MLB.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- Here's when everybody finds out whether the Giants relish a challenge.
The reigning World Series champions fell into a first-place tie in the National League West with the Arizona Diamondbacks, who rode two-run homers by Paul Goldschmidt and Justin Upton to a 6-1 victory Tuesday night.
Just last Thursday, the Giants were brimming with confidence after defeating Philadelphia, widely considered the league's elite ballclub, for the second consecutive night. Since then, San Francisco has lost five in a row, matching a season high and enabling the D-backs to dissolve a four-game deficit. San Francisco had held sole possession of first place since June 25.
Asked if he thought the Giants have been pressing during their skid, Tim Lincecum replied, "I don't think anything more than usual. We're just trying to play good ball. We know the position that we're at. To maintain the lead in the West, we have to manufacture runs and pitch better than we have been. ... It's not a big adjustment for us."
Perhaps fittingly, the D-backs resemble last year's Giants. They possess excellent pitching, decent power (remember last season's second half, when San Francisco shared the NL lead in homers after the All-Star break) and the unquenchable spirit of their manager, Kirk Gibson.
"They have their confidence going and they're playing great," Giants manager Bruce Bochy admitted.
After defeating Matt Cain and Lincecum on back-to-back nights, the D-backs have every right to believe that they can complete the metamorphosis from 97-loss nonentities to division winners.
"It's a lot of fun, but we all know we have a long way to go," said Arizona right-hander Daniel Hudson, who limited the Giants to six hits in eight innings. "Our ultimate goal is to get into October and we've got to come through San Francisco to get there. We've got a long way to go and we've got a lot of games left against these guys and our division, so we're going to take the good with the bad and go to work every day."
Though 42 games remain, the deadlock between the Giants and D-backs adds significance to the rest of the season.
"This means it's going to be a fight," Bochy said. "It's going to be a tight race. Not that we didn't think it was going to be."
Said Lincecum, "I'm hoping nobody's hitting the panic button quite yet. ... I don't think we're going to take this too hard. We'll just come out tomorrow and play better."
As he typically does, Lincecum (9-9) poured his energy into trying to raise the Giants' game. He struck out eight in seven innings, permitted just six balls to be hit out of the infield, and allowed three hits, all in the fifth inning.
The right-hander was nursing a 1-0 lead when Goldschmidt, appearing in his second Major League game, followed Ryan Roberts' fifth-inning leadoff single by planting a 2-1 delivery two-thirds of the way up the left-field seats. It was Goldschmidt's first big league homer.
"With the exception of the location of that pitch, I thought I pitched very well," Lincecum said.
Upton padded Arizona's lead with another two-run homer, which he clobbered in the eighth inning off reliever Ramon Ramirez. Javier Lopez surrendered two more runs in the ninth.
The Giants opened the scoring in the fourth inning but wasted a chance for greater production. Three consecutive one-out hits -- singles by Jeff Keppinger and Carlos Beltran and Pablo Sandoval's double to left field -- generated a run. With Arizona conceding a run by playing the infield back, Aubrey Huff indeed hit a ground ball, but it was a harmless comebacker to Hudson. Nate Schierholtz struck out to end the inning.
Except for Sandoval, who went 3-for-4, the Giants maintained their typically spotty offense, despite the presence of Trade Deadline acquisitions Keppinger, Beltran and Cabrera, each of whom collected a token hit.
Beltran, the formidable No. 3 hitter who's batting .200 (5-for-25) as a Giant, continued to endure tough luck. With one out and San Francisco trailing by a run in the sixth inning, he hit a howling line drive to right field that Upton caught on the run. An easy double play ensued, since Keppinger had dashed nearly to third base.
"It shows how defense can win a game for you," Bochy said. "I didn't think he'd get to that."Box Score
No comments:
Post a Comment