Giants overpower - yes, overpower - A's

Rusty Simmons - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)

A lot will be made today of the Giants' breaking out for 11 runs on 13 hits, but Sunday's game might have taken its biggest turn when the A's scored their run.

When A's designated hitter Jack Cust crushed a full-count fastball from Jonathan Sanchez over the center-field fence in the second inning, the Giants' starter didn't react negatively. The left-hander just called for another baseball from the umpire and quickly got the next three outs.

"Sanchez has got a different look to him, and he doesn't lose his focus anymore," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "He used to start over-throwing and have trouble repeating his delivery, but now, he just keeps his poise."

Sanchez retired 17 of the next 19 batters after the homer, and he allowed only four hits and one walk total in seven innings to lead the Giants to an 11-1 win in front of 33,841 fans at McAfee Coliseum.

The victory marked the first time the Giants recorded back-to-back wins against the A's since May 2006. The A's had won 10 of the last 12 in the series, using three shutouts and a 1.11 ERA in the last nine meetings.

After scoring only two runs in the last 47 innings against the A's, however, the Giants busted out for nine runs in a two-inning span Sunday. Every Giants starter except for shortstop Omar Vizquel got a hit, and all but Vizquel and third baseman Jose Castillo scored.

"Our bats came to life," Bochy said. "Once we got a guy on base, it got contagious. Sometimes, it takes one guy to get a big hit and it just loosens you up."

The big hits came one after another in the fourth and fifth innings. Second baseman Ray Durham, who left the game and is day-to-day with a leg contusion, smacked a one-double into the right-center-field gap in the fourth. After Right fielder Randy Winn grounded to first base, the Giants rattled off five consecutive hits and scored four times.

It continued in the fifth inning, when the first three hitters reached safely and ran A's starter Joe Blanton with the ugly line of seven runs on eight hits in four-plus innings. Reliever Andrew Brown didn't fair much better, allowing three inherited runners from Blanton to score and adding his own on first baseman Rich Aurilia's two-run single. Aurilia, who went 3-for-5 and tied his career-high with five RBIs, also had a two-run homerun off Santiago Casilla in the seventh inning.

"I think it's huge for us, because it gives us the boost and the confidence that we need offensively," said catcher Bengie Molina, who had to lobby Bochy to let him start the day game after Saturday's night game.

The Giants, who are a team-best 13-4 in his starts, already had that confidence in Sanchez. He's undefeated in six consecutive road starts, going 5-0 with a 2.54 ERA. He's been knocked for seven runs in three separate starts this season, but since April 11, he's allowed more than three earned runs or fewer in nine of his 10 starts.

"He trusts himself a lot more because he sees that his ball moves a lot and hitters are having a hard time putting good wood on it," Molina said. "He's probably unknown for now, but he's going to be known soon because people have to realize the pitcher he is. If he takes advantage of this, this could be the turning point of a great career."

Sanchez, 25, was tabbed the 2006 USA Today Organizational Player of the Year and was deemed the Giants' second-best prospect by Baseball America. However, that hadn't translated into major-league success until this season.

Last season, he was 1-5 with a 5.88 ERA, and he was demoted to Triple-A Fresno two times after making his first Opening Day roster. He showed dominating signs in the majors, striking out 62 in 52 innings, but he also had a wild side, walking 28.

Sanchez has added a sinker to his repertoire this season and has seemingly gotten over the control problems that plagued him. Since allowing 18 walks in a five-start stretch that spanned April and May, he has gone six consecutive starts without issuing more than three free passes in a game.

"That's the difference," Sanchez said. "I'm getting better with my command and throwing more strikes."

Alderson improving by leaps and walks

Giants' teen prospect deals with early career bumps

Kevin T. Czerwinski - MLB.com

Tim Alderson is still a teenager. Let's let that sink in for a minute.

He's 19 years old and pitching in the California League. Oh, and for what it's worth, he's pitching well.

This is the same California League that usually eats pitchers up and spits them out. This is the same league that inflates offensive numbers to a point where mediocre prospects can actually look good. Yet, here's the high school kid from Arizona whom the Giants used one of their first-round picks on in 2007 flourishing in what should be a trying setting.

Alderson, who was selected to the California League All-Star team but did not pitch in this week's game against the Carolina League, stood 6-3 as the San Jose Giants returned to action Thursday night for a first-place showdown with Modesto. He boasts a 3.29 ERA, eighth-best in the league, and has allowed only one home run in 79 1/3 innings.

So while most kids his age are wondering whether or not they'll be able to get the car keys from Dad during the summer, Alderson is busy living up to being the 22nd pick in the Draft.

"If I'm making it look easy then I guess I'm doing a good job," said Alderson, who threw only five Arizona League innings last summer after signing with San Francisco. "It's really been tough. Every single hitter in this league is a tough out. If I've had some success, it's because I have these guys playing some wonderful defense behind me and covering for me when I make mistakes.

"It's been tough. I have friends who went off to college and who are now home on vacation. But I'm living a dream. I'm pretty sure a lot of people would love to have my opportunity, and I'm going to make the best of it."

Though Alderson has looked very good for the most part (have we mentioned he's only 19), he hasn't won since May 18. He's 0-2 in six starts since his last victory but his 3.52 ERA in those games remains a good indication that even when he's not winning, he's never that far off. Alderson has allowed one earned run or less in four of those six starts.

"I'm not surprised and the only reason I say I'm not surprised is because I thought he would be able to pitch at this level when we left Spring Training," said San Jose pitching coach Pat Rice. "I didn't know the success he'd have, but he is a very competent kid. He has pretty good stuff and that can make up for a lot in a fairly good hitters' league. I am surprised that he's 6-3 and made the All-Star team. He could probably be 10-1."

One area that was a cause of mild concern earlier in the year was Alderson's walk total. But he's made some adjustments and has cut down on the number of free passes he's issued. Alderson has allowed 25 walks this season. But after issuing a season-high five May 18, he's allowed only six in his last 30 2/3 innings.

Rice said it was just a matter of Alderson getting comfortable and realizing he could attack the zone and the better hitters in the league as easily as he did last year in the Arizona League and in high school.

"The strike zone is a lot smaller here," Alderson said. "And the hitters have a lot more discipline. You really have to be perfect. I had to adjust to that smaller strike zone. I wasn't walking many people in high school or last summer. I'm sure the people back home have noticed the good amount of walks I have."

So where does all this leave Alderson? Well, probably in San Jose for the remainder of the year. The Giants have never been shy about pushing their prospects, but at his age, a full year in the Cal League might work more in his favor than having him go up to the Eastern League and possibly getting hit a little harder.

It will also give San Francisco's player development folks a bit more time to examine what some observers have tabbed as Alderson's herky-jerky delivery. He's unorthodox, but he gets the job done.

"People will probably go off on him about his mechanics but he's able to repeat every pitch," one scout said. "And the thing is, he's not even 20, so that was a pretty good pick. When I saw him, he was between 88 and 92 [mph] and was pretty good. He's the same way as [Oakland prospect Trevor] Cahill though Cahill is a step higher than him."

Concerns about his delivery are natural, leading another scout to wonder whether Alderson's future doesn't lie in the bullpen where he won't have to do as much work or pitch as many innings. Those are questions, though, that don't need to be answered now.

"That [questions about his delivery] would probably be the first thing I'd say," Rice said. "But he gets himself in a good position to throw. He has a funkiness that happens, but he gets himself in a good position when he has to. If he can keep things right and not cheat in his delivery, then there's not a whole lot of concern there.

"It's like [San Francisco's Tim] Lincecum. It will look different. But it's things that can be cleared up without working too hard. Right now it's all about getting him comfortable in pro ball."

It certainly seems the Giants have been successful in that regard.

Lincecum laughs last, winning pitching duel

Daniel Brown - MercuryNews

Running out of words to describe Tim Lincecum, teammate Brian Wilson invented a new one Saturday night: comfortability.

It's the feeling the Giants get whenever Lincecum takes the mound.

Lincecum demonstrated during a 1-0 victory over the A's why he provides such a sense of well-being. The Giants won despite managing just two hits, despite facing a team that had beaten them seven consecutive times and despite facing a pitcher on one of the hottest rolls in the American League.

"He's unbelievable," Wilson said. "There's just a different attitude whenever he takes the mound."

Lincecum matched his season high with 11 strikeouts over seven shutout innings. And along the way he faced plenty of uncomfortability.

He worked out of a first-and-third and none-out situation in the first by getting Jack Cust on a strikeout and Bobby Crosby on a double play. That was a proper scene-setter for a night when the A's had baserunners in every inning but the fourth.

"We should have beaten him," A's second baseman Mark Ellis said of Lincecum. "Give him credit. He made pitches when he had to but, honestly, we should have beaten him."

Beating Lincecum, however, is virtually impossible lately. His last loss came April 29 against the Colorado Rockies.

The only Giants starter to open a season better than Lincecum (9-1) is Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry, who was 12-1 to start 1966.

Lincecum's performance against the A's lowered his ERA to 2.38.

A's win seventh straight against Giants

Janie McCauley - AP Sports

The Oakland Athletics have owned the San Francisco Giants in interleague play.

Dana Eveland pitched his second-longest outing of the year to win his second straight decision, Jack Hannahan drove in two runs and the A's extended their winning streak against the Giants to seven games with a 4-1 victory Friday night.

"We've just kind of got their number this year," Hannahan said.

The streak is Oakland's longest ever in the Bay Area rivalry, and the A's also have won 10 of the last 11 and 15 of 19.

"It hasn't gone well, we know it," San Francisco skipper Bruce Bochy said. "Some things are hard to explain, but you look at how well they're pitching: They're shutting us down and that's where it all starts — on the mound. They've gotten good pitching all year."

In fact, the A's ran an advertisement in the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday referring to their dominance in the series. It said: "The battle of the Bay is 100 percent baseball," but the word battle was crossed out and the ad continued by saying, "Well, when you've won eight of the last night it's not exactly a 'battle.'"

At least some of the Giants were a little annoyed by the ad.

Randy Winn put San Francisco ahead with an RBI single in the third on a windy and smoky night in Northern California because of nearby fires. But the Giants did little else against Eveland (6-5), who went 7 1-3 innings and allowed one or fewer earned runs for the seventh time in his 16 starts. Brad Ziegler got the final two outs of the eighth and Huston Street pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 15th save in 18 opportunities.

"I've always had a rivalry with the Giants my whole life," Eveland said. "I grew up a Dodgers fan. I grew up in Southern California and actually liked the Angels more. When they played them, I wasn't going to root for the Giants, that's for sure."

The A's tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on Hannahan's RBI single, then took the lead in the sixth against loser Keiichi Yabu (3-4), who failed to retire a batter for the third straight outing. Yabu has given up eight consecutive hits and seven of those baserunners scored.

Bochy's next move with Yabu might be to pitch him when the game isn't on the line so he can get back in a groove.

"He's been doing such a good job but he's out of sync right now," Bochy said. "He's not locating like he was, he's not mixing up his pitches as well as he was and he's leaving too many pitches over the plate."

Hannahan added a sacrifice fly in the decisive inning and Emil Brown and Daric Barton each singled in runs. Carlos Gonzalez hit a pair of doubles and scored twice. Gonzalez, who increased his doubles total to 13 in 25 games, figures the A's know the Giants so well that it contributes to the success.

"We play really good against them, even in spring training," Gonzalez said. "I think it's because we know them really well. That's baseball — when you have more information you play better."

Though everybody knows how fast these things can turn. In 2006, Oakland won 15 in a row and 17 of 19 against Seattle only to go 5-14 versus the Mariners last year.

Giants starter Kevin Correia hasn't won in five starts since April 10 and is 0-2 in three starts since coming off the DL on June 15 after straining a muscle in his left side.

Oakland swept a three-game interleague series in San Francisco from June 13-15 and has back-to-back three-game sweeps in the series.

The Giants landed back home in the Bay Area at 3 a.m. after Thursday night's game in Cleveland was delayed 1 hour, 42 minutes by rain. Some San Francisco players took batting practice in their own ballpark before the team received a police escort across the bay during busy Friday rush-hour traffic.

Yabu, who pitched in 2005 for Oakland in his only other major league season, showed up at the ballpark at 1 p.m. to catch up with old friends and hang out.

"Lost in translation," joked teammate Dave Roberts, who is part Japanese himself.

Notes:@ Oakland 3B Eric Chavez sat out with a tender right shoulder after playing DH the previous two games, while OF Ryan Sweeney (sprained ankle) also missed the game. Both were listed as day-to-day but probably won't play this weekend. ... Oakland RHP Joey Devine, on the DL with inflammation in his throwing elbow, threw off the mound for the first time in a month and made 24 pitches. He will do another mound session, then a simulated game before beginning a rehab assignment in the minors. ... The A's released RHP Kiko Calero. ... Roberts, recovering from left knee surgery, was scheduled to run the bases Saturday for the first time. And RHP Merkin Valdez — out with a strained throwing elbow — had been slated to play catch from 75 feet as part of his recovery. He was ready to hit the field but the session got pushed back to Saturday because his gear arrived so late on the team bus. LHP starter Jonathan Sanchez also planned a workout in Oakland but he didn't have his clothes. "This is like the minor leagues," Sanchez said.

Indians lefty Lee mows down young Giants

Andrew Baggarly - MercuryNews

Sergio Romo became the ninth Giants player to make his major league debut this season when he tossed a scoreless inning in a 4-1 loss to the Indians on Thursday.

"I never pitched on a field as bright as it was," Romo said. "I felt like the center of attention."

It was an illuminating evening for three other Giants rookies, too. Manager Bruce Bochy filled out his lineup with Brian Horwitz, Travis Denker and John Bowker, and all three received a major league education.

They had to face left-hander Cliff Lee, who might be pitching his way to a start in the All-Star Game. Lee (11-1) allowed four hits over eight innings and set a career high with 11 strikeouts - including six against the three greenest bats in Bochy's lineup.

"Yeah, definitely a learning experience," said Denker, who struck out twice. "When you run into a starting pitcher like that . . . yeah, wow."

Bochy started the rookies to rest some of his veterans, but the manager also hoped for a close game in which he could spring Ray Durham and Fred Lewis on a soft Indians bullpen.

But once again, Matt Cain had trouble avoiding the big inning as the Giants failed to complete a three-game sweep at Progressive Field. Instead, they are 3-3 on a trip that resumes today when they begin a series at Oakland - facing a club that has won 10 of the last 12 Bay Bridge rivalry meetings.

Because the Indians scheduled a night game and rain delayed the first pitch by one hour, 2 minutes, the Giants' charter probably didn't arrive in San Francisco until close to 4 a.m.

"There's no point talking about what time we get in," Bochy said. "We haven't played very well against (the A's). We know that. It's important we hit the field ready to go."

Denker assumed he was ready. He watched pregame video of Lee and kept looking for the cut fastballs he saw on tape. Lee didn't show one all night.

"I've never seen anything like that," Denker said. "When guys make good pitches, you battle till he makes a mistake. Tonight, he didn't make any mistakes. It felt like the umpire was giving him some stuff, too, but he was around the dish.

"I thought he gave me one pitch to hit, but I looked at the at-bat (on video) and it was six inches off the plate. Shoot, I couldn't hit that."

Denker didn't criticize plate umpire Dan Iassogna's strike zone so much as he faced the reality of the situation.

"I'm a rookie," he said. "He'll call it every time."

Horwitz had a particularly rough game, striking out three times against Lee. Horwitz also misplayed Jamey Carroll's deep fly ball into a triple during the Indians' three-run third inning.

Cain had a chance to escape that inning, but he missed his spot on a fastball to Jhonny Peralta, who whacked it for a two-run double.

"We had the right idea," Cain said. "I just didn't make the pitch."

Cain was expected to form a two-headed monster with Tim Lincecum this season, but he hasn't been nearly as successful out of the stretch. With runners on base, Lincecum has held opponents to a .176 average and one home run. Cain has a .295 opponent's average and has yielded six homers with runners on base.

Cain also lacked feel for his curveball or change-up, Bochy noted.

Romo's father and uncle traveled from Brawley, Calif., to Cleveland hoping to see him pitch in the series. His college coach made the trip from Colorado, too. They had to wait through 26 innings and a weather delay, but Romo finally took the mound in the ninth and retired the side.

He struck out two, and punched his glove after David Dellucci looked at a called slider to end the inning.

"It was everything I thought it would be, except not throwing strike one," Romo said. "I always imagined I'd paint it."

The Giants haven't debuted this many rookies in one season since 1996, when a franchise-record 13 players broke into the majors.

At least they'll avoid Lee the rest of the way, unless the Indians have a screw loose and trade him.

"He never gave in," Denker said. "You just say, 'Go get 'em tomorrow' and throw that one away."

The old Zito shows up for work in Cleveland

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)

Manager Bruce Bochy went fishing on Lake Erie on Wednesday and caught a walleye, which could not have been as ornery as the big fish he had to hook a few hours later. In the seventh inning of a 4-1 Giants victory, Bochy came to get Barry Zito, who - finally - was pitching out of his mind.

Zito had a shutout working and was not happy. When he saw Bochy coming, he slammed the ball into his glove and turned away. That was the fire the fans have been waiting to see, not to mention the 62/3 dominating innings against the Indians.

Zito ultimately was charged with a run, which scored on a hit against Keiichi Yabu, but it did not matter. Nothing that happened after Bochy reeled in his starter could have changed the fact that Zito had his best game of the year and his third win.

"When you saw him out there on the mound, he just had a great look about him," Bochy said. "That's the Zito we knew. He had a good rhythm out there, pounded the zone and went after them."

All the standard caveats apply. It was one game against a team that has been challenged offensively with two of its best hitters, Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner, on the disabled list. Still, Zito threw fastballs, sliders, curveballs and changeups for strikes and hit catcher Bengie Molina's target more of than not until the seventh inning, when Kelly Shoppach's two-out double ended his night at 109 pitches.

Zito struck out his first hitter, Grady Sizemore, on three pitches - fastball, curveball, slider - then struck out Jamey Carroll. Zito struck out four in all and did not walk a batter for the first time all season.

He threw his heretofore limp fastball consistently at 87 mph and touched 88. He did not allow an Indian to reach second base until he threw a wild pitch in the sixth inning.

"You look at his strikeouts and how many walks he had (for the season) and you wanted to be patient," Carroll said. "But tonight he was a little different. He was like the old Zito."

Inconceivably, this was the same Zito who allowed 27 runs in the first and second innings over his first 15 starts, who had a 6.32 ERA and one week earlier, was drummed out of a home game against Detroit after two innings. He faced 15 batters that day and allowed nine baserunners and five runs.

So he did he get from there to Cleveland?

Much work has gone into this with pitching coach Dave Righetti and bullpen coach Mark Gardner. Zito rediscovered a two-seam fastball and lowered his arm slot to make that pitch move. That, in turn, has helped him throw harder. But a change of attitude, not mechanics, put him over the top.

"Just letting it fly and trusting yourself was the key," Zito said. "That's the hardest thing to do in life, the hardest thing to do in baseball. When you do it, you usually see good results, which is something I haven't been able to do a lot this year.

"You've got to try something different. I've tried to do so many different things, tweaking my mechanics. Sometimes you've just got to let it go and stop trying to control things and let things run their course. It's about self-trust."

Staff meetings might be a pain in the rump, but Zito apparently benefited from a meeting with Righetti, Gardner, Bochy and general manager Brian Sabean after the Detroit fiasco. They told Zito not to worry about his 2-11 record and staggering ERA and simply concentrate on giving the team innings. Zito said he complied.

"If I look at my record and statistics, they can't really get any worse," he said. "It's good to sometimes let yourself think it's not worth worrying about failing because a) that hasn't worked in the past and b) who cares?"

Zito had a 2-0 cushion before he threw a pitch. Jose Castillo, who is raking it in Cleveland, singled to start a rally that ended with Aaron Rowand's two-run single. Castillo later hit the Giants' first home run in 219 at-bats. John Bowker who had the team's most recent homer June 16, then went deep in the eighth.

The Giants got their first series win since that four-game sweep in Washington (June 6-9) and their first interleague series win of the year. They hope they gained something bigger - a shot of confidence for a pitcher who definitely needed it. It will not take long to find out. Zito's next start comes Monday against the Cubs, by far the best-hitting team in the National League.

Low pick Thompson heading for college

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)

One of the Giants' recent draft picks, who has black and orange bloodlines, will not be signing with the team, although that is not a big surprise.

Tyler Thompson, son of former second baseman Robby Thompson, instead will play for the University of Florida after his recent graduation from high school in Jupiter, Fla. The Giants selected him in the 42nd round. Most high school players drafted that low opt for college.

Robby Thompson, now a special assistant for the Indians, visited the ballpark Wednesday and said his son was projected to be drafted in the third, fourth or fifth rounds. He plummeted to the 1,257th pick when his father made it known he wanted first- or second-round money for Tyler.

"I put a high price tag on it because he's an outfielder, left-handed, and he can hit and run," Thompson said. "So we figured for the money that was in the third or fourth round, he was better off going to an SEC school and getting his three years there."

The Giants knew it would go that way and selected Tyler partly out of respect for the Thompson family. His twin brother, Logan, was taken later in the 42nd round by the Indians. An older brother, Drew, was drafted by the Twins in 2005 and is in their system.

As for the Giants' top pick, Florida State catcher Buster Posey, team executive Bobby Evans said Tuesday contract talks are under way, but he would not characterize a signing as imminent.

The Giants have signed the first pitcher they drafted, Cal State Northridge reliever Edwin Quirarte, taken in the fifth round. The right-hander has saves in three outings for the Giants' rookie-league team in Salem-Keizer, Ore.

Where's the running?: The Giants declared they were going to run more in 2008 and had 33 stolen bases in April. But they had only 19 in May and have eight in June, including the Randy Winn theft Tuesday night that drew a wild throw, which allowed Ray Durham to score the go-ahead run from third.

The numbers are down partly because Eugenio Velez took his legs to Fresno. Also, the Giants are trying to run smarter. Entering play Wednesday, they were tied for fifth in the National League in steals (60) but 11th in success rate (71 percent).

"We came into this year wanting to be aggressive. We have made our mistakes," manager Bruce Bochy said. "We've got to be smarter at times, use the saying 'risk versus reward' when deciding to run. Guys are doing a better job right now. Plus, clubs adjust to you. When they know you're a running club, they pay more attention to you."

Briefly: Brian Bocock has been diagnosed with a blood clot in his right middle finger and was placed on Fresno's disabled list. ... The Giants are getting some bang for their campaign buck. Bengie Molina has risen to fifth in All-Star voting for NL catchers. ... Omar Vizquel's seventh-inning single broke an 0-for-23 slump.

Vizquel bunt is game winner

Squeeze saves homecoming

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)

The Indians had to know a squeeze bunt from Omar Vizquel might be coming. They saw him drop a great one on their own pregame video-highlight tribute to their revered former shortstop.

Did they pitch out? No.

Did Vizquel drop a perfect bunt? Absolutely. Rich Aurilia charged home in the ninth inning and scored what proved to be the decisive run in the Giants' 3-2 victory in their first game here since the 1954 World Series.

Just to make Omar Vizquel Night complete, he made an outstanding stop on David Dellucci's hard grounder in the hole and got a force at second base for the second out of what proved to be another cardiac ninth inning for Brian Wilson. The closer allowed a run but struck out Kelly Shoppach with two aboard to get his 20th save.

Wilson said he thought Dellucci's ball was an "automatic hit" until he saw it disappear in Vizquel's glove.

"Omar saved us today," manager Bruce Bochy said. "It just goes to show you can have a great game without a base hit."

Here is the reality check: After the stirring video tribute that showed Vizquel make ridiculous play after ridiculous play, and after the multiple ovations from the crowd of 29,024, Vizquel had a bad game for seven innings. He stranded two runners in the second inning and three more in the seventh as he ran his hitless streak to 21 at-bats.

Indians manager Eric Wedge put Bochy in a bad spot in the seventh when he had starter Aaron Laffey issue a pitch-around walk to Brian Horwitz to load the bases with two outs. Bochy had to decide whether to let a struggling Vizquel bat or embarrass his shortstop by removing him for a pinch-hitter on his homecoming night.

Bochy stuck with Vizquel, who flied out and admitted he needed that squeeze bunt, his first RBI since June 6, to leave Progressive Field feeling good about himself.

"No question," he said. "I needed to do something good today. When I saw the squeeze sign I said, 'Oh yes, thank you.' "

Even Vizquel had to admit the win was not about him. To the contrary, he said third baseman Jose Castillo was the "real hero," a distinction Castillo actually must share with starter Jonathan Sanchez.

Castillo had his best all-around game as a Giant. He drove in the team's first run with a two-out single in the second inning and set up the Vizquel squeeze with a hit-and-run single through the right side of the infield.

Castillo also had two great plays in the field. He made a backhand catch of a Shin-Soo Choo foul ball, as he crashed into a fence near the Indians' dugout, and a diving stop of a Jhonny Peralta grounder. Castillo then threw to second from his knees to start a double play.

Sanchez (7-4) won for the fifth time in his last six starts, pitching into the eighth inning for the second consecutive game, walking two, striking out eight and holding Cleveland to a first-inning run. Tyler Walker bailed out Sanchez in the eighth, striking out Jamey Carroll to strand the potential tying run at third, after Ray Durham just scored the go-ahead run on Shoppach's wild throw as Randy Winn stole second.

Sanchez left the game and watched Vizquel drop his second successful suicide squeeze of the season in the ninth.

"I told Merkin (Valdez), 'Vizquel is going to do something crazy here,' and he did," Sanchez said. "He's a great player. He does his best for the game every day."

Before the game, Vizquel held a well-attended news conference. When asked what he wanted to say to the fans, he said, "Don't throw any oranges or bottles at me." Instead, they threw kisses - during the video tribute, when he stepped into the box for the first time, even when they booed their starter for getting a strike call on his first pitch to Vizquel.

The entire team watched the highlight video and applauded when it was over. Giants relievers who were walking to the bullpen stopped in the outfield to see it.

"It was amazing," Wilson said. "Nothing surprised me on that board. That's stuff I've been watching for 2 1/2 years."

Vizquel did well to keep his emotions in check, but said, "It was hard. I wasn't expecting everybody to get up and give me that welcome. I've never been in a situation where I was the center of attention. It was really emotional. It was really cool."

ROSTER MOVE: Romo up, Chulk out

Andrew Baggerly - MercuryNews (Extra Baggs)

In case you wiped the trauma from your memory, the Giants blew a seven-run lead Sunday at Kansas City and lost 11-10. Really, it was a terrible day for the entire bullpen and underscored that Giants Manager Bruce Bochy needed a different choice or two.

He got one Tuesday.

The club designated Vinnie Chulk for assignment and purchased the contract of Sergio Romo from Double-A Connecticut. Chulk got the news today from Bochy and Brian Sabean. While he wasn’t exactly surprised, he said he didn’t expect it, either.

“You don’t see something like this coming,” Chulk said. “I thought my fastball was getting better, especially my fastball away. I thought I was getting ready to go on a good run. I might have to do it with another team now.”

Chulk noted that his ERA was under 3.00 just a few weeks ago; he’s right. It was 2.92 on May 31. But in six games in June, he allowed 12 hits (.353 BAA) and nine earned runs in seven innings. The biggest problem is that the Giants didn’t feel they could trust him with the lead. In his final appearance Sunday , he gave up a scorching liner to Jose Guillen and then hung a pitch to Mike Aviles for the game-tying double.

So now, Romo.

He is a 25-year-old native of Brawley in Imperial County and went to Mesa State in Grand Junction, Colo. If you went to many games at Single-A San Jose last year, you probably saw Romo at his best. He had an incredible year as a late reliever, strriking out 106 and walking only 15 in 66 1/3 innings.

Looking at those numbers, you’d think he throws gas. But he’s a command pitcher with a lot of deception and works off his high 80s fastball with a slurve and changeup. This season, the 5-foot-11 pitcher is 1-3 with a 4.00 ERA and 11 saves for Connecticut. He noticed that Double-A hitters are less likely to miss a hanging slurve, but he is a strike thrower and that’s exactly what Bochy wants. He has walked seven and struck out 30 in 27 innings.

“I’m a contact guy,” Romo said. “I’ve just been fortunate to miss some bats. I don’t throw hard and I don’t try to throw hard. I just try to stay within myself. I understand I’m not a plus fastball guy. I’ll take a ground ball, a pop out, anything.”

It can’t be easy to get from Brawley, Calif., to Cleveland in one day, but Romo’s father, Frank, managed to do it. He’s an engineer for an irrigation company.

“When he called and told me he was here in Cleveland, I was so surprised,” Romo said.

What happens to Chulk now?

The Giants have 10 days to trade, waive or release him. He could be outrighted to the minors if he clears waivers. The Giants will look to trade him, but Bochy still believes Chulk has value and it wouldn’t be the worst thing if he ends up going to Fresno.

“We feel Vinnie could be back here,” Bochy said. “I want what is best for Vinnie. If there’s something in the major leagues, we wish him the best.”

Said Chulk: “I was in a different role this year but I can’t excuse myself. My fastball was not getting it done. They had an issue with that.”

By the way, assuming Chulk is gone, the Giants now have nothing to show for trading Jeremy Accardo to the Toronto Blue Jays. They got Chulk and Shea Hillenbrand in that deal.

A Royal Comeback

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)

The worst day of Bruce Bochy's managerial tenure began so light-heartedly as Giants players donned their Negro League throwback jerseys and watched Tim Lincecum, pants falling off his waist, imitate an old-time pitcher's 24-part windup, and Tyler Walker doing his best Babe Ruth home-run swing.

The laughs kept coming as Giants hitters played pinball for five innings and racked up a 10-3 lead. When people gaze back at Sundays' final score - Royals 11, Giants 10 - so many images of how it all went bad will spring forth, starting with Lincecum flying in the air like a rag doll after a home-plate collision with David DeJesus.

Was that the worst of it?

Or was it seeing the Royals get hit after hit after hit against a conga line of ineffective Giants relievers in a five-run sixth inning that tied the game 10-10? Or the sheer frustration of the day, exemplified by Alex Hinshaw's ejection in the seventh inning after allowing the winning run, followed by pitching coach Dave Righetti pulling the rookie into the dugout to prevent an escalation of hostilities?

Ordinarily, as soon as a team makes the final out, the players immediately walk back to the clubhouse. On Sunday, after Bengie Molina made the final out of a three-hour, 59-minute epic, many Giants remained along the dugout rail and watched the Royals celebrate.

"That's due to the fact that we had this game," reliever Jack Taschner said. "It was just disbelief that we let a game like this get out of hand. I told Aaron (Rowand) that a month ago, if you had said in a game Timmy is pitching we'd score 10 runs and lose, I'd have told you that you were full of crap."

Lose they did, blowing a seven-run lead for the first time since June 28, 2000, in Colorado and dropping a series they had no business losing before moving on to Cleveland, where they open a three-game series Tuesday.

"We're off tomorrow. It probably comes at a good time," Bochy said. "That was a tough loss, an ugly game all the way around, really on both sides."

Bochy certainly thought it was beautiful as his hitters took leads of 6-0 and 10-3. Fred Lewis reached base five times in the first six innings. Randy Winn had three hits in the first five. Rowand hit a cathartic two-run single after not driving in two runs in a game, much less an at-bat, since May 28. John Bowker hit a three-run double in the fifth to make it 10-3.

But the Giants already had shown signs of stress. After a dominating first and second inning, Lincecum allowed two runs in the third. DeJesus scored the second of those from second base on a wild pitch, as catcher Steve Holm could not find the ball at the backstop and Lincecum covered the plate.

As DeJesus slid hard, but cleanly, Lincecum tried to jump out of the way. His momentum, plus an extra shove from the runner, had the lithe pitcher flying in the air and landing on his back.

"I looked back and saw Timmy rolling in the dirt," Holm said. "He said he was fine. He was fired up just from the intensity of the game. He said it didn't bother him."

Indeed, Lincecum said he was not hurt and the collision had nothing to do with the three runs he allowed over laborious fourth and fifth innings that ran his pitch count to 109 and ended his day. He gave up five runs for the first time since Aug. 11 in Pittsburgh and has allowed nine over his last two starts.

"I didn't have a great rhythm in the bullpen," he said. "I took it into the game. It was just a lack of focus on my part. We had a chance to step on their throats when they were down, and I didn't help at all. After two innings, I didn't do anything to help us. I was laboring and just throwing the ball. I'm pretty disappointed in myself."

Still, Lincecum left with a 10-5 lead, which disappeared in an inning. Keiichi Yabu allowed three singles and a double to his four hitters in the sixth, Taschner a single and a walk to his first two. The Giants still led 10-8 when Vinnie Chulk got Jose Guillen to hit a liner to short for the second out. But Chulk, who has struggled all season in these situations, coughed up a two-run, game-tying double by Mike Aviles.

The Royals' winning run was almost anticlimactic, an RBI single in the seventh by Joey Gathright against Hinshaw after an Emmanuel Burriss error and a walk.

The bullpen is becoming more of an issue for the 32-44 Giants, but Sunday was not a time to discuss it.

As Taschner said, "This is a good game for everyone to keep things to themselves for a while. Everybody is frustrated for different reasons, and ultimately we lost."

DISTANT MEMORIES

Giants and Indians, partners in drought, to meet in Cleveland

John Shea - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)

Giants fans, it could be worse.

You could be Indians fans.

Fifty-four years without a World Series championship is one long drought. But the Indians can top that. This is the 60th anniversary of their last title. They won the '48 Series and have spent the next six decades failing to win again.

They lost three World Series in the meantime, two in the '90s. The most surprising came in 1954, when they were swept in an upset by the New York Giants, the last time the Giants won it all.

Remember?

On Tuesday, for the first time since the '54 Series, the Giants will play an official game in Cleveland. Johnny Antonelli was the last Giant to throw a pitch at the old Municipal Stadium, completing his save in Game 4, and Jonathan Sanchez will be the next (this time at Progressive Field) as Tuesday's starter.

"It's been a loooong time," Dusty Rhodes said in a phone interview.

Rhodes played in the majors seven seasons, mostly as a role player, and his crowning moment came in the '54 Series. The highlight of highlights was Willie Mays' epic catch to rob Vic Wertz at the Polo Grounds, but Mays said the other day, when asked about the Giants' last title, "The key, I think, was Dusty Rhodes."

When Rhodes was told of Mays' stance, he said, "I think it was that catch he made. I was just lucky."

Lucky? Rhodes had the Giants' only two home runs and seven of the team's 20 RBIs. He won Game 1 with a pinch three-run homer in the 10th and homered again in Game 2, having entered in the fifth with a pinch single to tie the game. The Series moved to Cleveland for Game 3, and another Rhodes pinch single with the bases loaded provided the winning margin.

"Dusty's time on earth was 1954," Al Rosen, the Indians' third baseman that year, said Thursday.

The Giants won the finale, and Antonelli - who pitched all nine innings in Game 2 - threw the final 12/3 innings in Game 4. Where's the ball used for the final out, a Dale Mitchell pop-up in foul territory to third baseman Hank Thompson?

"They gave it to me, and I'm sure I've got it," Antonelli said. "A lot of people would have displayed it better than I did, but I wasn't much for that. Right now, my son (John Jr.) has all my stuff."

The Giants were underdogs because the Indians won a then-record 111 games, had 23-game winners Early Wynn and Bob Lemon, and won the pennant over the Yankees, who had won five straight World Series.

"We knew the Giants were a very good ballclub because we played them in spring training every year in Arizona and traveled with them (barnstorming) back east before the season," Rosen said. "We knew them, and they knew us. I won't say the Giants had a better ballclub, but they were better in that Series."

Rosen said the turning point was Mays' catch of Wertz's shot to deep center, preserving an eighth-inning tie in Game 1. If the ball got past Mays, two runners (Rosen and Larry Doby) would have scored.

"If he didn't make that play, we would've won the first game, and how do you know what goes on from there?" Rosen said.

Rosen appeared in the Indians' last World Series triumph. He broke into the majors in August '48 and a few weeks later, made his only appearance in the '48 Series - as a pinch-hitter for Satchel Paige.

By 1950, Rosen was a star. Over five years, he averaged 31 homers and 114 RBIs and was the '53 MVP. By contrast, Rhodes topped 100 games once. His best year was '54, naturally. He played 82 games and hit .341 with 15 homers and 50 RBIs.

Then he went crazy against the Indians.

"You know, once in awhile, you get on a streak," Rhodes said. "You're right, it was an upset. But the Cleveland wives were celebrating winning the thing, and Leo (Durocher, the Giants' manager) made a speech before the game and said, 'They haven't won yet.' "

Cleveland Muni, a massive facility that seated more than 70,000, was opened in 1931 and demolished in 1996. The Indians drew 86,563 (closer to football capacity) for a Yankees game on Sept. 12, 1954, the largest big-league crowd until the Dodgers moved into the L.A. Coliseum in 1958. But for the most part, the Indians were losers, and the place was mostly empty.

From the beginning, Clevelanders complained about the Depression-era structure because it helped put the city in debt and wasn't appealing aesthetically. According to the Cleveland Press in 1943, the stadium "stands as a horrible and costly example of political bungling, or maybe outright thievery."

Thus, the Mistake on the Lake.

Even the Indians, shortly after the stadium opened, moved back to their original facility, League Park (capacity 23,000), until 1947. In the '60s, '70s and '80s, it was a sad place because of so many sad teams.

But in the late '40s and the first half of the '50s, the Indians were legit because of a sterling rotation - Bob Feller, Mike Garcia, Lemon and Wynn, along with a 41-year-old rookie in '48 named Paige - and an offense featuring Doby, Rosen, Wertz, Mitchell, Luke Easter, Bobby Avila, Ray Boone and an end-of-the-line Lou Boudreau.

It didn't matter in '54. The Giants won it all - "We just played flawless ball," Mays said - and are still trying to do it again.

Meche earns decision over Giants

(AP)Associated Press

Gil Meche's worst throw was to second base, but it didn't prevent him from picking up a victory.

Meche won consecutive starts for the first time this season, Jose Guillen hit a two-run homer and the Kansas City Royals defeated the San Francisco Giants 5-3 on Saturday night.

Meche lost his shutout in the sixth when Fred Lewis and Ray Durham led off with singles. Randy Winn hit a comebacker, but Meche's throwing error to second allowed Lewis to score and Durham to take third, and Bengie Molina followed with a sacrifice fly that made it 3-2.

"That was a freak play," Meche said. "I turned to go to second. Unfortunately, my foot accidentally hit the rubber and kind of knocked me off a little bit. I should have made the play. You would hate for something like that to happen and we end up losing because of a stupid mistake. Fortunately, it didn't cost us."

Guillen, who is fourth in the American League with 57 RBIs, connected in the seventh off reliever Billy Sadler. It was his 12th homer of the year and 39th extra-base hit.

Molina added a sacrifice fly in the eighth to make it 5-3, but Royals closer Joakim Soria worked a perfect ninth, striking out two, for his 19th save in 20 chances.

Meche (5-8), who struck out the first five Giants, was pulled after 101 pitches in 5 2-3 innings. He allowed two runs, one earned, on three hits and two walks while striking out seven. In his past two starts, Meche has given up four earned runs and seven hits while striking out 17 in 13 innings.

"After the fourth, I looked up and saw 70 pitches when I sat down," Meche said. "Strikeouts are good, but that's the downfall of it."

Meche's high pitch count and the throwing error forced him out of game.

"We were striking out a lot and that was running up the pitch count," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "It looked like we were going into a rope-a-dope theory there. That's a credit to how well he was throwing. The guys were patient, but they pitched well."

Rookie shortstop Mike Aviles, who had three of the Royals' seven hits to raise his average to .339, hit a two-run single with two outs and the bases loaded in the fourth, scoring Ross Gload and Joey Gathright to make it 3-0.

"I don't go up there trying to impress anybody," Aviles said. "I just go up there trying to play the game the right way and play hard and hopefully everything works out for the best.

"Sometimes you have a short window of opportunity. Sometimes people don't get an opportunity. I'm just fortunate enough to get a little opportunity right now and I am trying to make the most of my time."

Meche did not allow a hit until Rich Aurilia's line drive single to center with one out in the fifth. Meche retired the first 10 batters he faced before walking Durham and Molina in the fourth, but struck out Aaron Rowand to end the inning.

"Gil's got good stuff and it's tough to see," Rowand said, referring to shadows across the field. "That combination is never good as a hitter. He's a good pitcher. There's no doubt about that. He threw the ball good and we didn't get enough hits."

The Royals loaded the bases with one out in the first off Kevin Correia (1-5), but scored only one run. Mark Grudzielanek's fielder's choice brought home David DeJesus, who had led off the inning with a walk.

Correia was making just his second start since missing six weeks with a left intercostal strain. He worked five innings and allowed three runs on six hits, with four walks and two strikeouts.

After retiring the first two batters in the fourth, Correia faced five more batters and allowed two runs on Aviles' hit.

"I seem to be one pitch away and I didn't execute. It cost me two runs," Correia said. "I had two outs and nobody on with strike one to the next guy and somehow I managed to throw another 20-plus pitches and give up two runs. That inning should have been quick and it should have been easy. It should have set me up for a couple more innings, and a chance for a win."

Notes:@ Lewis extended his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games. ... Jose Castillo made his first start of the season at second base. Durham, who normally plays second, was nursing a sprained ankle and was the DH. ... Royals 3B Alex Gordon walked three times, matching his career high. He also drew three walks on April 26, 2007, at Minnesota.

Cain starts again after rough beginning for win

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle(SFGate)

Matt Cain has lost enough games in his emerging major-league career, 34 to be precise, that he surely does not want to lose the same game twice. Given a second chance Friday night after he fell behind 4-0 early, Cain pitched a riveting and dominating game.

He was rewarded when the offense delivered its biggest comeback of the season. The Giants caught the Royals in the fifth inning and shot past them with a four-run sixth, the big hit a three-run Ray Durham double.

With his team's 9-4 victory, Cain matched his season best by completing eight innings and improved to 4-5 for the season with his second victory in his last three starts. He also broke his interleague losing streak at five.

"He should feel good about where he's at," manager Bruce Bochy said of Cain. "He looks so confident right now. Even in the first inning, when he gave up three runs, he didn't lose his composure. He kept grinding it."

Cain believed he had no choice.

"It's just one inning," he said. "Obviously they got a big crooked number, but there's a whole lot of game left. If you can't live with yourself for giving up runs early, especially in one inning, I don't know how you can pitch."

The Royals, coming off an uplifting three-game sweep in St. Louis, learned exactly how Cain can pitch after they took a 4-0 lead with an unearned run in the third inning.

Starting with Mike Aviles' sacrifice fly, Cain retired 15 of 16 batters, including six of his eight strikeouts. The only Royal who reached was Joey Gathright, who bunted for a hit in the fifth inning before being thrown out trying to steal by Bengie Molina.

Over his final five innings Friday, Cain relied almost exclusively on his fastball and looked like the pitcher who took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the Angels in 2006, the last interleague game he had won.

In fact, he has been "Matt Cain" over his last three starts, since he decided that walks were killing him and he needed to challenge hitters. He has one walk in each of his last three starts after averaging three over his first 13 starts.

"I feel I've been a little up and down," he said. "I feel a lot more comfortable recently. I think I need to keep that good mind-set going, and if they beat me, they beat me. It's crushing when you walk a guy and he ends up scoring."

The Royals beat Cain in the first inning when he left pitches up. Jose Guillen ripped a two-run double and Mark Grudzielanek an RBI single. When he issued his only walk, to David DeJesus leading off the third, the Royals indeed converted it into a run, this one unearned.

The Giants clawed back to tie the game 4-4 and chase starter Luke Hochevar in the fifth inning. Then, they stormed ahead 7-4 in the sixth when Durham turned on a 96-mph fastball from Carlos Rosa and ripped it into the right-field corner for his three-run double and his third hit.

The pitch was high, hard and inside.

"Not many people keep that ball fair," Durham said. "I really can't explain it. I'm not even going to try."

Durham sprained his right ankle turning on the pitch and left the game after he scored on a Randy Winn double. After the game, his ankle still was sore.

Giants hitters did a lot of little things well. They scored eight of their nine runs with two outs. Jose Castillo started the go-ahead rally in the sixth with an infield hit, sliding into first base belly first. Omar Vizquel and Fred Lewis patiently accepted walks to load the bases for Durham.

Aaron Rowand had two doubles and Molina the game-tying single. Molina had quite a turnaround. He hit into double plays in his first two at-bats and made a wild throw that led to the fourth run against Cain, but rebounded with his big hit and the throw that nailed Gathright.

"You've got to play nine innings," Bochy said, "and Bengie did."

The Giants sealed their night with a pretty double play in the ninth. With Tyler Walker pitching, Guillen hit a grounder up the middle. Vizquel fielded it, flipped to Emmanuel Burriss, who caught the ball barehanded, Vizquel-style, and threw to first.

"I've been blessed in my career to play with phenomenal fielders," Walker said. "J.T. Snow was one. Omar is another. You marvel at how they make hard plays like that look so easy."

Home is no place for Giants and Zito

John Shea - San Francisco Chronicle(SFGate.com)

What's more embarrassing, 2-11 or 14-24? Barry Zito's season record or the Giants' home record?

Actually, they're intertwined. One-third of the Giants' home losses have come on Zito's watch. They lost all eight of his home starts, and he's 0-7 with a 7.34 ERA when wearing the home whites or home oranges.

"It feels terrible to let the team down," Zito said. "That's the hardest part, to go out there and have the guys bust their tail and come in here with a loss."

In Wednesday's latest breakdown, Zito was pulled after two innings (the second-shortest start of his career) after he yielded five runs to the Tigers. Nine of the first 12 batters he faced reached base. Five hits. Four walks. He was replaced by a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the second and sat around as his teammates finished a 7-2 loss and 1-5 homestand.

Zito lost both the opener and the capper, and manager Bruce Bochy didn't rule out the left-hander missing his next start - "We do have some options, sure" - because of off days today and Monday.

"It's tough," Zito said. "You could say we got two runs today, but baseball is all about momentum. If it's a 3-2 game or 2-2 game, maybe we scratch across a couple of other runs. If it's a 5-1 game or whatever it was, momentum plays a big factor. So I take responsibility on myself for that."

The Giants used to have a home-field advantage. They used to relish the fact they played in a pitchers' park. No longer. They own the majors' worst home record, having lost six straight home series.

Their home ERA (4.41) ranks 12th in the National League, and their road ERA (4.19) is seventh - still mediocre, but an upgrade over the unfriendly confines of China Basin.

Attendance is down (171,000 through 38 games), and boos are up (particularly in Zito starts). Teammates said Zito got squeezed a little on his pitches by umpire Jerry Crawford, though the pitcher wasn't making excuses. Zito either fell behind batters or got ahead and failed to finish off the at-bat.

According to witnesses, Zito was sharp warming up in the bullpen. But once the game started, Detroit's star-studded cast of right-handed hitters dug in and drooled. Magglio Ordoñez and Miguel Cabrera hit RBI singles in the first, and Placido Polanco and Carlos Guillen hit back-to-back doubles (both on 0-2 pitches) for three runs in the second.

The boos picked up steam after the Guillen double. Even Bochy wondered what was up and walked to the mound. Fans figured Zito was done, but Bochy left in the left-hander and returned to the dugout to another chorus of boos. From there, Zito retired the next three batters, striking out homer-happy Marcus Thames to end the inning.

Bochy wouldn't say what he told Zito, who said he was told he was needed to eat up innings. Bochy soon pulled him for a pinch-hitter, Brian Horwitz, in the bottom of the inning with two runners aboard and one out. Horwitz struck out on a wild pitch that permitted Travis Denker to score the Giants' first run.

It was unearned, just like the Giants' other run. A fitting way to end another unrewarding homestand. In the five losses, they scored seven runs.

"Pitching at home has been more of a challenge," Zito said. "Fans are frustrated. It's ironic. When you're on the road, you get cheered when you give up hits to the opposition. At home, you get booed. That's all part of it."

Neither Zito nor Bochy would address talk of Rick Peterson joining the Giants to tutor Zito. Peterson, fired by the Mets this week, was Zito's pitching coach during his heyday in Oakland, but his Mets contract runs through 2009, so he wouldn't likely accept a "special instructor" job unless he were assured a full-time on-field position in the near future.

His contract is guaranteed, and any money he'd make from another club would be taken off the top of his Mets' salary, meaning he'd be working for free elsewhere. In other words, he might not be in a hurry to accept a secondary job.

It seems Zito and the Giants are left to figure out their problems on their own.

Sanchez gets loss after fine outing

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle(SFGate.com)

Baseball has an evil way of balancing its ledgers, as Jonathan Sanchez learned in a 5-1 defeat Tuesday night. One start after winning a game he deserved to lose, he lost a game he deserved to win.

Adding to the wickedness was the fact that Sanchez was beaten not by one of Detroit's high-salaried thumpers, but a .219-hitting scrub named Ryan Raburn, who pinch-hit for Kenny Rogers in the eighth inning and broke a 1-1 tie with a homer three-fourths of the way up the left-field bleachers - Andres Galarraga territory.

"I could have done that," Rogers told Raburn when he returned to the dugout.

The Tigers added a run in the inning, and Marcus "Homer or Nothing" Thames took Vinnie Chulk way out in center field - Barry Bonds territory - in a two-run ninth that sealed a Tigers win and ensured the Giants will leave San Francisco after today's game having lost three consecutive homestands.

The Giants were heartbroken for Sanchez after he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and struck out eight in seven-plus innings only to have his win streak snapped at four. Sanchez did not allow a ball out of the infield until Edgar Renteria busted the no-hitter by slapping a leadoff single to left in the sixth.

"His first five innings could be the best any of our starters have thrown all year," Rich Aurilia said. "That's the positive thing. That why the loss is so hard to swallow."

Manager Bruce Bochy said Sanchez threw "a great ballgame" and bemoaned another bad offensive game against a left-handed pitcher, in this case Rogers, the 43-year-old whose career dominance in Oakland (25-4) appears to work on the west side of the bay.

The Giants scored once in seven innings against Rogers on a Bengie Molina sacrifice fly in the sixth that scored Fred Lewis, who had two hits.

The Giants have a gem in Sanchez, who won his previous start in Colorado on Thursday when he picked a good day to allow seven runs in five innings. The Giants gave him eight runs in a 10-7 victory.

"He's filthy," Thames said of Sanchez. "I was talking to Pudge (Rodriguez). He's been playing for 18 years and said that kid is nasty. He has a nasty slider. He pitched great."

Rodriguez even made a point of asking Sanchez what pitch he threw to get him to ground into a seventh-inning fielder's choice. That meant something to Sanchez, a fellow Puerto Rican, who said, "That's one of the greatest. He's going into the Hall of Fame."

Most impressive was the way Sanchez dominated a modern-day murderer's row of Tigers who batted right-handed, including the first seven in the lineup.

Sanchez has proven he can foil right-handers as long as he throws strikes, and he threw lots of them. He struck out two Tigers in each of the first three innings, including righties Placido Polanco, Carlos Guillen, Miguel Cabrera and Thames.

The third run charted to Sanchez might have been preventable. With runners on the corners and nobody out in the eighth, Guillen hit a comebacker to Billy Sadler, who, in Bochy's words, "had a mental drift there" and failed to look Renteria back to third. When Sadler threw to second for a force, Renteria raced home.

The play upset Bochy because he had just convened the infield on the mound and reminded everyone to make sure to cut off that third run. Bochy also was not pleased with the fastball down the pipe that Chulk threw in the ninth to Thames, who is having the streak of a lifetime.

All of his last eight hits have been home runs. He also tied a Tigers record by homering in his fifth straight game, blasting the ball way over the center-field fence and onto the roof of the concession stand beyond.

When told that Bonds was just about the only player to hit that structure, Thames smiled and said, "That's good company. That's all right. I used to love to watch him hit them here. He was one of my favorites."

This game featured a bizarre moment of baseball jurisprudence. In the eighth , Cabrera flied out to Aaron Rowand, who threw to first in a bid to double off Magglio Ordoñez. Simultaneously, second-base umpire Brian O'Nora called the runner out while home-plate ump Paul Nauert called him safe. They conferred, and the safe call stood.

On the next pitch, Ordoñez was thrown out trying to steal to end the inning.

Reuniting Zito with old coach makes sense

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle

Rick Peterson was Barry Zito's pitching coach through the pitcher's best years in Oakland. Now that Peterson is unemployed, would it not make sense for the Giants to hire him as a special instructor to work with Zito and help right him?

There were indications Tuesday that some in the front office have reached the same conclusion and are considering Peterson, who was canned as Mets pitching coach early Tuesday morning. New York manager Willie Randolph and first-base coach Tom Nieto also were let go.

This would not be a reflection on Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti or bullpen coach Mark Gardner. Zito credits both for helping him relearn a two-seam fastball that has helped Zito pitch better since his one-start break in late April. Zito said the lowered arm slot required to throw the two-seamer has had the side benefit of tightening his curveball.

The Giants have a history of employing special instructors on the belief that a different voice sometimes can help. Joe Lefebvre acted as an assistant hitting coach when Gene Clines was hitting coach. Likewise, Willie Upshaw helped when Le- febvre was hitting coach. Furthermore, although it was not publicized at the time, the Giants had special pitching consultant Ron Perranoski work with Zito on the two-seamer during his break. Zito said Perranoski helped fortify the work he did with Righetti and Gardner.

Hiring Peterson would not guarantee Zito's return to Cy Young form, but as one baseball lifer said, "Who knows? Peterson could say the word 'boo' and maybe something would click in Zito's mind."

Zito declined to comment on the idea of hiring Peterson. In fact, Zito did not even know the Mets had fired him.

However, when asked what type of relationship they had, Zito noted that as far back as college, he and his family hired Peterson for private coaching. When the A's drafted Zito, Peterson was their pitching coach.

"I had success from the start there in Oakland," Zito said. "There's a lot to be said for your first coach in the big leagues, too. He moved me on the mound and did something also with my hands, stuff like that, stuff I still do today."

Zito, 2-10 with a 5.88 ERA, will pitch the homestand finale against Detroit today.
Briefly: Some scouts believe Randy Winn will be a hot name as the July 31 trade deadline approaches. One team with apparent interest is Atlanta. ... Outfielder Dave Roberts, continuing his recovery from knee surgery, hit on the field for the first time since the operation, saying, "It was good to go out and hit some line drives." ... Brian Wilson entered Tuesday's game with 19 saves. The last Giant to reach 20 by the All-Star break was Matt Herges in 2004. ... Mike Mooney, a 25-year-old, San Francisco-born center fielder who was promoted from Single-A San Jose, is 9-for-21 with three homers for Triple-A Fresno.

Giants set sights on their top draft pick

Posey's college season ends; will he sign?

Andrew Baggarly - MercuryNews

If all goes according to the Giants' plans, Buster Posey played his last collegiate baseball game Monday.

Despite Posey's best efforts, Florida State was eliminated from the College World Series with a 7-5 loss to Miami. The polished catcher was 4 for 5 in the defeat.

The Giants drafted Posey with the fifth overall pick this month. They have until Aug. 15 to sign him, or they would lose his rights and receive a replacement first-round pick in next year's draft.

Indications are that Posey won't sign quickly, but sources said he is eager to start his pro career and the Giants are determined to bring him in the fold.

Various reports have said Posey's agents are seeking a major league deal worth $12 million, but the two sides are likely to settle at a figure somewhere between that and the $6 million that No. 5 pick Matt Wieters received from the Baltimore Orioles last year.

The Giants haven't ruled out giving Posey a major league contract, figuring that he wouldn't need long to reach the big leagues. Such a contract also would allow them to spread the money over two or three years.

With the major league payroll about $10 million below last year's total of roughly $95 million, Giants outgoing managing partner Peter Magowan said it's safe to assume the difference would be spent on draft bonuses and international free agents.

The Giants are believed to be ready to offer $2.5 million to Dominican outfielder Rafael Rodriguez when he turns 16 on July 13. It would break the club record for an international signing bonus, which they established two years ago when they gave $2.1 million to power-hitting infielder Angel Villalona.

"We had the potential to go higher with the major league payroll if the right things came about," Magowan said. "We were looking at Joe Crede, for example. He would have been a $5.5 million player instead of the guy we got, (Jose Castillo), who was a $600,000 player. We could have done that.

"The point I want to make is that we've got the wherewithal to do this. It's not a question of how much the major league payroll is. We established it with the Villalona signing. We have to do a better job of drafting and developing players than we've done. We all know that."

Magowan called last year's draft "the best of my 16 years here," and said he is equally impressed with the haul that first-year scouting director John Barr brought earlier this month.

"I'm extremely pleased with how he conducted the draft," Magowan said. "That's why we brought him here."

• Call it a coincidence: When Posey made a relief appearance against Stanford last weekend, he became the first player since Wieters in 2006 to catch and pitch in the same College World Series game.

• Catcher Eliezer Alfonzo is playing on an approved rehab assignment for low Class A Augusta as he nears completion of his 50-game suspension. Alfonzo, who tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance in April, is eligible to return Sunday. Player personnel director Bobby Evans said Alfonzo would be assigned to Triple-A Fresno.

Bowker Blast Beats Tigers

John Shea - San Francisco Chronicle

On three consecutive swings during batting practice, Tim Lincecum pulled pitches over the brick wall in right field, drawing praise and amazement from his teammates and coaches.

"Save some for the game," hollered batting coach Carney Lansford.

Lincecum didn't do that. He struck out in both his at-bats. Then again, Justin Verlander throws a little harder than bullpen catcher Bill Hayes, who threw Lincecum the pitches.

The Lincecum-Verlander matchup was intriguing, considering the young ages and electric fastballs. But Lincecum wasn't sharp and surrendered four earned runs for the first time this season and two home runs to the same guy for the first time in his career.

Lincecum yielded to John Bowker, whose BP was nothing exceptional. But in the game, his three-run homer highlighted a five-run eighth inning and the Giants' 8-6 victory over the Tigers, who had won six in a row before their first visit to San Francisco in five years.

The Giants snapped a five-game home losing streak and six-game interleague losing streak.

"You always want to get the starting pitcher to work a lot. We definitely wanted to get to their bullpen, and it worked out," said Bowker, who had three hits and took a curtain call after the homer. "I knew I hit it good. But I was just trying to put the ball in play and get the guy in from third, to get the tying run in."

Verlander outpitched Lincecum, giving up two earned runs in six innings while striking out seven and walking one. Verlander was removed in the seventh for a pinch-hitter, Edgar Renteria, whose sacrifice fly scored Ivan Rodriguez to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead.

Catcher Bengie Molina thought he tagged Rodriguez on the back of his jersey before Rodriguez touched the plate with his left hand on a hook slide. Manager Bruce Bochy vehemently argued and was ejected for the third time this season. Replays showed Molina and Bochy might have had a good case.

"I felt the body, not just the jersey," Molina said. "I don't think (umpire Tom Hallion) was in good position to see the play. He said from where he was, he didn't see me make the tag."

The good news for the Giants? Verlander was done. Reliever Freddy Dolsi gave up hits to two of the three batters he faced, Randy Winn and Aaron Rowand, and Fernando Rodney was summoned to face the left-handed Bowker, who homered into the right-field arcade to put the Giants ahead 6-4.

The Giants scored twice more in the inning when Fred Lewis - who had homered back in the fifth - doubled home Rich Aurilia and Jose Castillo, and those runs proved the difference after the Tigers scored twice in the ninth off Brian Wilson on Curtis Granderson's bases-loaded single.

The game ended when shortstop Omar Vizquel backhanded Placido Polanco's grounder and barely threw him out. Keiichi Yabu, who threw a scoreless eighth inning, got the win.

Until the eighth, Marcus Thames was the headline-maker. Thames hit a solo homer in the second (on a curve) and a two-run shot in the fourth (on a change-up), both to left field.

"Those were pretty big mistakes," said Lincecum, who has allowed five homers this year, all at home.

Lincecum isn't alone. Thames' last seven hits were home runs, and he has homered in four straight games. Before Monday, the Tigers were 9-0 in games in which Thames homered. They were on their way to 10-0 before the Giants charged ahead in the eighth.