Chris Haft
MLB.com
While the Atlanta Braves have met expectations in a series that was billed as a playoff preview, the Giants have yet to meet the challenge.
This is stating the obvious, but since every pitch means something in the postseason, the quality of October pitching is inevitably tougher. The Giants are finding this out against the Braves, who stifled them, 3-0, Saturday night.
San Francisco has pitched effectively against the Braves, allowing eight runs and 18 hits in the series' first three games. But Atlanta has pitched better, limiting the Giants to five runs and a .156 batting average (15-for-96). That includes 1-for-23 with runners in scoring position. Bear in mind that the Giants won Friday night by scoring their final two runs without benefit of a hit.
"These bats are quiet," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "We're not swinging it very well in Atlanta. But they're pitching well."
As the season deepens, the Giants, who continue to trail San Diego by one game in the National League West and retain their 1 1/2-game lead over Philadelphia and St. Louis in the Wild Card standings, are more frequently sampling what they will encounter if they reach the Division Series. San Francisco has scored three runs or fewer in six of its last seven games.
Tim Hudson, tempered long ago by the cauldron of the postseason, limited the Giants to three hits in eight innings. Then closer Billy Wagner, who looked vulnerable in the previous two games, struck out the side on 11 pitches to seal Atlanta's triumph.
Matt Cain appeared poised to match Hudson zero for zero. But the Giants right-hander faltered in the fourth inning, when the Braves scored all of their runs, including two on Troy Glaus' bases-loaded, two-out single.
In fairness to the Giants, Hudson (13-5) might have dominated any team the way he subdued them on this steamy summer evening.
Aaron Rowand should know. The Giants center fielder entered the game hitting .444 (8-for-18) lifetime off Hudson but went 0-for-3 in this contest, striking out twice and grounding into a double play.
"When he's throwing offspeed stuff for strikes on fastball counts, he's going to be tough," Rowand said of Hudson, who faced the minimum 18 batters through six innings and allowed two Giants to advance as far as second base.
"It was a fun game for us," Hudson said. "It was one of those games where we got a nice lead and I felt pretty good out there. You never really felt like the game was in jeopardy. I had a couple of jams. But it's not like we had tying runs in scoring position."
Actually, that happened once. With two outs on the seventh inning, Aubrey Huff walked and Hudson nicked Buster Posey with a pitch. Swinging as if he were gripping a driver instead of a bat, Juan Uribe ended the mild threat by smacking a hard but harmless fielder's-choice grounder to shortstop.
Meanwhile, Glaus, the Most Valuable Player of the 2002 World Series when the Angels outlasted the Giants in seven games, demonstrated that he isn't finished tormenting San Francisco.
Glaus isn't the offensive dynamo that he was when the Giants opposed him in their last Fall Classic appearance. He entered Saturday in a .158 tailspin (21-for-133) spanning 41 games.
But facing Cain, the Giants' hottest pitcher since the All-Star break, Glaus proved that he can still deliver a key hit.
Jason Heyward's double and Chipper Jones' single put Braves on the corners with nobody out in the fourth inning. Heyward held on Brian McCann's groundout to first base, which moved Jones to second. Eric Hinske drew an intentional walk to load the bases. Alex Gonzalez popped up to shallow left field, leaving Cain one out short of escaping the threat.
But Cain (9-9) fell behind 3-1 on Glaus, who took a strike on a low-and-away fastball. Cain came back with virtually the same pitch, which Glaus grounded up the middle to send in Heyward and Jones. Rick Ankiel's double to the base of the right-field wall chased home Hinske.
"I made a couple of bad pitches," said Cain, who lasted five innings after entering the game 3-0 with a 1.52 ERA in four starts since the All-Star break. "I probably left the pitch over the plate more than I wanted to to Hayward. Then Chipper did a good job of fighting the ball off inside. It came down to one pitch at the very end to Glaus."
Given another chance, Cain probably would make the same delivery to Glaus.
"It's usually a pitch that's one of the harder ones to hit," Cain said. "He could have rolled over a little more and it would have gone to the shortstop or second baseman. But he did a good job of staying through it."
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