Giants power to fourth straight victory
MLB.com
If the Giants can sustain just a fraction of their offensive momentum on Friday night against Washington's Stephen Strasburg, they'll give the celebrated rookie right-hander a rough evening.
San Francisco completed its first four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers with a 9-3 victory on Thursday, featuring 16 hits -- including at least one by every starting position player -- and home runs by Aubrey Huff, Andres Torres and Buster Posey. This came less than 24 hours after the Giants scored a season-high 15 runs to go with 18 hits.
This was as thorough a whipping as the Giants have administered in years. They outscored the Brewers, 36-7, and outhit them, 50-28.
Though Barry Zito came one out short of the requisite five innings to claim the decision, Giants starters recovered from their recent funk to post a 1.40 ERA in this series with 28 strikeouts in 25 2/3 innings.
The Giants accomplished almost a complete reversal from the preceding series, when they dropped three of four games at Colorado. They're 5-3 on their season-longest 11-game trip as they approach their showdown with Strasburg.
San Francisco's excellence in this series must be taken with a large dose of perspective. The Brewers rank 14th in the National League in ERA and sabotaged their own efforts by committing six errors that led to 12 unearned runs during the series.
But Giants pitchers held the Brewers' formidable trio of Corey Hart, Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun without a home run. Hart and Fielder went 5-for-16 and 4-for-12, respectively, in the series. But they had no extra-base impact. Braun, an NL All-Star, went hitless in 12 at-bats.
The Giants welcomed their offensive windfall, given their season-long inconsistency with the bats.
"We played our best ball in this series," manager Bruce Bochy said. "Coming off a tough series, too, it was great to see how we came out and played."
San Francisco led, 6-0, by Thursday's fourth inning and 4-0 after Wednesday's first inning, which Huff cited as essential.
"That gives everybody a little more confidence to keep the line moving, and it gives our pitchers confidence so they don't have to nibble," said Huff, who drove in four runs in Thursday's first four innings.
The Giants demonstrated ultimate confidence at the plate. Posey enjoyed a breakout series, going 9-for-15 (.600) with four home runs and eight RBIs. The rookie concluded his first visit to Miller Park with a monstrous leadoff homer to right-center field in the ninth inning off Trevor Hoffman.
"His opposite-field power is amazing," Huff said. "He stays through the ball. There's not too much you're going to see him get fooled on."
Huff remained the Giants' hottest hitter on the trip -- as well as on the season -- by improving to 11-for-28 (.393) with five homers and 12 RBIs over his past seven games. For the series, he was 6-for-10 with two homers, seven RBIs and four runs scored.
"I'm just trying to ride it out as long as I can," said Huff, who hiked his batting average to .298, garnished by a team-high 17 homers and 54 RBIs.
Brewers starter Manny Parra (3-6), who surrendered six runs (four earned) and 10 hits in five innings, insisted that the Giants' hitting was no fluke.
"Really, the worst pitches I paid for were against Huff," Parra said. "He had four RBIs against me and hurt me a little bit. But other than that, they were on fire. They were hitting even executed pitches and finding a way to get on base."
It wasn't a perfect afternoon for the Giants, however. Left-hander Dan Runzler (3-0) dislocated his left kneecap while flailing at a seventh-inning pitch and is likely headed for the 15-day disabled list. He'll undergo an MRI on Friday to determine the extent of any structural damage.
Runzler received a rare at-bat after inheriting a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the sixth inning and stranding all the runners to preserve San Francisco's 6-3 lead. An impressed Bochy wanted him to pitch the bottom of the seventh. But the injury disrupted those plans -- along, quite possibly, with Runzler's season.
"When you think you're doing well, that's when something happens," said Runzler (3-0), who was awarded the decision by virtue of being judged San Francisco's most effective reliever by the official scorer. "But you have to bounce back."
Much as the Giants have done.
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