Torres' slam seals revived Giants offense

Chris Haft
MLB.com

ST. LOUIS -- Memorial Day was a day of leisure for many Americans, including the Giants. At least by their standards.

They matched their run total from their previous four games by Monday's fourth inning. That helped becalm Madison Bumgarner, who pitched as if he were reclining in a hammock drinking lemonade. Brian Wilson warmed up in the ninth inning, but that was merely a precautionary measure. The length of the game seemed to exceed its official two-hour, 51-minute duration, mainly because it featured no compellling sequences that distracted witnesses from the time of day.

"We don't have many of those," manager Bruce Bochy said after the Giants' 7-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. "It's nice not to have every pitch matter."

That happened because they obliterated pitches that did matter early in the afternoon. San Francisco homered twice in a game for only the second time since May 4 while winning by more than three runs for the first time since an 8-1 triumph at Colorado on April 18. Cody Ross went deep in the second inning, connecting on a 438-foot drive that was the sixth longest in Busch Stadium history, and Andres Torres belted his first career grand slam in the fourth to accent a five-run outburst. In between, Bumgarner scored in the third inning after launching a leadoff ground-rule double that short-hopped the left-center-field wall.

The Giants' rare easy win might have seemed like a respite from their troubles, if you believe that they're still reeling over Buster Posey's absence. But Ross insisted that he and his teammates remain as confident as ever, though they had lost five of six games before Monday.

"All of us believe in ourselves and each other and we all know what we're capable of, even though we're missing a couple of key parts of our team and our lineup," said Ross, whose homer broke a personal 0-for-14 skid. "We've all seen different guys in the lineup, who are here now, come through and get huge hits. We saw Torres do it all year last year and [Aubrey] Huff. The list goes on, up and down the lineup."

The Giants could have been expected to require a long list against the Cardinals, the National League Central leaders who had won 10 of their previous 13 games overall and seven of their last eight at home. A sellout crowd -- only the second of the season at Busch Stadium -- gathered in anticipation of more feats from their favorites.

But the Giants stole the show, and Bumgarner (2-6) was the primary thief.

The left-hander maintained control for seven innings while recording his seventh consecutive quality start. Bumgarner's ERA in that stretch is a stellar 2.12. Yet he felt far from satisfied.

"I don't feel I've gotten into a good rhythm yet," he said.

Allen Craig, whose disputed third-inning double helped St. Louis notch its only pair of runs off Bumgarner, was suitably impressed.

"He's got good stuff," Craig said. "He was working the heater, slider and curveball. He didn't seem to leave too many pitches over the plate. He was tough. In my third at-bat I missed a fastball and he just put me away with the curveball."

Bumgarner found a comfort zone in one respect. The 90-degree gametime temperature was very much to his liking.

"This feels like home," the North Carolinian said. "This is what I grew up playing in. I like this weather. It feels good to go out there and sweat a little bit. I knew what to expect."

Everybody should have known what to expect after Cardinals starter Kyle McClellan (6-2) walked Bumgarner to load the bases with one out in the fourth and a run in on Brandon Crawford's RBI single. Such mistakes often prompt a pitcher's undoing. Torres seized upon McClellan's lapse by planting an 0-1 fastball in the right-field seats.

"I was looking for a changeup. I just reacted," said Torres, who believed that he hadn't hit a grand slam since 2004 or 2005 while playing winter ball in Puerto Rico.

The Giants' big fourth matched their highest-scoring inning of the season, a first-inning binge in the aforementioned April 18 rout at Colorado. It also finished McClellan, who clearly wasn't himself.

"Walking the pitcher there killed me," McClellan said. "If I get him out, it changes everything. I tried to come in on [Torres] there and tried to get a ground ball, made a mistake and he hits it out. So just all in all not a good game."

"We knew he's been throwing well and has had a really good year," Ross said. "From the get-go, we could tell that he didn't have the command that he's probably used to. We just were trying to wait him out and got a couple of runs off him early. ... Guys like that can easily find it and turn it around. Fortunately for us, he couldn't do it."

Box Score

San Francisco Giants get shut out by Milwaukee Brewers

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

MILWAUKEE -- The Giants couldn't really celebrate the anniversary of Buster Posey's smashing 2010 debut. Not when Posey was being wheeled out of the operating room Sunday after surgery on his left ankle.

Not when a lineup punctured by his absence, along with that of Pablo Sandoval, went down limply in a 6-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday at Miller Park.

Not when the Giants' fifth loss in six games dropped them out of first place in the National League West -- behind the surging Arizona Diamondbacks, who occupy the top spot in the division for the first time since 2008.

"We're all still thinking about Buster," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said a day earlier. "We still have him in our thoughts, and we're going to miss him. I'm sure that is still weighing on the boys."

And after another loss Sunday?

"You keep moving forward," Bochy said. "That's all you can do."

Their lineup got younger, but no better, and offered no traction against Brewers right-hander Yovani Gallardo. The Giants were shut out for the fifth time this season while losing two of three to Milwaukee.

"You know, we're seeing some good pitching," Bochy said. "And it's tough sledding with the injuries. "... We're banged up. We know it. We're not making excuses. But we need to play our best ball to beat these teams, and we're not doing it.

"We played a hot team. They've been sweeping everybody. Thank God we got a game."

earlier when the Giants summoned Posey to the big leagues, and he responded by stirring the faithful, hitting three run-scoring singles in his first game. It began a campaign that ended with a World Series title and the Giants' first Rookie of the Year award in 35 years.

Last July, when the Giants turned around their season at Milwaukee, Posey was 9 for 15 with four home runs and nine RBIs as the club outscored the Brewers 36-7 while sweeping four games.

This season's visit to Dairyland wasn't nearly as vitamin-fortified.

Sunday's game marked a different first. Never before had both Brandons, Belt and Crawford, started alongside each other in a big league game. With Manny Burriss making his first appearance at third base and catcher Chris Stewart starting his first big league game since 2008, the lineup had a Fresno Grizzlies feel to it.

But Gallardo was no Triple-A filler on the mound. It was the Giants' misfortune to meet the tough right-hander, who took advantage of an ample strike zone by staying on the outer half and letting the Giants hit one fly out after another. Gallardo (7-2) held the Giants to four hits in eight innings.

"Some of the hitters were frustrated," Bochy said. "They thought (the umpire) was a little too liberal out there. But you battle."

Matt Cain couldn't seem to seize a similar advantage. Although he praised Stewart's work behind the plate, he tied his career high by allowing 11 hits in six innings.

The Brewers had four of them, none hit especially hard, in a two-run first inning. But there was no excuse for Cain's letdown in the sixth, when he had two outs and two strikes on No. 8 hitter Yuniesky Betancourt. The light-hitting shortstop singled, Gallardo hit another single, and Rickie Weeks scored them both with a ringing double.

"That's hard to swallow," Cain (3-4) said of the two-out runs. "That's something I've got to get better at. I feel I've let that happen too many times recently."

For the Giants, the only souvenir worth keeping was Freddy Sanchez's first-inning single up the middle for his 1,000th career hit. Sanchez singled again in the ninth to push his average to .302. For the league's lowest-scoring lineup, it was one of the few averages that didn't look wretched on the lineup card.

The youth-driven lineup didn't work, but Bochy doesn't plan to abandon it as the team stops next in St. Louis for a four-game series with the N.L. Central-leading Cardinals. Bochy said Crawford will continue to get regular time, with Burriss and Belt mixed in often.

"They're our club," Bochy said.

Box Score

SF Giants fall to Brewers on squeeze play in 9th

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
Jonathan Sanchez must have taken a few meditation classes at Ohio Dominican University. His serenity is laudable.

In his past three starts, Sanchez has surrendered six runs in 20 innings and taken a defeat and two no-decisions, one of them Saturday in the Giants' 3-2 loss to the Brewers, who won on a ninth-inning suicide squeeze.

When asked about having to pitch near-perfect ball every time out, Sanchez shrugged and said, "That's every day. It was the same last year and it's going to be the same this year, close games."

When a punchless team fails to score until the eighth inning, and then because of an error, it has to accept some defeats such as this, when the other guys execute at the right time. In the ninth inning, against Guillermo Mota, the Brewers were like Swiss watch makers.

With the scored tied 2-2, Ryan Braun singled on a 3-2 pitch. When Mota fell behind 3-2 to Prince Fielder, Braun ran and Fielder hit a groundball to the spot Brandon Crawford vacated to take a potential throw at second base.

Crawford retreated and did well to knock down a ball that took what he described as a "funny hop." Casey McGehee's dribbler advanced the runners into scoring position, forcing manager Bruce Bochy to walk Yuniesky Betancourt intentionally to load the bases and establish a force at any base.

Brewers manager Ron Roenicke sent Jonathan Lucroy in to pinch-hit. He was hitting .328 with no sacrifice bunts this season. The infield was playing in. Even so, Bochy said a squeeze crossed his mind, but even if he wanted to pitch out, he couldn't after Mota again fell behind 1-0.

With Braun racing home from third, Lucroy pushed a perfect bunt to Mota's left. The pitcher jumped off the mound quickly, but the ball went under his glove. Even if he had fielded it, he had no chance to get the out.

"I tried to do the best I can, and I couldn't even touch it," Mota said. "That was a good squeeze bunt."

Sergio Romo is pitching better than Mota now and struck out two of his three hitters in the eighth, even waiting 12 minutes to throw a slider past Carlos Gomez to end the inning after a delay caused by a leg injury to home-plate umpire Mark Wegner.

Bochy could have let Romo face Braun in the ninth, then gone to Javier Lopez to face Fielder, but Bochy said you cannot play matchups and burn relievers late in a tie game, so he picked Mota, who could pitch several innings.

Sanchez allowed only two hits in seven innings, but one proved extremely costly.

In the first inning, Gomez hit an 0-2 slider down the right-field line. Cody Ross tried to grab the ball with his backhand, but it rolled past him into the corner. Gomez ignited the afterburners and scored on what was ruled an inside-the-park home run.

Ross begged to differ.

"I missed it," he said. "It should have been an error, actually. I blew it. It's not a home run. It definitely shouldn't go against Sanchez. I went down to get it and I whiffed."

Ross needs to erase this game from his mental DVR. Besides that play, he nearly collided with Freddy Sanchez trying to catch a ball in short right, struck out looking to strand a runner at third and grounded into a double play to end the eighth inning after Pat Burrell's one-out single tied the game.

Box Score

Posey's injury looms large in loss to Marlins

Adam Berry
mlb.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- While Buster Posey's left-ankle injury overshadowed everything else that happened in AT&T Park on Wednesday night, the Giants also suffered a second straight disappointing loss on their home field despite yet another unbelievable comeback.

Down four runs entering the bottom of the ninth, San Francisco rallied to tie the game and send it into extra innings but ultimately fell short when Scott Cousins ran over Posey and scored on Emilio Bonifacio's sacrifice fly in the 12th inning, giving the Marlins a 7-6 victory.

"What a comeback. To come up short, that's a tough one. The way it ended, that makes it even harder," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "But the guys battled back hard."

The Giants (27-21) were within striking distance entering the ninth, down only one run before the Marlins (28-19) added three more on Mike Stanton's three-run double off reliever Javier Lopez and pushed their lead to four. But as the Giants have done all season, and dating back to last year's World Series run, they bounced back when they seemed all but out of it -- even after a large portion of the club's 20th straight home sellout crowd had filed out of the stands.

The rally began with Nate Schierholtz's leadoff single off Marlins reliever Edward Mujica. Miguel Tejada blooped a double to right field one out later. After right-hander Leo Nunez entered the game, catcher John Buck mishandled the closer's first pitch for a passed ball that scored Schierholtz and moved Tejada to third. Tejada scored on pinch-hitter Pat Burrell's bloop single to center. After Andres Torres struck out, Freddy Sanchez sliced his fourth hit of the game, a double down the right-field line. Burrell held at third base.

Up came Aubrey Huff, who was 0-for-4 and struck out in each of his first three at-bats with runners on base, with one frustrating punchout prompting Huff to slam his bat to the ground, splintering it in two. But there was no frustration following his fifth at-bat, only raucous cheers from the remaining fans after he singled to left-center field on a 2-2 pitch, scoring Burrell and Sanchez to tie the game.

Posey extended his hitting streak to 13 games -- the longest active streak in the Majors -- with a single following Huff's game-tying hit, but Cody Ross flied out to send the game into extras.

Before Wednesday, the largest deficit the Giants overcame this season was three runs, a feat they accomplished four times.

"You can't say enough about how they came back there, because we weren't doing much there and finally came back in the ninth," Bochy said. "Just couldn't quite finish it. We had a couple chances there but just couldn't finish it."

Brian Wilson pitched two scoreless frames to keep the game knotted at 6, but Buck's single off Guillermo Mota (2-1) opened the Marlins' half of the 12th. Cousins' unsuccessful sacrifice-bunt attempt forced Buck at second base. Omar Infante singled, bringing Bonifacio to the plate and setting up Cousins to tag up on the play that ultimately decided the game.

"I knelt over him and tried to see if he was all right. He's a great guy and a great player," Cousins said of Posey. "I'm not trying to end anybody's season or anything like that. I am just trying to play hard. He didn't say much. You could tell he was in pain. When Bruce came out, he was pretty frustrated. I didn't want to stick around and make things any tenser, so I decided to get out of there."

The Marlins jumped all over left-hander Madison Bumgarner in the first to establish their early lead. Chris Coghlan started with a single, moved to second on Logan Morrison's base hit to right field and scored on Gaby Sanchez's single to center. Florida right fielder Mike Stanton, who finished the day 4-for-6 with four RBIs, added to the margin with a double down the left-field line to score Morrison, putting the Marlins up 2-0.

Bumgarner gave up another run in the fifth, when Coghlan doubled to left, stole third and came home a groundout by Hanley Ramirez that Emmannuel Burris, playing shortstop in place of the injured Mike Fontenot (mild groin strain), couldn't field in time to make the throw home.

Aside from allowing that run, Bochy said he was impressed with how well Bumgarner calmed down and kept the Giants close enough to stage their ninth-inning comeback.

"He regrouped, and it says a lot about how he's maturing as a pitcher and growing and kept us in the game and gave us a chance to come back," Bochy said. "Great job by him not caving in."

Box Score

Giants muster little in snapping home streak

Adam Berry
MLB.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- For the first time in exactly a month, an unusual post game silence hung over the home clubhouse at AT&T Park on Tuesday night.

The songs on the team's standard post-win playlist didn't blare from the speakers, and there was no talk of the dramatic walk-off hits and clutch plays that came to define the Giants' nine-game home winning streak, with their last loss in China Basin coming vs. the Braves on April 24. Instead, a few players spoke quietly of how Florida right-hander Ricky Nolasco kept them off balance for nearly nine innings and how the offense couldn't overcome an early deficit as the Marlins (27-19) beat the Giants (27-20), 5-1.

"It's definitely a different feeling when you come in here," outfielder Cody Ross said. "It's kind of a weird feeling walking around with no energy. That's different when you're used to playing at home and after the games kind of celebrating. But hey, it's a long season. We knew we weren't going to win every single game the rest of the way at home. Not to say we're not going to go out there and try again tomorrow."

Giants manager Bruce Bochy said Nolasco was simply on his game. The right-hander left after 8 1/3 innings, scattering seven hits and walking two while allowing only one run and striking out five with all four of his pitches working to perfection.

"With the way their guy was throwing, we knew we had to keep it close," Bochy said. "He pitched great. He's been throwing the ball well. ... He was hitting his spots, and it's going to be a tough night when he's on. He knows what he's doing out there."

"They know I like to pitch ahead, and they didn't want to get behind. They were swinging, and I tried to take advantage of it and make better pitches early," Nolasco said. "I was able to make some pitches. That's a really underrated lineup over there. They battled and put some good at-bats together. They made me work almost the whole game. There was no stretch where I was just cruising."

Right-hander Matt Cain said he thought he pitched well Tuesday night, giving up four runs on six hits and three walks in six innings of work, but the Marlins capitalized on his early mistakes to build a lead the Giants lineup never came close to cracking.

After a single and two fielder's choices that left Chris Coghlan on first with two outs, Cain issued consecutive walks to Hanley Ramirez and Logan Morrison to load the bases. The righty was up 0-2 on Ramirez and ended up walking him, and Cain thought he had Morrison out on a few two-strike pitches, saying after the game, "They were where I wanted them." Marlins first baseman Gaby Sanchez then bounced a double to the wall in right-center to put Florida ahead, 3-0.

"I felt good. I really did. I got myself a great opportunity to get out of the inning in the third, two outs to Ramirez, and I ended up walking him and the next guy," Cain said. "That's my fault. That can't happen. That can't happen at all, and that's the reason we lost tonight. I didn't make the pitches to get him out and finish the inning."

Cain gave up another run in the fourth as Marlins right fielder Mike Stanton slammed a home run to center field, increasing the deficit to four runs. He calmed down after that, but that was plenty of support for Nolasco, who carved up the Giants' lineup all night. After winning five straight games against top-notch starters, mostly due to timely late-game hits, San Francisco's lineup often looked helpless against Nolasco, until the Giants loaded the bases with one out in the ninth to knock Nolasco out of the game. Miguel Tejada's sacrifice fly was all they mustered from the threat.

"He had all of his stuff working. He was pounding the strike zone, which is the most important thing for a starter, getting first-pitch strikes over to get ahead and getting guys to chase his slider and put bad swings on balls," Ross said. "He was just really good. He's kind of going off his last few starts. I know that he's been pitching well. You've just got to tip your cap sometimes. He did a good job tonight."

The Marlins, meanwhile, kept on hitting, though Nate Schierholtz managed to help stop the bleeding. Left-hander Dan Runzler threw a scoreless seventh but ran into trouble in the eighth, giving up a leadoff single to Sanchez and another base hit by Greg Dobbs. Runzler walked Stanton, loading the bases before getting replaced by Guillermo Mota.

John Buck, Mota's first batter, flied out to Schierholtz, and the right fielder threw the ball on a line to Buster Posey at the plate that held Sanchez at third. It did not hold Dobbs at second, however, as he was caught in a rundown and tagged out by shortstop Emmanuel Burriss to complete the double play. Perhaps fittingly, Schierholtz caught Nolasco's flyout to end the inning with the score still 4-0.

While the Giants weren't able to extend their winning streak or their dominance on their home field, Posey managed to keep one streak alive Tuesday night. With a seventh-inning single and another base hit in the ninth that started the Giants' rally, the second-year catcher has now hit safely in 12 straight games.

"We tried there at the end," Bochy said. "The boys were fighting, but we just ran into a well-pitched game."

Box Score

Unlikely pair lifts SF Giants in 11th to sweep

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
Thirteen wins at home, 11 of them by one run, seven in a walkoff frolic.

Unreal.

"We kind of flip on a switch sometimes. Guys know what time it is," Emmanuel Burriss said. On Sunday, Burriss checked the clock. It was 4:59 p.m. and time to send everyone home with a one-out single in the 11th inning that gave the Giants a 5-4 victory and their third consecutive series sweep at AT&T Park.

Burriss' best friend in baseball, Darren Ford, sprinted home from second and scored ahead of a strong throw from right fielder Ryan Sweeney, who got to Burriss' first-pitch single quickly. Sweeney's throw was true and the play closer than expected given Ford's speed.

Ford got to the plate a hair before the mitt of A's catcher Kurt Suzuki, who dropped the ball anyway.

Manager Bruce Bochy, who watched Ford reach on a pinch single against Brian Fuentes and steal second after two throw-overs, was asked if anybody else on the field could have beaten that throw.

"No way," Bochy said.

"That kid can fly," Suzuki said. "When he slid, it almost knocked the whole glove off my hand."

The Giants as a team are soaring, too. They won their ninth in a row at home and their fifth straight overall.

More impressive, the five wins came in games started by Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley of the Dodgers, and Oakland's Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson and Gio Gonzalez. Together, they were 20-14 with a 2.72 ERA.

Before the stretch, Bochy outlined the formula for success. He said his pitchers needed to be just as good as the five other guys and the offense had to push across just enough runs to win.

Giants starters held up their end nicely. Jonathan Sanchez held the A's to a Josh Willingham solo homer in six innings, and the rotation cobbled a 1.22 ERA over 37 innings.

Nobody expected the Giants to tilt the scoreboard, but Bochy said, "I couldn't be happier with the way these guys battled and found a way to get some runs for our pitchers."

They got two against Gonzalez on Sunday, starting with Andres Torres scoring from first on a Freddy Sanchez drive into the left-field corner. Torres scored in the first inning of all three games in the series.

The late-inning magic came from Nate Schierholtz. With the Giants down 4-2 with one out in the eighth, and Miguel Tejada on base after a leadoff single, Schierholtz skied his second career pinch-hit homer into the Arcade in right to tie the game.

After three combined shutout innings by Brian Wilson and winner Sergio Romo, Ford pinch-hit with one out in the 11th and knocked a two-strike single into center. After Ford stole second, the A's intentionally walked Buster Posey.

Before each wide pitch, Fuentes took a long look at Ford, who also had shortstop Chad Pennington breathing down his neck. Rarely does a team show so much concern over a runner during an intentional walk.

"That's what I want to do," Ford said. "I want to make him nervous and uncomfortable. I don't know if I got Manny a good pitch to hit. But I knew a single would score me, and Manny came through."

For once, Ford got a bad read. As he stood at second, he and Burriss made eye contact. Ford thought he was telling Burriss, "You're going to get it done."

Burriss actually was sending Ford a telepathic message.

"If I get a hit," he said with a laugh, "you better score."

Box Score

Lincecum spins three-hit shutout against A's

Chris Haft
MLB.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- Though Tim Lincecum yielded little Saturday, he did flip the baseball he threw for the game's final strike into the stands as he left the diamond.

After all, Lincecum needed no mementos of his performance. The box score of the Giants' 3-0 victory over the Oakland A's accurately conveyed his excellence. And his sheer pitching mastery should have left an enduring impression on the 17th consecutive sellout crowd at AT&T Park and the viewers of FOX's telecast.

Lincecum allowed three hits, all singles, while recording his fifth career shutout. Between Ryan Sweeney's two-out grounder to right field in the first inning and Landon Powell's line drive to right in the eighth, Lincecum retired 21 consecutive batters, permitting just five balls to clear the infield in that span. Maintaining impeccable command of his entire repertoire of deliveries -- fastball, curveball, slider and changeup -- Lincecum ran up four three-ball counts in the first three innings but only one thereafter in his 60th career victory.

"It's always a challenge going against him, because he has a hard fastball and good arm action on his changeup," said A's third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff, a .351 lifetime hitter against Lincecum who went 0-for-3. "His fastball and his changeup are so far apart, and that's what makes him a good pitcher. It's an explosive fastball and he locates well. If you get that pitch to hit, you have to hit it because you probably won't get it again."

Renowned for accumulating scads of strikeouts, Lincecum followed the pitching gospel of Juan Marichal, the Giants legend to whom he's so often compared. Lincecum dominated the A's without overpowering them, walking none while striking out six. This was not a conscious effort, Lincecum said. But he welcomed the results, which, he said, "allowed me to keep that good pace and good rhythm throughout the game."

Then Lincecum summoned his strikeout magic in the ninth inning as if to emphasize his authority.

A's pinch-hitter David DeJesus drilled a leadoff single, one pitch after Giants closer Brian Wilson scampered to the bullpen to warm up. Lincecum fell behind on the count to Coco Crisp, 2-0. That prompted a visit from pitching coach Dave Righetti, who warned Lincecum that he was slightly rushing his delivery. Lincecum responded by whistling a pair of called strikes past Crisp, who ultimately grounded into a force play.

Then came the power: a swinging strikeout of Daric Barton on a 96-mph fastball. A 95-mph fastball on a 1-2 count over the outside corner that Sweeney merely stared at, ending the Giants' eighth consecutive home victory and fourth in a row overall. The outcome widened San Francisco's National League West lead to 2 1/2 games over Colorado.

It was as if Wilson actually had entered the game. Indeed, said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, "I think your great starters are also closers. Though [Lincecum] doesn't complete a lot of games, he's a guy you like out there. ... He turned it up a notch. I think he saw Willie warming up and wanted to finish it."

Lincecum acknowledged that he redoubled his effort in the ninth.

"Especially with the lead we had, it wasn't big and anything can kind of happen in that situation," he said. "You have to go out there and put out what's left in the tank."

Bochy revealed that Sweeney would have been the last hitter Lincecum faced. Lincecum was fully aware of this.

"That's kind of why I didn't want to let him [Sweeney] get away," Lincecum said.

Lincecum didn't, though his pitch count climbed to 133, exceeded only by the 138 he flung in a four-hit shutout on Sept. 13, 2008, at San Diego. Yet if anything, Lincecum looked sharper in the ninth inning than in the first, when he needed 24 pitches to complete the frame. Asked how this could be, catcher Buster Posey alluded to Lincecum's familiar nickname while responding, "I don't know. He's a freak."

Lincecum had no explanation for his edge over the A's. He's 5-0 with a 0.64 ERA, three complete games and two shutouts in six career starts against Oakland.

"Maybe it's that I don't see them that much throughout the year. I have no idea," he said.

Lincecum admitted that the afternoon shadows, resulting from the game's 4:15 p.m. PT start, enhanced his brilliance.

"I have sympathy for them," Lincecum said, referring to hitters in general. "It's tough at times [with] the game times that we have. The shadows kind of settle in. You have to take advantage of it from a pitcher's perspective."

As Posey explained, "It's one of those things where the ball's coming in from the sunlight to the shade. It's tough to see spin. We all have to deal with it. It's one of those things you try to battle through."

Posey battled through it better than anyone else. He lengthened his hitting streak to 10 games, going 2-for-4 while scoring a run and driving in another to account for most of the Giants' offense.

"He was using the whole field," Bochy said, referring to the first-inning RBI groundout and the eighth-inning single Posey poked the opposite way, as well as the third-inning double and fifth-inning lineout he yanked to left.

Posey's production stood out, since Lincecum let none of the A's come close to equaling it.

Box Score

Giants beat A's 2-1 in 10 innings

Carl Steward
Mercury News

Aubrey Huff was the ultimate hero for the Giants on Friday night, driving in a 10th-inning run that delivered a 2-1 win over the A's at AT&T Park.

But Huff was quick to defer his heroics to the six-pack of arms that enabled the Giants to get to the 10th and allow him to drive home Emmanuel Burriss with a one-out single to right off the A's fifth pitcher, Brian Fuentes.

"You can't say enough about our pitching, top to bottom," said Huff. "We'd be 20 games under .500 if it wasn't for our pitching staff. We haven't done much offensively, but they keep us in it long enough to the end where we'll scratch something across."

Indeed, the Giants didn't allow a single earned run on this night. The only Oakland run came against starter Ryan Vogelsong, partly as the result of a Huff throwing error in the fifth inning. But with a help of some sterling defensive plays by Nate Schierholtz and Freddy Sanchez, the Giants' staff simply outlasted Oakland's own fine pitching.

Vogelsong went the first six innings and was followed by Ramon Ramirez, Jeremy Affeldt, Sergio Romo, Brian Wilson and Javier Lopez, who got the win after pitching a scoreless top of the 10th.

With the score tied 1-1 from the fifth inning on, the Giants finally put together a winning rally after not scoring since the first inning. Fresh Triple-A call-up Burriss engaged in a nine-pitch battle with Fuentes, to open the decisive 10th.

Burriss, who entered the game in the top of the 10th as a defensive replacement, ultimately hit a chopper through the hole between third and short and was sacrificed to second by Andres Torres. Following an intentional walk to Sanchez, Huff then drove home Burriss with the game-winner on a sharp single to right.

Burriss starting the rally was perhaps as significant as Huff ending it.

"You watch nine innings of baseball and our guys battling their butts off, so for me to come in and help out means the world to me," said Burriss. "It means the world for the team, too."

As for Huff, who was 0 for 8 with a walk coming into his climactic at-bat, he said he actually felt more comfortable facing Fuentes than any right-hander he'd seen during the night.

"For me right now, I get a lefty (on the mound) I feel a little more comfortable," he said. "I seem to be having some trouble with right-handers right now, go figure."

Vogelsong sailed through the first four innings, allowing just three singles, no walks and striking out five. He also received a big assist from right fielder Schierholtz in the second inning. Josh Willingham had led off the inning with a single, and after a strikeout, Mark Ellis dumped a single into right with Willingham running.

Schierholtz played the ball on a hop and fired a laser to third baseman Miguel Tejada to easily nail Willingham.

"As soon as I saw Nate play that ball, I was thinking, 'Please try to go to third,' " said Huff.

The Giants walked a tightrope in the seventh inning. Ramirez opened the frame by walking Ellis, who subsequently stole second as Ramirez struck out Kevin Kouzmanoff. Ramirez then engaged Pennington in a 10-pitch battle during which Ellis advanced to third on what was ruled a passed ball.

Ramirez won the marathon with Pennington, however, finally inducing a foul pop-up to first. That got Cahill out of the game, and with Jeremy Affeldt on the mound, Sanchez then robbed pinch-hitter Conor Jackson of an up-the-middle, go-ahead single with a diving stop and throw to first from one knee.

Box Score

San Francisco Giants beat Los Angeles Dodgers behind Madison Bumgarner

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers had three runners in motion when Jamey Carroll's line drive whizzed into shallow right field. Nate Schierholtz didn't pause to consider the options or consequences.

He simply went for it.

"It was risky," Schierholtz said. "But I was confident I was going to make the play."

He did, sprawling on his stomach in the grass while catching the line drive mere inches above the turf. It protected Madison Bumgarner's first win of the season, bailed out closer Brian Wilson and provided an unbelievable ending to the Giants' 3-1 victory over Los Angeles on Thursday night.

"Really, that shows you the fine line between winning and losing," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said after his club swept a two-game series from their archrivals and split their six-game trip. "If he doesn't catch it, we lose."

Given his options, Bochy never plays it safe on the road. So he and first-base coach Roberto Kelly moved in Schierholtz a few extra steps after Wilson walked a pair to load the bases.

"I told Roberto, `We're going for a win here,' " Bochy said. "Carroll puts a lot of balls there. He's a tough hitter with two strikes. We're gambling a little bit, playing in, realizing if the ball gets by us, we're losing that game."

Schierholtz gambled a bit more, taking two more steps after Wilson got a second strike on Carroll. "I was pretty far in," said Schierholtz, who couldn't recall playing that shallow for anyone else besides

---

David Eckstein. "I just reacted off the bat. I saw it at the point of contact. I didn't hesitate at all.

"That's the way we play. That's the way we played tonight. I stuck with it."

Aubrey Huff's diving attempts here in April earned himself a chalk outline from teammates. Schierholtz will receive something closer to a medal.

"Oh my God," Huff said. "First thing I thought was, `Thank God that wasn't me.' "

It took nine starts, but Bumgarner finally won for the first time since his Halloween night performance in Game 4 of the World Series. He came within an out of the first shutout of his career, too.

But the ninth inning was more trick than treat.

Bumgarner retired the first two hitters before losing his shutout bid on a bloop and an RBI double. Then Wilson upped the torture by straining to find the strike zone.

"I don't know if the ankle was bothering him," Bochy said of Wilson, who turned his foot on the mound the previous night. "He says he's fine. I certainly thought it wouldn't be as dramatic. It ended up being the most dramatic game of the road trip."

Bumgarner thought another decision went poof with Carroll's crisp contact, saying he felt for certain the ball would fall. Instead, he could enjoy a victory that "feels like a playoff win, it's been so long."

"I surprised myself," said Bumgarner (1-6), who has a 1.60 ERA in his last five starts. "I think I did a good job of ignoring it, thinking nothing of it. I'm happy though it hadn't been working out in my favor. It'll teach me about the game and what I have to focus on."

Bumgarner and Bochy had a moment of clarity Wednesday during a taxi ride to the park. Bumgarner realized he was pitching differently with runners on base, perhaps afraid to challenge inside. That might have contributed to that one big inning he couldn't seem to avoid.

"He wanted to use both sides of the plate, and he got back to that," Bochy said of Bumgarner, who scattered six hits. "He was determined to get his first win."

Bumgarner also doubled and scored in the third and put down both his sacrifice- bunt attempts, including one that contributed to a run in the sixth. Freddy Sanchez drove in Bumgarner with a sacrifice fly in the third and hit an RBI single in the sixth.

But in keeping with a season-long theme, the Giants failed to land a knockout punch. So they accepted it in another form.

Box Score

San Francisco Giants beat Los Angeles Dodgers

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

LOS ANGELES -- It wasn't Rosstober. But it was close.

With one majestic swing, Cody Ross rescued the Giants from another blown game and another frustrating, expletive-filled night. He connected for a tiebreaking, three-run home run with two outs in the ninth inning, delivering a precious and costly 8-5 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers Wednesday night.

Last year's NLCS Most Valuable Player, Ross swatted his shot deep into the left-field seats off Lance Cormier. It was a triumphant ending on an otherwise troublesome night in which seemingly half the Giants' roster ended up in the trainer's room.

Mark DeRosa is headed back to San Francisco and the disabled list after sustaining a significant and possibly career-threatening wrist injury while loading up to swing at a pitch in the fourth inning. Aaron Rowand left the game in the ninth when he jolted his back while trying to beat out a ground ball.

And trainers rushed to the mound to check on closer Brian Wilson when he turned his left ankle while stepping in a hole on the mound in the ninth. But Wilson remained on the hill and finished up one of the strangest games of the season.

"It was a good win. I don't know how much fun it was," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "We lost the lead and lost two players, almost three. But what's important is being resilient in these games."

Bochy was hopeful Rowand would rebound quickly, as he did when his back flared up earlier this month.

Wilson, who couldn't hold the lead when tabbed for a four-out save in the eighth, said he wasn't seriously hurt.

"I'm fine," Wilson said. "I just got beat."

It was a much different game in the eighth, when Miguel Tejada's second run-scoring hit of the night gave the Giants a 5-2 lead. But the Dodgers stormed back in the bottom of the inning with a three-run rally against Matt Cain and three relievers to tie it.

Bochy, perhaps a little more concerned after watching his team blow a pair of leads in two losses at Coors Field, tabbed Wilson for a four-out save. But old dominoes partner Juan Uribe stung him for a two-run double, and the Dodgers tied it when first baseman Aubrey Huff inexplicably gave up on James Loney's softly hit ground ball that went into right field for a single.

Bochy said Huff misread the play and expected second baseman Freddy Sanchez to field it. But Huff was the only one within reach of it.

Cain, who carried a perfect game into the fifth inning, lost his decision. Ross made certain they wouldn't lose the game. His shot came with two outs after Sanchez and Buster Posey had singled.

"We definitely needed that," Ross said. "We had two tough ones in Colorado, and I'm sitting there in the outfield going, 'No way this is happening again, especially after Cain threw such a great game.' "

The Giants finally found an answer for Clayton Kershaw, the Los Angeles Dodgers' domineering ace, and all it took was a little right-minded thinking. With a series of singles served to right field, the Giants sustained two scoring rallies against the tough left-hander.

With one painful exception, every Giants starter had at least one hit. DeRosa did not, and his career looks to be in jeopardy after his twice-repaired left wrist sprang another leak.

In a strange scene, DeRosa exited the game in the fourth inning after flinching suddenly while taking a 1-2 pitch. DeRosa didn't even check his swing. He merely began to load his hands when he almost jumped out of the batter's box in apparent pain. He flung his helmet down the tunnel as trainer Dave Groeschner escorted him inside; Mike Fontenot finished the plate appearance and drew a bases-loaded walk.

The Giants announced that DeRosa strained his wrist and was considered day-to-day, but given his history, it's possible the injury could be career-ending for the 36-year-old infielder.

Box Score

Wheels come off Sanchez's gem in Denver

Giants continue to miss out on scoring opportunities

Chris Haft
MLB.com

DENVER -- The standings suggest that the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies will remain the chief rivals for the National League West title through the rest of the season.

But if the Giants don't improve upon their 5-3 loss Tuesday to Colorado, which swept the two-game series, there won't be any two-team race. At least it won't involve the Giants.

They continued to perform feebly at the plate when it counted most. The Giants outhit Colorado, 10-7, but went only 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position. That actually raised their batting average in such situations during this trip from .136 to .161.

San Francisco hasn't scored more than four runs in a game since May 3, a stretch of 12 games. The Giants are last in the NL in runs scored and entered Tuesday ranked 12th in batting average, due partly to the likes of Aubrey Huff (.229) and Miguel Tejada (.206). Once-proficient Aaron Rowand has dipped to .250. Buster Posey is batting .429 (9-for-21) during a six-game hitting streak, but none of the hits have gone for extra bases. Posey has two doubles this season, one fewer than left-hander Jonathan Sanchez.

"We expect more out of ourselves," outfielder Cody Ross said. "We talk about it as a group and we understand that we have to get better. And we better do it fast."

That will be challenging. The Giants face the Dodgers' top two pitchers, Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley, in a two-game series that opens Wednesday in Los Angeles. Then they'll likely confront the impressive trio of Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson and Gio Gonzalez during the weekend Interleague series against the Oakland A's at AT&T Park. After that comes a three-game series against the Florida Marlins, whose starting staff rivals San Francisco's in ability.

"Maybe it's a good time to face them," Ross mused. "Maybe we'll rise to the occasion."

San Francisco also remained prone to defensive lapses. In both games of this series, a Giants starting pitcher committed a throwing error that stimulated Colorado's offense. On Monday, Tim Lincecum's awry relay on a potential double-play comebacker launched a five-run Rockies outburst. Tuesday, Sanchez sabotaged his own excellent performance by fielding pinch-hitter Alfredo Amezaga's eighth-inning bunt and throwing wildly past first base, accelerating Colorado's four-run rally in the eighth inning that erased the Giants' 3-1 lead.

These errors prompted manager Bruce Bochy to contemplate a pregame round of pitchers' fielding practice, which is a staple for every club in Spring Training.

As if to display their superiority over the Giants in this facet of the game, Rockies closer Huston Street neatly speared Andres Torres' smash through the middle and started a game-ending double play.

"That's where a pitcher can help himself," Bochy said.

Sanchez (3-3) helped himself by throwing strikes. He entered the game having issued 28 walks, second-most in the NL. But he didn't walk a single Rockies batter and allowed only one to reach scoring position, with the exception of Troy Tulowitzki's second-inning waltz around the bases following his 11th homer.

Sanchez entered the eighth with a three-hitter and a 3-1 lead, courtesy of Tejada's second-inning RBI single and Pat Burrell's third-inning two-run double. But Ryan Spilborghs and Chris Iannetta singled to open the inning. Sanchez then made his disastrous play on Amezaga's bunt, scoring Spilborghs and leaving runners on the corners.

"I have to make that play," Sanchez said. "That's an easy out at first."

Relieving Sanchez, left-hander Javier Lopez yielded Dexter Fowler's ground-rule double to right-center field, which sent home Iannetta and tied the score. Jonathan Herrera grounded out without the runners advancing, but Carlos Gonzalez singled sharply through the drawn-in infield to score Amezaga and Fowler.

Gonzalez has spent much of the season hitting 100 points lower than the .336 figure that won him last year's NL batting title. That slump evidently won't last.

"That's what he's supposed to do," Lopez said of Gonzalez's go-ahead hit. "That's why you pay him $80 million. He's going to get hot."

The Rockies embraced their success, particularly since the Giants arrived here with a 5-1 edge in the season series.

"It's nice to answer back, throw a few punches and prove to them that we're going to be in this for the long haul," Tulowitzki said.

The Giants were equally unfazed by slipping a half-game behind Colorado in the West.

"If the season ended today, I suppose we'd panic," Lopez said. "But we've got three-fourths of the season left."

Box Score

Giants' Tim Lincecum rocked in 7-4 loss to Rockies

Andrew Baggarly
MercuryNews

DENVER -- Bruce Bochy doesn't like playing the bad cop. He doesn't relish stealing the lightness and joy away from groaning Giants fans when he takes the baseball from Tim Lincecum.

So you can imagine how Bochy feels when he gets second-guessed for leaving his ace in the game too long. Certainly, Monday night's 7-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies qualified as one of those times.

Lincecum, by his own admission, wasn't sure where his pitches were going. He already had blown two leads. He walked six, including pitcher Clayton Mortensen. He gave up a series of ear-whistling singles up the middle in the sixth inning while his pitch count climbed past 110.

But Lincecum still had zip on his fastball, and he still had Bochy's faith. So he was allowed to face Carlos Gonzalez, who had hit the ball on the button in two previous at-bats while flying out to center field.

As if on cue, Gonzalez knocked Lincecum from the game with a tiebreaking, three-run home run that nestled among the fir trees beyond the center-field fence.

It was the key moment in a game that upset Bochy in more ways than one. His hitters bounced into four double plays. Lincecum threw away a potential double-play ball when he yanked his throw to second base in the sixth. Third baseman Mark DeRosa failed to stay in front of Dexter Fowler's bad-hop hit in the fifth -- a play Bochy acknowledged should have been scored an error -- that helped set up Troy Tulowitzki's two-run single.

And Lincecum, mere moments after extending his streak to 21 scoreless innings through the fourth, ended up tying his career high by allowing seven runs.

Bochy did not display any second thoughts.

"I thought it was his game," Bochy said. "He had two outs there, so I let him face one more hitter. Sure, look back, you say I could've made a change there. But "... I thought I should let him get the last out."

Bochy noted that Lincecum had an extra day of rest because his start Sunday at Wrigley Field was rained out. And he still had life on his fastball.

"Hey, he made a mistake with two strikes," Bochy said. "If I'm a starting pitcher, I want a chance there in a tight ballgame."

The mistake was a changeup that stayed above the knees for Gonzalez, a dangerous hitter who is heating up after a prolonged funk. In his first six games against the Giants, the star outfielder had been 3 for 21 with no extra-base hits and one RBI. His slump had been a major factor in the Rockies' 3-10 record in May before Monday night.

"This place, that hitter -- that's not really a good pitch," said Lincecum (3-4), who has a losing record through seven decisions for the first time in his career.

Lincecum was wild within the strike zone as well as outside it. He had given up only two home runs all season before Seth Smith's shot to lead off the sixth, and Gonzalez took him deep later in the inning. He was most upset about the leadoff walk to Mortensen in the fifth, with the Giants leading 1-0.

"When you walk the pitcher, that always ends up being a pretty big inning," Lincecum said. "That's when I saw it going down. You've got to respond and I didn't. I didn't pick my team up. I didn't pick myself up."

Tulowitzki's hit put the Rockies up 2-1, but the Giants regained the lead in the sixth when Andres Torres hit a tying solo home run and Nate Schierholtz launched a two-run shot.

Then Lincecum hit turbulence and couldn't reset himself during the Rockies' five-run rally, squandering a chance when Jose Morales hit a grounder back to the mound. Lincecum's throw was to the wrong side of second base and ticked off shortstop Miguel Tejada's glove.

"I was waiting for Tejada to get there, and I just kind of yanked the throw," Lincecum said.

Did he expect Bochy to come out sooner?

"Not really," Lincecum said. "I felt fine. It was just hitter after hitter and "... it just massed on me. It just covered me up and I couldn't find my way out of it. I was struggling with location all day."

A reporter paraphrased Bochy's assessment and told Lincecum that he pitched well. The ace responded glumly.

"Not well. I wouldn't use that word," Lincecum said. "I can think of a whole bunch of other words to use."

Box Score

Giants beat the cold and the Cubs

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

CHICAGO -- Ryan Vogelsong already proved his mettle. He persevered through four years on three continents to get back to the major leagues.

Maybe he should get credit for Antarctica, too, after his toughness reached ironclad territory on an abysmal Saturday night for baseball at Wrigley Field.

Through a horizontal, skin-stinging, 40-degree mist that felt more like an icy pressure wash, Vogelsong shut down the Chicago Cubs, and the Giants were awarded a 3-0, six-inning victory. It's officially the first shutout and complete game of Vogelsong's career.

Oh, and one more thing: He didn't bother to wear full sleeves. He refused to wear a jacket on the basepaths, too.

"Trying to be intimidating or just foolish, I don't know," third baseman Mark DeRosa said. "Me, I couldn't find enough sleeves to put on. I had just enough to stay mobile."

Yes, they are hardy folk in Western Pennsylvania, where Vogelsong was born and raised. He echoed most of his teammates, saying he'd never played in such miserable conditions. Tim Lincecum, proud of his waterlogged Seattle roots, might have been the lone dissenter. He'll get to take the ball Sunday with more rain and cold forecast.

The confines weren't so friendly at Clark and Addison. The teams combined to commit five errors in the slop; Giants shortstop Miguel Tejada was charged with two of them after one ball skipped on the wet grass, and his soaked glove failed to make a clean stop of another.

Bats flew into the stands. Hitters called timeout, as the mist stung their eyes. Vogelsong had to shake off the catcher's sign a few times when Buster Posey called for a curveball. Vogelsong couldn't feel the ball in his hand.

"I was just trying to get quick outs and get out of the rain, not let our guys stand around out there too long," said Vogelsong, who owns a streak of 131/3 scoreless innings. "I had a couple long innings and felt bad about that. I was just trying to get us back in the dugout as quick as I could."

The Cubs had no such hope with left-hander Doug Davis, who is known to work at a maddeningly slow pace. Posey, who was hitting .188 off left-handers, came through with a two-out single to score Freddy Sanchez in the first inning.

The Giants scored two runs in the third, when Vogelsong hit a leadoff single, Aaron Rowand doubled to right-center, and the Cubs committed two errors. With two outs, Cody Ross hit a dribbler that catcher Koyie Hill pounced upon but threw wide to first base, allowing Vogelsong to score. Rowand came home when third baseman Blake DeWitt couldn't handle Pat Burrell's ground ball.

"It was tough sledding," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "It was just swirling. The mist, the cold wind -- it was biting through the guys pretty good.

"But Vogey, it starts with him. He got in some tough jams. We had trouble with ground balls, and they did, too. He kept his focus and pitched out of them."

When Vogelsong reached base, Bochy told hitting coach Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens to hand over his jacket.

"He said, 'Oh no, I'm not giving up my jacket,' " Bochy said. "It was pretty competitive all night at the end of the dugout near the heater, too."

The Giants must get a warm feeling when Vogelsong steps on the mound. They are 4-0 in his starts.

He did his share of battling, though, while scattering seven hits. Vogelsong stranded the bases loaded in the first inning when he jammed Marlon Byrd on a weak lineout to short and struck out Alfonso Soriano on a curveball. Vogelsong stranded runners in five of his six innings.

And he did it all with no jacket required.

"Once I adapted to the weather, I didn't want to put it on, get warm, then take it off and get cold," said Vogelsong, who didn't wear a jacket in the dugout, either. "I want to feel the temperature."

Vogelsong had thrown 102 pitches and would have gone out for a seventh inning, but umpires called it when the rain got worse with Rowand at the plate leading off the seventh. After a 40-minute delay, it was ruled that play would not resume.

"Get a couple runs on some water balls and get out of here with a win," DeRosa said. "All in all, a miserable experience, but a great day."

Box Score

San Francisco Giants edge Arizona Diamondbacks 1-0

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

There might come a day when the Giants get four or five hitters to click, when manager Bruce Bochy will be able to write out some semblance of a set lineup and when they will score enough to win going away.

Until that happens, one run is enough for Tim Lincecum and Brian Wilson to win. And Darren Ford is fast enough to score it.

Lincecum pitched with his usual ebullience through eight innings, Wilson handled the ninth, Ford stole second base, and Cody Ross advanced him those final 180 feet, dumping a single just inside the left-field line as the Giants walked off with a 1-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday night.

The Giants have played 13 home games -- all sellouts. And they know how to keep the faithful hooked. They own five adrenaline-pumping walk-off victories.

"Well, you know what? It'd be nice to have it easier," said Bochy, obviously not thinking about the way these celebratory helmet slappers must be spurring ticket sales.

"But these guys are used to it. That's the way they play. They know any pitch, any at-bat can win a game. I don't know about magic, but it's nice to find ways to win when you're scuffling offensively."

It's because of all these late-inning squeakers that Bochy opted to keep Ford on the roster. Instead, he made space to activate Andres Torres and Mark DeRosa by optioning infielders Manny Burriss and Ryan Rohlinger to Triple-A Fresno.

Bochy acknowledged it was unorthodox to keep six outfielders and have just one backup middle infielder.

"But it really wasn't a debate, to be honest," he said. "We knew his value on this club vs. the other two. It's not a knock against Manny or Ryan. But the type of games we play, (Ford's speed) is going to be a factor."

Where was Ford when Buster Posey worked a leadoff walk from Arizona right-hander David Hernandez?

"I'm sitting," Ford said, smiling. "I'm sitting right next to Bochy. All he has to do is turn around and look, and he'll see me."

Ford replaced Posey, turned to first-base coach Roberto Kelly and was cleared for takeoff.

"He said, 'Go.' I went the next pitch," Ford said. "He said take it. And I took it."

Ford stole second base without a throw from Arizona catcher Miguel Montero. Then he scored with ease on Ross' clutch hit.

"It's coming," said Ross, who owns all four of the Giants' RBIs over the past two games. "We have a lot of confidence in each other. We know somebody's going to get it done. I just wish we could do it earlier."

The run came too late for Lincecum to get the decision, although he more than earned it. He took a no-hitter into the sixth, struck out nine and extended his streak to 17 scoreless innings.

Although Lincecum had an extra day of rest since his previous outing, he was coming off a 127-pitch start Wednesday in New York -- the most pitches he has logged in a game in nearly two seasons. But this isn't the 155-pound wisp that ran on fumes at times last summer. He is stronger and fitter and has more pitches in his arsenal.

"Leave everything out there," Lincecum said. "In the gym and on the track, too."

Just four starts after taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning at Coors Field, Lincecum had the makings of another serious bid. But pitcher Ian Kennedy, of all people, broke it up with a one-out single up the middle in the sixth.

Kennedy had his own work of art in progress. The right-hander entered with a 2.67 ERA in five career starts against the Giants, and the additions of Torres and DeRosa failed to put up a run against him.

Torres, playing for the first time since April 9 because of a strained left Achilles tendon, singled and drew a walk. DeRosa's return wasn't as fruitful. He failed in two RBI situations, striking out to strand two runners in the second inning and grounding into a double play with the bases loaded to end the fourth.

There wasn't an unsold seat at China Basin. The Giants are 13 for 13 in sellouts this season, and the latest packed house wasn't a weekend contest against a premium opponent. It was a midweek game. A school night.

The Giants didn't decide it until the end, but for the kids in attendance, at least they had the courtesy to stay away from extra innings.

"That's just the way it is here," Lincecum said. "They get on their feet for big innings, big outs. They know anything can happen."

Box Score

inShare San Francisco Giants' Ryan Vogelsong feels the love of fans

Carl Steward
Mercury News

As wonderful as the previous two days' walk-off wins may have been for the Giants, Ryan Vogelsong's walk off the mound in the seventh inning Sunday was easily the defining moment of a wholly satisfying weekend for the team at AT&T Park.

The much-traveled Vogelsong was pulled after allowing just a hit and a walk to Colorado through 61/3 innings, and as he strode slowly to the dugout in what ultimately became a 3-0 victory, he received a thunderous standing ovation that hit him much harder than any of the Rockies did.

"That was the best experience I've ever had in baseball, to be honest with you," said Vogelsong, who got choked up as he tipped his cap to the cheering 42,132 in attendance. "It was awesome."

It's been so long since Vogelsong made a start at AT&T, the ballpark had another name. It was SBC Park when he pitched for Pittsburgh here on May 14, 2004, getting no decision.

Since then, it's been a Kerouac-like odyssey for the 33-year-old right-hander, who was drafted by the Giants in 1998. But you can come home again, as Vogelsong demonstrated with masterful aplomb against the Rockies.

he surrendered five earned runs in four innings.

"The game in New York, I just didn't come out aggressive enough," he said. "Today, I just said, go after them with your best stuff instead of trying to be too fine."

Vogelsong (2-0) might have kept going after retiring Jonathan Herrera to open the seventh. But after he walked Carlos Gonzalez and Mike Fontenot booted Troy Tulowitzki's double-play grounder, manager Bruce Bochy summoned left-handed specialist Javier Lopez, who got Jason Giambi to ground into an inning-ending double play.

"It's not easy taking a guy out with a one-hitter," Bochy said. "But with who they had coming up and having a guy who's done such a great job for us, we had to go to Lopez there, and he got it done."

The Giants got a whole lot done this weekend in reasserting their standing in the National League West against the front-running Rockies. Colorado manager Jim Tracy was ranting about the pitiful state of his offense before Sunday's game, so you can imagine his rancor after his team got swept, saw its division lead shrivel to one game and was held to three singles by a journeyman pitcher and two relievers -- Brian Wilson pitched a scoreless ninth for his 11th save.

As if all that weren't enough, the Rockies also woke up last year's Giants postseason hero. Cody Ross drove in all three runs with a fourth-inning single and a two-run homer in the sixth against left-hander Jorge De La Rosa (4-1), who has been notoriously tough on the Giants the past two seasons.

Ross' first homer of the season was a memorable one. He battled De La Rosa to a 3-2 count, and after barely getting a piece of a change-up on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, he got a fat fastball on the ninth and didn't miss it. It sailed into the left-field seats with Buster Posey aboard, and suddenly it felt like October 2010 all over again.

Ross admitted he's not all the way back to his fall performance groove yet but said he's starting to figure out a few things. More than anything, he made an effort to defer his own heroics to those of the starting pitcher.

"Vogelsong threw an amazing game. I can only imagine what kind of emotions he was going through after being drafted by this team and the road it's taken him to get here."

Box Score

Fontenot caps Giants' second straight walk-off

Eric Gilmore
MLB.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- There were runners on first and second with no outs when Giants shortstop Mike Fontenot came to the plate Saturday night in the bottom of ninth of a tie game with the Colorado Rockies.

Not surprisingly, Fontenot got the bunt sign, and after he fouled off Franklin Morales' first pitch, he got it again. This time Paulino uncorked a wild pitch over Fontenot's head, sending Aaron Rowand to third and Freddy Sanchez to second.

The bunt sign came off, and Fontenot sent Morales' next pitch high and deep to right for a sacrifice fly, the first walk-off of any kind in his career and the Giants' second straight walk-off win, a 3-2 victory over Colorado.

"It can definitely get us going," Fontenot said of back-to-back dramatic wins. "To get a chance to come back home, which we were excited about, pull off two walk-off wins is huge for us."

The Giants clinched the three-game series with Colorado, with the finale set for Sunday, and beat the first-place Rockies for the fourth time in five tries this year. They improved to 17-16 overall and pulled to within two games of first place in the National League West.

"I think we're starting to come together," said Giants lefty Madison Bumgarner, who allowed one earned run over six innings but received no decision and remained winless at 0-5. "I'm starting to see a lot more intensity and a lot more fire from the guys. It's good."

One night after Sanchez delivered a game-winning single in the ninth, it was Fontenot's turn to play hero. But first, Rowand and Sanchez got the rally started with back-to-back singles off Felipe Paulino.

Up stepped Fontenot, who watched Morales' 0-1 pitch sail over his head and to the screen.

"I kind of put it out of my mind," Fontenot said. "They got the guys over, and instead of me having to bunt and just stay on the pitch, I tried not to fish at anything he might throw up there, but he ended up hanging a curveball. Got a good swing at it."

That ended the game and ignited another ninth-inning celebration for the Giants, the kind they became so familiar with last year, especially at AT&T Park.

"You get out there and walk off, everybody gets to jump around on the field, it's fun, definitely," Fontenot said.

"Like last year, there's magic inside. We seem to get fired up and get wins when we need them."

For the Rockies, there was just another huge helping of frustration.

"It's frustrating in that it was so similar to last night and the two prior days in Arizona," Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. "We had opportunities to get the hit to put us ahead and right now we're just not getting it. Some of these starting performances we're getting, you hate to see them get wasted."

The Giants got another win, but Bumgarner's wait for his first victory of 2011 will last at least a few days longer.

After shutting out the Rockies for six innings, Bumgarner gave up two runs in the seventh. He allowed five hits and two runs, one of them earned. He struck out five and walked two.

"Madison threw great," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

Bumgarner went 0-5 in his first six starts with a 4.75 ERA. He probably deserved his 0-3 fate over his first four starts when he allowed a combined 15 earned runs in just 17 1/3 innings. But in his previous two starts before facing Colorado, Bumgarner allowed one earned run over 13 innings and received two losses for his efforts.

"I don't care if I don't win a game all year if we win; if it works out like that, I don't care," Bumgarner said.

The Giants grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning off Clayton Mortensen, a Triple-A callup starting in place of Esmil Rogers, who went on the disabled list before the game with a strained back muscle.

Rowand led off with a walk and moved to second on Sanchez's single to left. Both runners advanced on Fontenot's groundout, as Sanchez deftly avoided Alfredo Amezaga's attempt to tag him while he raced toward second.

Buster Posey then drove in Rowand with a groundout to shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.

The Giants added a run in the fifth but left the bases loaded.

Colorado pulled even in the seventh, scoring twice off Bumgarner. After singles by Amezaga and Gonzalez to start the inning, Bumgarner got the dangerous Tulowitzki to hit a one-hopper back to him. It was a perfect double-play ball, but Bumgarner threw to second before Fontenot got there. The ball went directly to Sanchez, who was backing up the play.

Todd Helton then laced a bases-loaded single to left, scoring two runs and ending Bumgarner's night.

The Giants escaped the inning without further damage, thanks to reliever Ramon Ramirez and third baseman Miguel Tejada. Tejada fielded Jose Lopez's hard hopper, spun and threw a strike to Posey, who tagged out Tulowitzki. Then Ramirez struck out Spilborghs and Iannetta to end the inning.

"He saved the game," Bumgarner said of Ramirez. "That was an unbelievable job. He came in and he put a stop to it in a hurry. If it wasn't for him, we might not be in the same situation. He definitely saved the game for us."

Box Score

Giants top Rockies with late rally

Carl Steward
Mercury News

It took an uncomfortably long while, but the Giants returned home and unpacked the heavy baggage of a fitful trip Friday night with a stirring 4-3 walk-off victory over Colorado.

When the Rockies struck for three early runs against Matt Cain, and Giants hitters let struggling and winless starter Ubaldo Jimenez off the hook several times over the first six innings, things didn't look promising for the opening game of a three-game series against the N.L. West front-runners.

But the Giants chipped away with a run in the sixth, tied the score in the bottom of the eighth on a huge two-out double by Nate Schierholtz, then won it in the ninth on a rally ignited by last year's postseason poster boy, Cody Ross.

Ross, who was 5 for 30 on the Giants' 10-game trip and came into the game hitting .200 with one RBI, lined a double down the right-field line to open the ninth against reliever Felipe Paulino. Freddy Sanchez delivered the winner with a one-out single up the middle.

"This was a key game for us, and hopefully it will give us the spark we've needed," Sanchez said.

The toughest part was determining which hit was the biggest. Ross, to be sure, was a leading candidate. After opening the year on the disabled list, he simply hadn't been able to get untracked in his first 14 games since coming off the D.L. Without question, his double might have been his most satisfying hit since last October.

"It's not fun when you're scuffling," Ross said. "And the last thing you want to do is be timid in a situation like that, so I just wanted to be aggressive. I also changed my approach and went back to my old stance. I just closed it up a little bit and looked to try to hit the ball the other way."

The Giants were back to their old ways in more ways than one. Considering the opponent and the recent offensive woes, it might have been their most important victory of the young season. For most of the game, it looked as if it would be a dispiriting homecoming before a packed house of 41,982 that turned out to celebrate Willie Mays' 80th birthday and energize a team in desperate need of some local love.

The Giants managed just two hits against Jimenez over the first six innings even though they had their share of baserunners, thanks to five Jimenez walks.

The Giants finally broke through in the sixth. Mike Fontenot, pretty much the only consistent hitter the Giants have had of late, tripled into the gap in right-center to open the inning, and Buster Posey got him home on a weak grounder to first.

The Giants got no more, but the best was still to come. With one out in the bottom of the eighth, Posey blooped a single to right, and Pat Burrell hammered a double to right-center to put runners at second and third. With Darren Ford running for Burrell, up came Schierholtz, who battled reliever Rafael Betancourt to a 2-2 count before hitting a liner down the left-field line to score both runners easily.

"That was the at-bat of the night," said Ross. "Nate really battled, and when he hit that ball, everybody in the dugout was jumping up and down and screaming."

Box Score