SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
After hitting two home runs at Sun Life Stadium on Sunday, Brandon Belt might have a jones to play here again. He can, but he'll need to bring pads and a helmet.
With the rookie hitting half of the team's four home runs - yeah, one even with a man aboard - the Giants beat Florida 5-2 in their final game at this park before the Marlins open a new one next season.
Cody Ross hit a two-run homer against Chris Volstad in the third inning to end the Giants' record streak of 21 consecutive solos. They had gone 298 innings and 1,217 plate appearances without a multi-run homer.
What's that old adage in baseball? When one streak ends, you just start another? The Giants scored their final three runs on solo homers, one by Nate Schierholtz in the fourth and the two by Belt in his first game back from the minors.
And, yes, breathless Giants Nation, Belt will start against Tim Hudson in Atlanta tonight.
"He'll be out there somewhere," said manager Bruce Bochy, whose skin must be sensitive to pitchforks. "One homer, you're in the lineup the next day. Two is a no-brainer."
Nor does it require Albert Einstein's brain to understand why Sunday's win, Ryan Vogelsong's 10th, was so important for the Giants.
They not only won a series and back-to-back games for the first time since they visited Philadelphia last month, they gave themselves a running start into Atlanta, where they play a critical four-game series.
The Giants could become playoff longshots if the Braves wallop them as they did over three games in San Francisco in April.
Belt thus becomes an intriguing wild card at Turner Field after he doubled his season home run total to four. Both shots were impressive in different ways.
His first, in the sixth inning, was a tape-measure job to center against the right-handed Volstad. The second, in the eighth inning, was against a left-hander, Mike Dunn, who had not surrendered a home run to a left-handed hitter in the majors in 151 encounters. Moreover, Belt guessed slider on 3-2 and got one.
As the Giants have yo-yoed the first baseman between San Francisco and Fresno, and stuck him on the bench even when he was promoted, the fans started a "Free Belt" movement, asking, pleading, demanding that he play every day.
Belt would love nothing more, though he will not carry any protest signs into Bochy's office.
"I'm tired of thinking what the scenarios are," Belt said. "I want to worry about going out and performing well, playing baseball, seeing the ball, hitting the ball, having good at-bats and playing good defense. If I'm good enough, hopefully he'll play me again and I can stay up here."
Belt helped Vogelsong win another game, and Vogelsong helped the team immensely by lasting into the eighth inning on a day in which Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson were not to be used. Bochy said Romo's elbow was "a little cranky" and Wilson's back stiffened. Both ailments were described as minor.
Vogelsong allowed a Mike Stanton homer in the first inning and no more runs until Emilio Bonifacio's RBI double in the eighth. Santiago Casilla got a big out to end the eighth, and Ramon Ramirez got the save.
Asked what it meant to get his 10th win, Vogelsong said, "Every win is significant to me, after where I've been."
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