this less than scientific observation of mine.

Off the top of my head, the best example is Darryl Strawberry, the 6'6", 190 lbs. fellow lefty, who was on course to have a career like Barry Bonds.

Drug and personal issues derailed him, but when healthy in mind and body, he was a monster for opposing pitchers and teams. His tall, lean stature never prevented him from being highly productive.

So why did I write this article now and not a month or two ago?

Well, it is only High Single-A Ball data, so it's impossible to draw a direct line to success at higher levels.

But now with Belt's promotion to Double-A Richmond and his instant domination of the pitchers there, it's becoming impossible to ignore.

In 11 games, he has a .409 BA, 1.277 OPS, and 5 HRs. Ridiculous.

He seems to be better than Travis Ishikawa, Brett Pill, heck, maybe even Aubrey Huff and Posey.

Despite being picked 147th in 2009's draft, the former Texas Longhorn is putting up serious first round numbers that deserve commendation.

Here's hoping we see him in San Francisco in September.

Scoreless streak ends, but Giants win again

John Shea SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle

Manager Bruce Bochy and pitching coach Dave Righetti met with the Giants' pitchers before the All-Star break about limiting their walks and going at hitters more aggressively, especially in home games.

So far, so good. Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito and Matt Cain are exhibits A, B and C.

Cain followed Lincecum and Zito's lead and tossed six shutout innings Saturday before the Mets finally figured out how to appear on a scoreboard. By then, the Giants were well on their way to an 8-4 victory to give them a 3-0 start in the second half and sole possession of second place, just ahead of the Rockies.

By the way, the common denominator is rookie Buster Posey, who caught the past three days and extended his hit streak to 11 games with a double and homer, which sailed over the brick wall in right field, a mighty feat for a right-handed batter - he'd never done it before, even in batting practice.

In the 11 games, he's hitting .488 with six homers and 16 RBIs. Perhaps it's not a coincidence the Giants have won nine of 10 and 10 of 12.

"He's been huge. Great, obviously," said Cain, who won for the first time since June 13. "He sparks everybody, doing a great job of really taking over a staff."

What does Posey take more pride in, his hitting or catching? "Probably the catching," he said. "If I don't catch a good game, there's a good chance we're not going to win."

Giants pitchers finished the first half leading the National League in walks issued with 362. In the first three games of the second half, they've issued exactly five, one by Cain, whose only hiccup was a seventh-inning homer he yielded to rookie Ike Davis, who homered again off Santiago Casilla in the ninth.

With Mets at the corners and two outs, Bochy summoned closer Brian Wilson, who struck out Angel Pagan for his 25th save.

After squeaking out 2-0 and 1-0 wins, the Giants broke out Saturday and led 6-0 by the third inning, thanks to Andres Torres' three-run homer and Posey's solo shot.

Pablo Sandoval and Juan Uribe had encouraging evenings at the plate, each collecting three hits. Sandoval smacked two singles right-handed, his troubled side in the first half, and a two-run double left-handed.

Bochy had no problem starting Sandoval against a lefty, Hisanori Takahashi. The Giants were 9-12 in games started by lefties as recently as July 5. Now they've won five straight and face lefty Johan Santana today.

"I'm going to play," Sandoval said with a smile.

Bochy's and Righetti's meeting with the pitchers, held in Colorado on the last trip, seemed to have an effect.

"We can challenge these guys here a lot more," said Bochy, referring to the huge gaps at the Giants' yard.

Now it's Jonathan Sanchez's turn to try throwing a gem. More than others in the rotation, Sanchez has had control issues. Three Giants rank in the league's top eight in walks, led by Sanchez, who's tied for second. Lincecum and Zito are up there, too.

Davis' first homer snapped the Mets' 24-inning scoreless streak, their longest since July 24-28, 1992.

Box Score

Giants blank Mets again

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle

The Giants led the majors with 75 runs over the first 15 days of July. When was the last time anyone could say that halfway through a month?

All well and good, but the 2010 Giants will travel only as far as their pitching carries them. Two games into the second half, the starters have stated their travel plans forcefully.

One night after Tim Lincecum blanked the Mets on six hits, Barry Zito threw his best game of the year Friday in a 1-0 victory. In eight innings, he allowed two hits, walked two and, for the third time as a Giant, struck out 10.

Brian Wilson allowed a hit in the ninth but blew a 97-mph fastball past Carlos Beltran to complete his 24th save in 26 chances.

"The last two games, Timmy and Barry, their mound presence has been outstanding," said first baseman Aubrey Huff, who scored the only run, in the fourth inning. "You could see it in their faces."

Lincecum and Zito had to be good, because Mets starters R.A. Dickey and Jonathon Niese were as well.

New York continues to search for its first run in the second half. The Giants have outscored the Mets 3-0.

Zito won for the first time since June 12 and the second time in his last 11 starts. One of his best games as a Giant followed one of his most controversial.

The Giants were leading 6-1 in Milwaukee on July 8, when manager Bruce Bochy pulled Zito in the fifth inning. Zito needed one more out to qualify for a win, but he had just walked his fifth and sixth hitters to load the bases and had thrown 113 pitches in 4 2/3 innings. Compare that with Friday, when he threw 112 over eight innings.

Zito was not thrilled. Asked after beating the Mets if he pitched with some carryover anger, he said, "It was tough for me to get taken out in that situation. It may have had an effect, but it wasn't conscious. I just want to go out and help the team."

Zito struck out five of his first nine hitters and allowed only a Ruben Tejada single in the fourth inning and a bloop double in the seventh by Beltran. Bochy had no qualms about pulling Zito after eight.

"He's going to have to go through the heart of their order again," Bochy said "If he pitches a complete game, you're looking at 125 pitches, maybe more. That would be a lot of work. That would be uncharted territory for him. We've got an All-Star closer who hadn't pitched in a couple of days. It was time."

Huff had three hits and scored on a fielder's choice after he walked with one out in the fourth. The critical hit came from - who else? - Buster Posey. His double gave him a 10-game hit streak and sent Huff to third.

For the second night in a row, the Giants scored a run on pure hustle. Huff was running on contact, and Pat Burrell grounded to second. Alex Cora threw home, but Huff slid in ahead of the tag.

"Scary situation there," Huff said. "When I was called safe, it was a good feeling. I don't think I'd ever been pumped to score in the (fourth) inning. There was a great atmosphere out there. It felt like a playoff atmosphere, not like I know what that's like."

To that end, the Giants caught the Dodgers for third place in the West. Both stand 3 1/2 games behind first-place San Diego and a half-game behind Colorado for the wild card.

The Giants played without Freddy Sanchez, who was scratched with the flu.

Box Score

Lincecum blanks Mets for 50th career win

Cy Young winner scatters six hits in fourth career shutout

Chris Haft
MLB.com
Tim Lincecum didn't need the All-Star Game to showcase his skill. AT&T Park's pitcher's mound provided a suitable stage.

Lincecum, who was selected for but didn't appear in Tuesday's Midsummer Classic, showed everybody Thursday what they were denied by his imprisonment in Anaheim's bullpen. He limited the New York Mets to six harmless singles while fashioning his fourth career shutout in the Giants' 2-0 conquest.

Lincecum's triumph generated multiple achievements, like slot-machine tumblers aligning for a jackpot. By improving to 10-4, he's believed to be the only San Francisco-era Giant besides Juan Marichal to record double-digit win totals in his first three full Major League seasons. He secured his 50th career victory. And he erased the zeros on his statistical line for this season with his first shutout since June 29, 2009, at St. Louis and his first complete game since July 27, 2009, against Pittsburgh.

Lincecum received 15 runs of support on July 7 at Milwaukee in his last start, but functioned smoothly with much more modest backing this time. He made Pablo Sandoval's two-out, second-inning RBI double stand up for most of the evening, until Aaron Rowand hustled home to beat first baseman Ike Davis' throw on Buster Posey's bases-loaded, one-out grounder in the eighth.

"Especially after the second inning when we got that run, I just wanted to definitely take it upon myself to shut them down, just throw up zeros any way I could," said Lincecum, who struck out five while recording 12 outs on fly balls and nine on grounders. Posey, San Francisco's rapidly developing catcher, threw out Carlos Beltran on a fourth-inning steal attempt for the 27th out.

"I wasn't trying to go for strikeouts," added Lincecum, who entered the game as the National League leader in that category, "just make good pitches and be aggressive. Obviously Posey helped with that."

Indeed, the outcome bore dual significance for the Giants.

They sustained the momentum they established by winning six of seven games approaching the All-Star break. They also gained a game on third-place Los Angeles, which lost at St. Louis.

Moreover, Lincecum and Posey ended any lingering doubts about their ability to collaborate with each other, in the wake of the July 1 trade that sent Bengie Molina to Texas. This marked the first time this season that the NL's reigning two-time Cy Young Award winner and the organization's most promising position-player prospect since Matt Williams worked together.

Lincecum dismissed the skeptics.

"As a pitcher, you have to come in ready to pitch to whoever," he said. "You can't let that determine whether you do badly or not. Obviously I loved pitching to Bengie, having done it so many times. But whether I'm pitching to Whitey [Eli Whiteside], Steve Holm or Posey doesn't really matter to me. I just want to get the job done."

Lincecum accomplished that against the Mets in a variety of ways. He threw only three 1-2-3 innings, yet only three runners reached scoring position in a contest that required just two hours and 11 minutes to complete.

"I would have guessed there would have been more [perfect innings], the way he was working," first baseman Travis Ishikawa said. "Even when he had guys on base, he'd get that big out. There was a great rhythm to the game. It was a lot of fun."

The Mets' joy was somewhat muted, though they admired Lincecum's performance.

"He's not pitching the same way he was pitching before. Now he's throwing cutters," said Beltran, the center fielder who went 1-for-4 in his first game back since recovering from offseason right knee surgery. "He didn't have that before. He threw me a couple cutters inside and I wasn't able to recognize the pitch well. He's one of the best out there."

Mets starter R.A. Dickey, who surrendered one run in seven innings, knew that Lincecum would force him to be stingy.

"You don't pitch any harder than you would any other day, but mentally you know there's a lot less room for mistakes," he said.

Lincecum's challenges were minimal. David Wright's first-inning bid for a two-run homer died in Rowand's glove two steps in front of the center-field wall. With runners on the corners and one out in the fifth, Lincecum escaped as Dickey bunted Josh Thole to second base and retired Angel Pagan on a fly to right. Following Thole's single, Lincecum retired 14 of the Mets' final 16 batters.

But Lincecum endured other kinds of close calls. Thole's single grazed Lincecum's back as he ducked to avoid the ball. In the eighth, Lincecum grounded a leadoff single before making a somewhat awkward slide into second base on Rowand's subsequent infield hit. The limber Lincecum escaped injury, however.

Manager Bruce Bochy wasn't as lucky as Lincecum. Alex Cora lined a sixth-inning foul into the Giants' dugout, where the ball struck Bochy on the right side of his jaw. Bochy sported a small cut and some swelling afterward but insisted that he felt fine.

"I took one for the team," a grinning Bochy said. "It was worth it."

Box Score

Comment: Talkin' Giants Baseball. The Giants signed Dontrelle Willis. Could this be a sign of Giant management plans for the trading deadline?

Ishikawa, Posey help Giants take series

Hitters combine for five RBIs to support Bumgarner's effort

Jeff Seidel
MLB.com
The 11-game road trip that took the Giants into the All-Star break became a kind of coming-out party for Buster Posey, whose torrid bat literally carried the team at times.

But this wasn't just a Posey party, because teammate Travis Ishikawa joined the fun on the trip. The trade of Bengie Molina earlier this month pretty much gave the catching job to Posey, but it also opened up a spot in the lineup for Ishikawa -- and he came through. The first baseman continued his recent roll by going 2-for-3 with three RBIs on Sunday as the Giants defeated Washington, 6-2, at Nationals Park.

Posey's hot streak has gotten plenty of attention. Elias Sports Bureau said before the game that his 19 hits, 13 RBIs and six homers over the previous 10 games set a record for National League rookies. He kept going with a two-run triple in this game and finished the road trip 20-for-40 (.500) with six homers plus 15 RBIs.

But Ishikawa was right there with him. He had started only two games all season before the trip, but when Posey moved from first base to catcher after the Molina deal July 1, Ishikawa jumped right in. He has hits in eight of his last nine games with a .429 average (12-for-28) during that stretch, which includes one homer and 11 RBIs.

"I went in there with no expectations, with no pressure," Ishikawa said. "Just to be able to go out and play and have fun and help the team as best I could ... and whether or not I was going to play after that wasn't up to me to decide, so I didn't feel like there was any pressure."

Ishikawa batted .261 in 326 at-bats last year at first base. But his role changed for San Francisco (47-41) early this season as he spent more time as a pinch-hitter. Ishikawa then became the best in the Majors at that, posting a .476 average (10-for-21) while also getting a few at-bats as a late-inning defensive replacement at first base behind Posey or Aubrey Huff.

The trade then changed everything.

"He's really taken advantage of an opportunity here," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. "I knew when Buster was going to start catching, we'd put [Ishikawa] in there to get a left-handed bat in there, and he's got some huge hits for us, and he's going to get some playing time."

Ishikawa came through early in this game, getting a two-run single off Washington starter Livan Hernandez (6-5) in the first inning for a quick 2-0 lead. Posey made it 4-0 in the third with his two-run triple. Ishikawa then followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Giants a 5-0 lead.

That gave rookie pitcher Madison Bumgarner (2-2) plenty of support. The left-hander gave up one run and scattered seven hits in six innings plus one batter. He struck out six and didn't walk a batter for his second straight victory in just his fifth Major League start.

"[Bumgarner] just has real good presence and poise out there," Bochy said. "He's got a great focus out there. He concentrates every pitch. That's what you like about a pitcher, the look he has out there."

Bumgarner gave up his only run in that seventh inning. That ended a streak of 15 scoreless innings. The 20-year-old is now 2-2 with a 2.57 ERA in his four starts this year.

"I feel like confidence is a big thing, and you go out there and have a little bit of success and you get more confidence," Bumgarner said. "It's going to make the All-Star break a lot nicer than if I'd come out and had a bad game."

Still, Bumgarner needed a little help from the bullpen that's done so well in this series.

Bochy used four relievers, with Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson having good days. Romo came on with the bases loaded and one out after Washington (39-50) had already scored twice in the seventh to make it 5-2. He then struck out Josh Willingham on a nasty slider and got Ivan Rodriguez to fly out as the Nationals wound up leaving 13 on base.

Wilson entered with two on and two outs in the eighth and got the final four outs for his 23rd save as the Giants rolled into the break having won seven of their last nine games.

"We ended up having a nice road trip," Bochy said. "Great way to go into the break."

Box Score