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."
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