Giants lose on broken-bat triple, error

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The first thing that must be said is that any right fielder in the majors would have charged the ball as Cody Ross did in the ninth inning Monday night, in a disastrous moment for the Giants that turned a game of beauty on the mound into a 2-1 loss to the Rockies.

Brian Wilson was trying to save what would have been Jonathan Sanchez's career-best 10th win. Dexter Fowler was on first base. Nobody was out. The Giants led 1-0.

Wilson fired a 96-mph fastball that shattered the bat of Carlos Gonzalez. Ross, hearing and seeing the bat break, instinctively ran in but quickly realized how well the ball was struck anyway. He retreated but had no chance. Once the ball cleared his head and rolled toward the wall in right-center, 30,224 fans knew Fowler was going to score the tying run.

It got much worse. Freddy Sanchez fielded Ross' throw and bounced a throw to third. The ball hit a sliding Gonzalez and rolled into a camera well beside the Giants' dugout. Gonzalez was awarded home plate on the error, and the game was lost.

"That was kind of bizarre, a broken-bat triple," Ross said after a number of teammates walked by to console him. "I've never seen anything like it."

The Giants hit three balls hard against Huston Street in the ninth, including a leadoff drive by Aubrey Huff that Ryan Spilborghs caught with his back to the left-field fence. The game ended with Buster Posey slamming his helmet to the ground after Street speared his line drive.

Though the Giants lost no ground to San Diego and Philadelphia for the division and wild card, as both lost as well, the Rockies snuck within two games of the Giants in both races. The Giants also fell to 3-4 with two games left in their final long homestand of the year.

"It was tough because Johnny went out and pitched a gem," Freddy Sanchez said. "It would have been a nice win. It's one of those bad beats. It's tough to take."

The second baseman said that in his rush to nail Gonzalez he got a poor grip on the ball, but said, "I should have made a better throw."

Ross also said he should have found a way to catch Gonzalez's triple.

Perhaps, too, the Giants could have scored more than once against Jorge De La Rosa after he walked the leadoff hitter in three straight innings. The Giants took advantage only once, after Huff and Pat Burrell walked to start the fourth. Posey, returning after two days off with a strained forearm, lined a single to center for the Giants' only run.

The Giants hit into three double plays, including a hard-hit one-hopper by Ross after Posey's single.

The only solace for the Giants was Jonathan Sanchez's effort. After 93 runs scored during the first six games of this homestand, a pitching duel finally broke out on a foggy evening and Sanchez was up to it.

Manager Bruce Bochy rewarded Sanchez for eight shutout innings by allowing him to start the ninth in a bid for his second career complete game. The other was his no-hitter last year. Sanchez got ahead of Fowler 0-2 but then threw four straight balls, most of them not close. The lefty said he tried too hard to get the out once he was ahead.

"He was throwing well," Bochy said. "It was hard to take him out after the way he ended the eighth inning,"

Gonzalez's broken-bat triple cost Sanchez the win and pinned the loss on Wilson, who also took his fourth blown save in 40 save chances this season.

Box Score

Giants salvage one against Diamondbacks, 9-7

Ron Kroichick
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle

The magnitude of Sunday's game became clear when Giants manager Bruce Bochy hopped out of the dugout and motioned for Brian Wilson to pitch - with one out in the eighth inning.

Wilson soon ended the rampant craziness in China Basin. He restored some semblance of order to a wild affair, pocketing the final five outs as the Giants beat Arizona 9-7 and avoided a costly sweep.

The victory trimmed San Diego's National League West lead to five games and kept the Giants 1 1/2 behind Philadelphia in the wild-card race. In the context of these taut races, and with September fast approaching, another loss to last-place Arizona would have counted as mighty deflating.

"The last thing we wanted to do was get swept, and the guys fought hard to make sure it didn't happen," Bochy said.

They blew a 5-1 lead, quickly moved back ahead and then stood on the brink of losing the lead again. So the call went to Wilson, who had pitched only once in San Francisco's previous seven games.

Wilson channeled his inner Goose Gossage - not a stretch given his long hair, mound presence and howling fastball - and didn't allow another Diamondback to slither across home plate. The 33-pitch outing spoke to Wilson's durability and fortitude in an era in which closers are protected like precious jewels.

This was Wilson's fourth five-out save this season and his first since June 16. He also has four four-out saves.

"I don't think closers should only have to get three outs," Wilson said. "They pay you to do exactly what they need. If they call you in the seventh to get nine outs, then you do it."

Wilson (36th save) was one of the few predictable elements in a game featuring abundant quirkiness. To wit:

-- Matt Cain, after watching his predecessors allow a combined 13 first-inning runs over the past three games, nearly followed suit. Arizona put runners on second and third with nobody out - and Cain struck out the side, launching another solid outing.

-- Catcher Eli Whiteside and Cain, the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters, started the Giants' first two rallies.

-- Cain (with help from Whiteside) threw three wild pitches in one inning.

-- After blowing their lead, the Giants regained it with a three-run rally, fueled in part by Aubrey Huff's ground-rule double - which Arizona left fielder Gerardo Parra lost in the sun.

-- The Diamondbacks cut their deficit to 8-7 when Parra boldly/foolishly came home from second on an infield grounder. The next batter hit a slow roller down the third-base line - called foul by third-base umpire Jerry Meals, then correctly overruled by plate ump Dan Iassogna.

"That game had about everything," Bochy said. "We just don't do anything easy."

All that mattered, ultimately, was Cain ending a stretch of bad outings by Giants starters and Jose Guillen extending his run of hot hitting. Guillen's two-run single in the seventh gave the Giants the lead for good.

"He's changed our club," Bochy said of Guillen, who's hitting .372 since his arrival. "We've been putting more runs on the board."

Box Score

Zito, Giants roughed up by D-backs

Chris Haft
MLB.com
The boos, which Barry Zito hadn't heard all year at AT&T Park, returned on Saturday night.

But the fans' catcalls paled in comparison to the wrath of manager Bruce Bochy, who lectured his starting pitchers after the Giants' 11-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Bochy was fed up with the ineffectiveness of the starters, who thrived for most of the season and were expected to lead San Francisco toward prominence. After Zito allowed nine runs (seven earned) while pitching a season-low 3 2/3 innings for the second start in a row, Bochy no longer could contain his frustration. He essentially told his pitchers to snap out of it, though the forcefulness of his voice as he addressed reporters indicated that he used harsher language.

"They all need to step up," said Bochy, who summoned Zito, Tim Lincecum, Jonathan Sanchez and Madison Bumgarner. Matt Cain, who has pitched capably this month (2-2, 2.76 ERA), was resting at home for his Sunday appearance. "It's tough when you go through stretches like this. But the last thing we can do is accept it. You have to do something about it, individually, as a staff and as a team. These are all critical games. We're just not getting it done, and we know it."

"The starters got called in," Zito acknowledged. "We gotta do better. That's the bottom line."

The Giants remain in contention, though their third consecutive defeat dropped them 1 1/2 games behind National League Wild Card leader Philadelphia and kept them six games behind first-place San Diego in the NL West. Memo to the Giants: Look out for Colorado, which trails them by only three games.

If the Giants' pitching continues to flounder, reaching the postseason will be a fantasy by mid-September. San Francisco's starters are 5-13 with a 5.56 ERA in August, largely explaining the club's 11-14 record this month. Through five games on this homestand, Giants starters are 1-3 with a 9.12 ERA.

"Baseball's funny like that. There's an ebb and a flow always. It's just not a good time for us to be having a lull right now," Zito said. "There's a playoff race. It's still August, yeah, but we can't take anything lightly."

Simply put, the starters are starting poorly. Zito allowed Arizona six first-inning runs, though right fielder Jose Guillen misplayed a two-out fly ball that made two runs unearned. That followed the three runs Lincecum yielded in Friday night's first inning, as well as the four Bumgarner surrendered in Wednesday's initial frame against Cincinnati.

"As the starting rotation, we know that we set the tone out there," Zito said. "We have to make a statement in the first inning, second inning, and we haven't been doing that. So we're taking this pretty seriously."

Lincecum, the two-time reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, lost all five of his August starts while compiling a 7.82 ERA. Zito (8-10), the 2002 AL Cy Young recipient, hasn't won a game since July 16 and is 0-6, 5.51 in nine appearances since. The left-hander also has lost three games in seven days, including last Sunday's setback at St. Louis and his 12th-inning relief lapse Wednesday against Cincinnati. The last pitcher to absorb three defeats, including at least two starts, during a one-week span was Jorge De La Rosa, then with Kansas City, from June 16-22, 2007.

In some instances with some teams, both Lincecum and Zito would be candidates for removal from the rotation. But given their past excellence and the lack of qualified stand-ins at Triple-A Fresno, the Giants have no choice but to stick with their current quintet.

"Believe me, we're working on it. Because we know this isn't going to work," Bochy said. "We're not getting it done. The starting staff is what we're built on. We're going to have to get this fixed really soon."

The D-backs have made some repairs since the Giants swept them July 22-25 at Phoenix. They're 14-12 in August.

"We've played hard," interim D-backs manager Kirk Gibson said.

Arizona's standouts include first baseman Adam LaRoche, who spurned the Giants' overtures as a free agent last offseason. LaRoche wanted to play in a better hitters' park, but he looked at home while depositing his second homer into McCovey Cove in two nights, a two-run drive in the ninth inning.

The game became a rout eight innings earlier. Zito reached two-strike counts on six of the 11 hitters he faced in Arizona's crushing first inning. But he retired just one of them. Two collected hits, a pair drew walks and another -- Daniel Hudson, the opposing pitcher batting .154 -- was hit by a pitch. Those lapses helped set up the inning's biggest hit, Miguel Montero's bases-loaded, three-run double with two outs.

"I'm just not in a good rhythm out there," Zito said. "The pitches just aren't crisp right now."

Much to Bochy's chagrin, the same goes for the rest of the staff.

Box Score

Lincecum can change his stripes, but not his luck

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
Tim Lincecum threw his first changeup hours before Friday night's game. He dug deep into the clubhouse closet for a pair of stirrups with the horizontal orange stripes favored by managing general partner Bill Neukom.

If only for the Giants' sake those stirrups possessed the magic to restore the enchantment of Lincecum's past.

No wins, five losses and a 7.82 ERA. That was Lincecum's August after he allowed four runs over six innings in a 6-0 loss to the Diamondbacks, only the third shutout by Arizona pitching this year.

A crowd of 38,013, whose morale sank with Adam LaRoche's three-run homer in the first inning, surely became more fearful when Buster Posey was removed for a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning. Posey left with what manager Bruce Bochy described as a mild left forearm strain, which Posey felt while swinging in his second at-bat. The rookie will be reassessed before tonight's game.

"I probably would have been all right to hit," Posey said. "It was probably smart not to risk taking a swing. I don't think it's that serious."

At least Lincecum maintained his humor after completing his winless August. Asked about the stirrups, he said he wore them at a fan's suggestion. Then, after a pause, he smiled and said, "And I seem taller."

Perhaps Lincecum was buoyed by the way his night ended. He allowed one run over his final five innings and finished with three scoreless frames, which he had not done since his last win July 30. Nobody wants September to arrive more than he does.

"I'm probably ready for it," he said. "Hopefully I'll start off fresh. This is one of those things where you've got to take a punch and roll with it. It's not something fun to go through. It's not fun for my teammates to watch me go through. I've got to fight through it and keep pitching. The last thing I want to do is give in or give up right now."

Coincidence or not, Lincecum's improvement Friday followed a slight adjustment with his right arm after LaRoche jumped on a hanging changeup and blasted it into San Francisco Bay for a quick 3-0 lead.

Stephen Drew, who was on second base, appeared to be sending signals to LaRoche. After the homer, Drew was caught on television demonstrating Lincecum's delivery to teammates. That suggests Lincecum was tipping pitches.

Drew denied doing so. LaRoche, asked if he was receiving signals, said, "If I did, I wouldn't repeat that."

Giants coaches were aware of all this and told Lincecum to move his right arm closer to his torso before his windup so a runner on second base could not see how he gripped the ball, moved his forearm or whatnot.

Unfortunately for the Giants and Lincecum, too, the league does not allow rollover runs.

After they scored 38 in three games against Cincinnati to start the week, they were skunked over seven innings by red-bearded rookie Barry Enright, who did not allow a run for the first time in 10 big-league starts. The Giants got one runner to third base.

Enright had a good backup sinker and provided a clinic on throwing breaking pitches to set up high fastballs. They reached only 87 mph, but as Geena Davis said in "A League of their Own," Giants hitters couldn't lay off 'em and couldn't hit 'em.

Box Score

San Francisco Giants come back from nine-run deficit, fall to Cincinnati Reds in extra innings

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

What will be the lasting sound and substance from this one?

Will it be Pablo Sandoval's towel-waving, stark-raving madness as he watched the Giants erase a 10-1 deficit and push ahead? Will it be the roar and elation of 36,310 fans group-hugging as if they had all just scratched off million-dollar lottery tickets?

Or will a malaise linger for days after the greatest comeback in the Giants' 53-year history in San Francisco ended up counting for squat in the standings?

The effects couldn't be known in the immediate aftermath, but the Giants understood one thing after an unforgettable 12-11, 12-inning loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday afternoon:

They are relieved they won't play a baseball game today.

They need 24 hours to regroup, to heal, to process what in holy heck just happened.

"You can't be down," said Aubrey Huff, whose sacrifice fly gave the Giants an 11-10 lead in a six-run eighth inning. "That game was lost. There shouldn't be one person in here hanging their head."

Instead, there were clenched jaws amid a silent clubhouse. Players spoke of a moral victory, but they were in no mood to shrug their shoulders with any satisfaction.

Especially closer Brian Wilson, who allowed the tying run while working his second inning in the ninth. Ditto for Barry Zito, who took the loss after manager Bruce Bochy burned through his abbreviated, six-man bullpen.

Sandoval's errant, high throw from third base

"We just made a couple of mistakes that bit us," Bochy said. "It looked like he just tried to throw it too hard. He airmailed it pretty good. That's what gets him into trouble. Sometimes he overthrows it."

Chalk it up to pennant race inexperience, perhaps. Stubbs might have beaten the play anyway. But the extra base proved to be crucial when Paul Janish followed by sneaking a dirt-hugging single into right field, sending Stubbs home.

Zito was similarly snakebit in the 12th. He gave up three hits, including two jam shots. Shortstop Juan Uribe threw for an out at the plate after fielding a hard ground ball. But with second base open and two out, the Giants elected to have Zito face Joey Votto, who had hit two home runs as the Reds built their early lead.

The Triple Crown candidate didn't make ringing contact, but his ground ball found a seam through the right side to score Miguel Cairo.

"I went fastball in twice," Zito said. "He hit a jam shot. I wouldn't take it back, (except for) the result. "... It's as frustrating as ever, but they hit the pitches I was making. It's tough to tip your hat at a time like this."

Bochy wasn't in a mood to tip his, either.

"That's the difference in the game," he said. "They got a seeing-eye hit."

Uribe's eyes were a little bigger. His three-run shot in the eighth made it a 10-8 game and pumped belief into the crowd and the home dugout. The Giants strung together three hits after that, with Andres Torres' tying, two-run double inspiring thousands of total strangers to embrace each other.

"It happened so fast," Huff said. "It's 10-5, then 10-8, then the next thing I know, I'm in the batter's box, and it's 10-10. I didn't even know what happened."

The Giants had erased an eight-run deficit three times in the San Francisco era, most recently in 1989 -- against the Reds at old Riverfront Stadium.

With 57 runs, the Reds and Giants shattered the record for a three-game series at AT&T Park. And the Giants scored at least 11 runs in three consecutive games for the first time since June 3-5, 1953, the year Willie Mays was barnstorming Army bases and sleeping in barracks.

The Giants also totaled at least 17 hits in three consecutive games for the first time since 1933.

Despite the loss, the Giants still won a series against a playoff-caliber team, taking two of three from the Reds.

"We have to feel inspired, too, because we didn't throw in the towel," Zito said. "When there's no momentum in your favor and you muster it back up, that says a lot about the heart of this team."

Box Score

Giants' bats stay as hot as the weather

Henry Schulman SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle

On those rare summer nights in San Francisco when Contra Costa weather creeps in, homes without air conditioners bake and parkas are not needed at Ocean Beach, cavernous AT&T Park morphs into grandma's backyard. It's like Cincinnati's ballpark with Cha Cha bowls.

For proof, please read Tuesday night's box score, which denotes the Giants' second consecutive pounding of the Central-leading Cincinnati Reds, this time 16-5. The last time the Giants scored that many runs in a game was 2004.

The Giants dealt rookie Travis Wood his worst beating in the majors, seven runs in four innings, then pummeled the bullpen even worse as they rejoined Philadelphia atop the wild-card standings.

Combined with Monday's 11-2 dress-down, the Giants scored double digits in consecutive games at China Basin for the first time. In fact, Richard Nixon was president the last time it happened in San Francisco, Sept. 2-3, 1973, against the Dodgers and Braves at Candlestick Park. Manager Bruce Bochy said he graduated high school that year.

Not a bad fireworks show against the team that leads the league in runs.

The Giants hit four homers Tuesday, by Freddy Sanchez, Juan Uribe, Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval. The last time the Giants did that at home, in 2007 against the Marlins, Barry BondsHank Aaron's record. hit No. 754 to move one shy of

"The ball was flying," Bochy said. "We had some great at-bats the last two nights. Throughout the lineup, we had guys swinging well. We had to because they kept closing the gap. But we answered back, which was huge."

The way the Giants secured a series win is hard to fathom after Sunday's loss in St. Louis, when the Giants were blanked on three hits. Aubrey Huff suggested that two big first innings - five runs Monday and three Tuesday - relaxed everyone, so "they weren't gripping the bats too hard."

Several Giants padded their stats.

Sandoval, who looks like the Energizer Panda again, had three hits and four RBIs, giving him seven in the series. Sanchez had four hits for the second game in a row, which he had not done in the majors. Andres Torres drove in a career-high four with a two-run single and two-run double.

In his first start for the Giants, Cody Ross ignited the scoring with a two-out RBI single in the first, sending general manager Brian Sabean scurrying to the waiver wire to see if he could submit more blocking claims before last call.

In all, the Giants enjoyed three three-run innings and one of six runs.

"It became a two-possession game there toward the end," Reds third baseman Scott Rolen joked.

Afterward, Torres was by Sandoval's locker chatting, an eight-RBI meeting of minds.

"I think the Panda's back," Torres said. "That's the Pablo that I know. He's been swinging the bat hard. It's not just him. It's been everybody. It's been fun. Hopefully, we'll keep this going."

The only real negative for the Giants was Jonathan Sanchez's inability to secure his 10th win, which would have been a career high, despite the largess. He owned leads of 4-0 and 7-2 but did not last long enough to qualify.

Sanchez was pulled with one out in the fifth and the lead down to 7-5 after surrendering his third homer, a two-run blast by Rolen. Brandon Phillips hit the other two.

In the bottom half, the Giants merely went back to work. They countered with a six-run gully-washer against another rookie, Mike Leake, in the bottom half. Five of the runs scored on the homers by Uribe and Posey, his 10th in 285 at-bats.

Two cities, 4 games

After losing Saturday and Sunday in St. Louis by a combined 14-1 count, the Giants returned to China Basin and pounded Cincinnati on Monday and Tuesday to a 27-7 tune. S.F.'s offense went to extremes:

Box Score

San Francisco Giants rout Cincinnati Reds as Matt Cain cruises in win

Alex Pavlovic
Mercury News

It took just one inning Monday night for the Giants to wash away the bad vibes of a disappointing trip.

The slumping lineup jumped all over Cincinnati starter Edinson Volquez, knocking him out in the first inning of an 11-2 victory over the National League Central-leading Reds. The Giants batted around in the inning, scoring five runs on five hits and three walks.

That was more than enough support for Matt Cain (10-10), who gave up two runs and five hits in eight innings, while improving to 47-8 in his career when given at least three runs of support.

"You try not to do anything different or relax," Cain said of the big early lead. "You've just got to keep going out there thinking it's 0-0 and keep pitching your game."

The Alabama native looked right at home on a rare 75-degree night at AT&T Park, striking out seven and walking just one. Cain retired the final 14 batters he faced.

He had thrown 112 pitches through seven innings but told manager Bruce Bochy he felt great before setting down the side in order in the eighth.

Ultimately, Cain threw 125 pitches, the first time this year and fourth time in his career he has hit the 125-pitch mark.

"He had a good seventh inning and wasn't laboring," Bochy said. "He's a strong kid. The way he was throwing, we just let him go."

By that point Cain had received a season-high 11 runs of support from an offense that peppered every corner of spacious AT&T Park.

Andres Torres led off the first with a walk, Buster Posey beat out a slow roller to third, and Aubrey Huff blasted a double off the center-field wall. Torres and Posey scored easily, and Huff came around two pitches later when Pat Burrell roped a hanging curveball down the left-field line.

Pablo Sandoval lined an RBI single two batters later, and Freddy Sanchez followed Juan Uribe's walk with a run-scoring double.

The Giants loaded the bases with two out before Reds manager Dusty Baker finally pulled Volquez (3-2), temporarily stopping the onslaught. Volquez served up the Giants' biggest first inning since June 2, 2008, and received a tongue-in-cheek standing ovation as he walked away from his shortest career start.

"Everybody says hitting is contagious," said Huff, who hit his team-leading 22nd homer in the eighth. "You're able to go out there and breathe and not worry about failing. It just kind of snowballed."

The Reds, who had won eight of their past nine, briefly cut into the deficit in the third inning.

Scott Rolen made it 5-2 with a two-out, two-run triple, but the Giants got the runs back in the bottom of the inning on Torres' two-run homer to center.

Torres had earlier become the first San Francisco Giant to draw two walks in the first inning. His patience helped the Giants get into the Reds' bullpen early.

Sanchez had his first four-hit game as a Giant, and Sandoval stayed hot with three hits, including a two-run double in the eighth.

"There's no question getting (Sanchez and Sandoval) going is the key to our offense, the key to our success," Huff said. "We need them."

The Giants badly needed a win to kick off a nine-game homestand after losing four of six on last week's trip and losing ground in the NL West and wild-card races.

"We put ourselves in a little bit of a bind, and we've got a couple (teams) now that we're chasing," Cain said. "We've just got to keep playing good and go out there and finish the year strong."

Box Score

Zito, Giants bats struggle to end sour trip

Left-hander allows five runs over 3 2/3 innings on Sunday

Chris Haft
MLB.com

Whether that statement applies to the Giants' postseason chances or their listless 9-0 loss Sunday to the St. Louis Cardinals depends on your point of view. These elements are related, of course.

San Francisco tested the faith of its most optimistic followers with a lopsided defeat at an extremely inopportune time. The Giants slipped six games behind first-place San Diego in the National League West and sank to third in the Wild Card race, two games behind first-place Philadelphia and .002 shy of St. Louis.

The Giants finished 2-4 on their trip to Philadelphia and St. Louis and have lost three consecutive series, two games to one, in a 12-game test against playoff contenders. That stretch ends with a three-game series against Cincinnati that christens a nine-game homestand. Cynics would suggest that San Francisco already has proven it isn't fit for the postseason.

Left-hander Barry Zito, who registered his shortest start of the season, acknowledged the Giants' subpar play.

"We had our team clicking on all cylinders a lot of theyear," said Zito, who yielded five runs in 3 2/3 innings, matching his shortest outing since June 15, 2009. "I don't know if it's a lack of being competitive as a team. I think you look at more detailed aspects of the game. In certain aspects we're not [executing] fundamentals. Including myself, for not giving my team a chance to win and going deep into the game. You give up early leads like that, it takes the momentum out of the team."

Then again, combining panic and pessimism with 37 games to go is premature. The gaps between the Giants and the teams they're pursuing aren't insurmountable, and they'll play 21 of their remaining games at home, where they're 37-23.

"The nature of baseball is that every day is a new day and you can turn it around quickly," Zito said. "You just start with one game and get on a roll. We're not looking at a group of 37 games. We're looking at tomorrow's game. And from there we're looking at the next one."

The Giants would prefer to avert their gaze from this game. They mustered three singles off rookie left-hander Jaime Garcia (11-6), who faced only one batter over the minimum. Manager Bruce Bochy employed the same lineup of right-handed batters (and switch-hitting Pablo Sandoval) that beat Philadelphia's Cole Hamels, another left-hander, last Thursday. Garcia responded by subduing the Giants on only 89 pitches while coaxing 14 groundball outs.

"He locates," center fielder Aaron Rowand said. "He's got a cutter and a sinker. The ball runs away from you when it's away and it's in on your hands when it's in. He didn't leave them over the plate. He has a sharp breaking ball and a good changeup. We were just off balance at the plate the whole day. That's why you saw all those ground balls."

Garcia even ended Buster Posey's team-high eight-game hitting streak, finishing off his fellow rookie with a seventh-inning strikeout.

"I just think about that strikeout on Posey," St. Louis shortstop Brendan Ryan said. "That guy can hit, and making him look bad like that, that was pretty impressive. [Garcia] was fun to be behind."

By contrast, Zito (8-8) dangled too many hittable strikes in his 10th consecutive winless start on the road. St. Louis jumped ahead 3-0 in the third inning on RBI singles by Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday and a sacrifice fly from Felipe Lopez. Allen Craig, batting .172, hit a two-run homer in the fourth.

"A couple of them were decent pitches, but for the most part they were fastballs over the middle," Zito said. "I was having a hard time getting my stuff down today. It was tough out there."

The same could be said for the entire trip, which Bochy called "disappointing." But he conceded nothing.

"You can't let a game or two get you down," Bochy said. "You put them behind you, head home and try to regroup."

Box Score

Madison Bumgarner leads Giants past Cardinals

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

Several Giants are experiencing the full flush of a pennant race for the first time, and not all of them are smooth-cheeked rookies.

Madison Bumgarner is the youngest of the lot, just a few weeks past his 21st birthday. But for all the worry over his innings total, his head sure seems to be in the right place.

Bumgarner attacked Albert Pujols as if he were roping a steer on his North Carolina ranch Friday night, losing the final confrontation but winning in the end as the Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-3 at Busch Stadium.

Bumgarner's 97th and final pitch was a fastball that Pujols crushed over the center-field fence to lead off the eighth inning. It was the 32nd home run for the fearsome, three-time NL MVP, but it barely counted as a flesh wound.

That's because Giants already led by five runs, having built their lead with a balanced attack against Jake Westbrook and two relievers.

The home run had no damage on Bumgarner's psyche, either.

"The only mistake I made, he hit it 15 rows deep in center field," the left-hander said. "But you know what? I'm looking forward to facing him again. I'm not going to be afraid or go around him. I'm going to go after him."

Giants manager Bruce Bochy watched with interest. When he managed the Padres, he always sought to learn something about a young pitcher whenever he crossed paths with Barry Bonds.

Pujols might be the closest threat to Bonds in today's game, and Bumgarner didn't back down while retiring him on a pair of fly outs to center field before walking him with a runner aboard in the fifth.

"You want to see how he handles it, and he didn't back off," Bochy said. "There are times you pitch carefully. There is a line you don't want to cross. But I'll say one thing, he's going after him. I'll give Madison credit: He wasn't afraid."

That's a good omen, since the games get only bigger from here. The Giants remained a game behind Philadelphia in the NL wild card picture and moved within five games of the Padres in the NL West.

"I'll try to do the same thing in the playoffs," Bumgarner said. "I want to have that intensity every day now. I want to go out there and be intense, throw strikes and treat every game like a playoff game."

Even with a hot radar gun at Busch Stadium, Bumgarner's velocity seems to be on the rise. He throws every day between starts, but said he's dialed back the intensity. The result is less fatigue, better command and more zip on his pitches.

"I feel it's starting to come around," he said.

The Giants hope the same is true for Pablo Sandoval and Aubrey Huff. Sandoval homered for the second consecutive game; he has four in his last eight contests, after going 47 games without clearing the fence.

And Huff, recharged from a day off, broke out of his slump with a two-run shot. Huff credited Pat Burrell with teaching him a drill in the batting cage that kept him from overstriding.

"That's just another reason he's on this team," Huff said.

Burrell was the only Giants starter who didn't have a hit, but he drew a pair of walks. Freddy Sanchez had his second consecutive two-hit game; so did Buster Posey, who has four doubles in his past nine at-bats.

The Giants seldom have a worry-free night, though. They played thin on the middle infield, with Mike Fontenot starting at shortstop because Juan Uribe was hobbled after fouling a ball off his left foot Thursday night.

Uribe went for X-rays that did not reveal a fracture, but his availability was in question for today. Before the game, Bochy said Sandoval would be his backup shortstop, with Huff moving to third base if needed.

But Fontenot played well on both sides, and it was the Cardinals who were tweaked at the end of the night. Manager Tony La Russa didn't like umpire Gary Cederstrom's strike zone in the ninth inning, when Brian Wilson allowed two hits to bring the tying run to the plate but got Matt Holliday to ground out to end it.

"Major League Baseball can go ahead and fine me, but there were several strikes that a guy as good as Brian Wilson got that he doesn't need," La Russa said. "Who knows how that inning could have gone? That's just not right."

Box Score

Sanchez delivers timely gem against Phils

Lefty allows one run over eight-plus, trims Wild Card deficit
Chris Haft
MLB.com
Now this was a conversation piece.

Jonathan Sanchez, who provided fodder for discussion and controversy with some recent remarks, spoke volumes with his performance Thursday night. He allowed just two hits while pitching into the ninth inning in the Giants' 5-2 victory over the Phillies.

Sanchez took a one-hit shutout into the ninth as he emphatically ended the Giants' 14-game winless streak by their starting pitchers. Shane Victorino, who singled in the third, singled again to open the ninth and finish Sanchez. Sergio Romo yielded a pair of hits, including Mike Sweeney's two-run double, before Brian Wilson retired Raul Ibanez on five pitches to record his 34th save.

Buster Posey smacked a pair of RBI doubles and switch-hitting Pablo Sandoval swatted his first right-handed homer of the year to back Sanchez (9-8), who also was the last starter to record a victory -- Aug. 3 at Colorado.

The decision ended the Giants' three-game losing streak and enabled them to avoid a sweep. Next stop: St. Louis, where they'll play a three-game weekend series. It's another critical confrontation for the Giants, who occupy second place in the National League Wild Card standings -- one game behind first-place Philadelphia and one ahead of third-place St. Louis.

"The last thing you want to do is start digging yourself too big a hole," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

San Francisco also trails NL West-leading San Diego by six games. If the Padres were to cool off considerably and play .500 baseball for the rest of the season, they'd finish 94-68. Even if that dangerous assumption were to come true, the Giants would have to win at a .675 clip (27-13) to post a 95-67 record and edge San Diego for the division title.

The Giants wouldn't be in this predicament if Sanchez's bold predictions had come true. After losing at Atlanta on Aug. 8, he vowed that the Giants would sweep San Diego in their upcoming showdown and maintain the division lead that they would thus claim. As all interested parties know by now, Sanchez lost the series opener and the Padres won two of three games, propelling the Giants toward a 1-4 skid entering this series finale against Philadelphia.

Sanchez's brashness didn't thrill Bochy and other Giants. But the left-hander may have redeemed himself while throwing 68 strikes in 100 pitches and working into the ninth inning for the first time since he no-hit San Diego on July 10, 2009.

"He had a great look about him," Bochy said. "After his last couple of starts, especially with the comments, he looked very determined tonight to get back on track."

Catcher Eli Whiteside played an subtle but significant role in maintaining Sanchez's effectiveness. Before the Phillies' half of the fourth, Whiteside noticed that Sanchez was throwing his warmup pitches from a lower arm angle. That hampered Sanchez's ability to control his deliveries, which was apparent when he grazed Chase Utley to open the inning.

Whiteside promptly visited the mound to inform Sanchez of his flaw. The next batter, Jayson Werth, hit a howling drive to right-center field that Aaron Rowand caught after a long run. That began a stretch of 15 consecutive batters Sanchez retired.

Sanchez relied primarily on his fastball to subdue the Phillies, who had hit .290 in their previous 25 games.

"He was able to locate it in, out and up," Whiteside said.

Said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, "We didn't hit too many balls hard. I can count two or three."

Sanchez had lasted seven innings only once in his previous 11 starts, adding to his reputation for inconsistency. As superbly as he pitched against Philadelphia, he didn't offer assurances that he could duplicate this effort.

"Every time I go out there, I have my best stuff," Sanchez said. "Sometimes it just doesn't work."

But the Giants' offense worked for him, driving Phils left-hander Cole Hamels from the mound after five innings. Hamels (7-10), who had recorded a 2.14 ERA in his previous six starts, surrendered five runs and seven hits in front of the 100th consecutive sellout crowd at Citizens Bank Park.

Three of those runs came in the first as five consecutive Giants reached base safely with one out. Freddy Sanchez singled and scored on Posey's first double. Pat Burrell drew a walk -- the Giants' first free pass in 94 plate appearances -- before Jose Guillen and Juan Uribe lined RBI singles.

"When you can get some runs for Johnny early, you see what he can do," Rowand said. "He settles down and pitches his game."

"Everybody does that," Sanchez said. "You get a couple of runs, you pitch relaxed."

San Francisco generated a couple of more runs. After Freddy Sanchez singled and Posey doubled him home again in the third inning, Sandoval added his homer in the fourth, ending a season-long drought of 121 right-handed at-bats without clearing the fence.

Sandoval sensed that he was bound for glory after hitting solidly during batting practice.

"I told Boch, 'Watch out -- something's gonna happen tonight,'" Sandoval said.

He was correct in more ways than one.

Box Score

Suddenly San Francisco Giants reeling and getting rocked

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

The Giants were supposed to win with pitching and defense. Lately, the pitching hasn't performed up to par.

And come to think of it, the defense isn't looking so good, either.

Second baseman Mike Fontenot botched a routine ground ball, another single sneaked past the suddenly statuesque left side of the Giants' infield, and Jimmy Rollins ensured that the Phillies made the most of the fourth-inning opportunity.

Rollins broke open the game with a three-run home run, sending Matt Cain and the reeling Giants to an 8-2 loss at Citizens Bank Park Wednesday night.

The Giants have lost three consecutive games for the first time since they broke a seven-game slide July 3. And not to suggest they are panicking, but their manager already is using the dreaded "there's a lot of baseball left" cliché.

"We're back to where we were a couple months ago," manager Bruce Bochy said. "We came out of that. We'll come out of this. "... There's a lot of baseball left. This team has been resilient. But we're going to have to bounce back here really quick."

The Giants are disappearing in the NL West, which the streaking San Diego Padres lead by six games. And the Giants face a two-game deficit in the wild-card standings to the Phillies, who won for the 20th time in 25 games.

"They're a good club," Bochy said. "I mean, they're a great club. When you play good clubs, you've got to play well. "... They're a team that takes advantage of a few mistakes, and we're making them right now. That said, we're stuck on two runs. We've got to get some more offense going."

Rollins also singled and tripled off Cain, improving to 6 for 10 lifetime against him. Although three of Cain's runs in the fourth were unearned, he extended the Giants' streak to 14 games without a victory from a starting pitcher.

"If you panic and press, then you'll go backwards," said left-hander Jeremy Affeldt, who gave up two runs in his first appearance off the disabled list. "We've got to believe we can do it, and maybe it'll start going our way."

In the series opener Tuesday night, the Giants waited until the eighth inning before the wheels came off. They used the breakdown lane a bit earlier this time.

Andres Torres led off the game with a home run against right-hander Joe Blanton, but Rollins tripled and scored the equalizer in the third.

The Phillies moved ahead in the fourth, after Jayson Werth hit a leadoff single and moved up on a ground out. Fontenot botched Ross Gload's easy grounder to put runners at the corners, and Carlos Ruiz placed his bouncing ball through the left side for a tiebreaking single before Rollins took Cain deep.

The Giants have made concessions to their defense all season in search of more run production, but for all the joking about water buffaloes in the outfield, their lack of athleticism hasn't hurt them too badly.

But they have committed at least one error in five consecutive games -- seven overall. Third baseman Pablo Sandoval is noticeably slower than a year ago, and shortstop Juan Uribe isn't blessed with great range, either.

The Giants' offense is going down too easily these days. Pat Burrell hit a home run for the second consecutive night in his Philadelphia homecoming, a solo shot in the sixth, but the Giants didn't have much fight for Blanton.

Sandoval popped out on the first pitch to strand two runners in the first inning, and after consecutive singles knocked out Blanton in the seventh, Torres grounded into a double play against Chad Durbin.

The Giants haven't drawn a walk in the series; their last walk came in the third inning Sunday, when Tim Lincecum drew a free pass from the Padres' Wade LeBlanc.

Bochy called Sandoval "hard to figure out" and pointed to his hot hitting at home, calling him "two different guys."

The Giants will have a bunch of different guys in the lineup for the series finale. Bochy plans to rest Aubrey Huff, who has a .140 average over his past 13 games, giving him a day off against left-hander Cole Hamels. Buster Posey will move to first base, backup catcher Eli Whiteside will start, and Freddy Sanchez will return to second.

Should the Giants play with a little anger?

"Oh, sure, I think you should play mad," Bochy said. "But under control. You can get in that press mode, and we've got a couple guys going hard now."

Box Score

San Francisco Giants blow early lead, lose to Philadelphia Phillies

Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News

While preparing to play his first game as a visitor at Citizens Bank Park, Pat Burrell smiled when asked how the famously fickle fans might receive him.

"I've heard the full spectrum here," he said.

The former Phillies player got it all in his first at-bat.

Treated to a standing ovation as he walked to the batter's box, Burrell's cheers immediately turned to boos when he hammered a pitch from Roy Oswalt into the left-field seats.

The game turned just as abruptly for the Giants, and not in a good way. A dominant start from Barry Zito went awry after four innings, and the Giants made all manner of mistakes as the Phillies blew open the game with a five-run eighth inning to win 9-3 and grab the NL wild-card lead.

If the season ended now, the Giants wouldn't be a playoff team. They dropped to one game below the Phillies and also fell to five behind the San Diego Padres in the NL West -- their largest deficit in the division since the All-Star break.

"We didn't play well enough today," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who did plenty of talking in a pregame meeting and further sharpened his oratory skills while being ejected in the eighth.

"We made some mistakes. We hit some balls hard and had some good at-bats, but when you're playing a good team, there isn't much margin for error."

The Giants simply aren't getting the starting pitching they need to win, nor are they playing well enough to beat quality opponents.

They have dominated losing clubs all season, posting a 43-18 record against them. But they are 24-35 against clubs that currently have winning records-- by far the worst mark among the Padres and the other NL contenders bunched near the top of the wild-card standings.

Their season depends on rising to the occasion now. They will play their next eight games against clubs with winning records -- two more with the Phillies, then three at St. Louis and three at AT&T Park against the Cincinnati Reds.

It starts with the starters. The Giants have gone 13 games without a victory from the rotation; the starting pitchers are 0-8 with a 5.97 ERA over that span.

"We've got to do a better job, myself included," said Zito (8-7), who allowed a tying, two-run single to Jimmy Rollins in the fifth and didn't retire any of the three batters he faced in the sixth. "We've just got to give the team a better chance to win, hold them to two or less if we can, go seven strong."

Zito appeared poised to do just that. He had a two-run lead, courtesy of Andres Torres, who led off the game with a double and scored on a double-play grounder, and Burrell, who followed with a solo shot. And Zito had plenty of action on his pitches, too, overcoming an error from third baseman Pablo Sandoval in the first inning and using double-play grounders to end the second and fourth.

But Carlos Ruiz worked a 10-pitch walk in the fifth, Oswalt got down a two-strike sacrifice bunt, and Rollins hit a jam shot to center field for a tying, two-run single.

Shane Victorino's two-run double drove Zito from the game in the sixth.

"They hit some good pitches, and others I left up," Zito said. "It's incredibly frustrating to have that two-run lead and not be able to hold it."

The Giants still had a chance to win late after Jose Guillen's home run off Oswalt made it a one-run game. Guillen, starting just his second game as a Giant, also showed good bat speed while whacking a single in the fourth inning.

"They trust me," Guillen said. "They put me right in there, and I'm trying to make the best of it."

Chris Ray made the worst of his opportunity. Summoned to begin the eighth, he didn't retire any of the four hitters he faced. Ramon Ramirez committed a balk that precipitated Bochy's ejection, and second baseman Mike Fontenot made a damaging error.

Burrell was booed solidly in his second and third at-bats, but when he hit again in the ninth, the crowd barely took notice of him. With the Phillies comfortably ahead, it wasn't worth the effort.

"It looked like we were going in the right direction," Burrell said of his home run. "I'm happy to be able to do that, but where we are, we've got to win games. That one got away from us."

Box Score

Padres serve Giants a bitter pill

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
Forty-three games remain on the Giants' schedule. Seven will be against the Padres, four in San Diego, Sept. 9-12, and three in San Francisco to end the regular season.

If the Giants hope to win the National League West - and they believe they can - they must solve the Rubik's Cube that San Diego presents them.

The Padres are 9-2 in the season series after Sunday's 8-2 thrashing that decided a three-game series that San Francisco desperately wanted to win. Tim Lincecum (six runs, five earned) did not survive the fourth inning and lost his third consecutive start. He has allowed 14 earned runs in 14 innings since beating the Dodgers on July 30.

Though the Giants won their homestand four games to three, the ending made that victory Pyrrhic. The Padres responded to one of the Giants' best wins of the year with an even better one. They kicked sand in the Giants' faces on their way out of town, burying Lincecum and winning in a rout.

Moreover, the Padres left no doubt they have more than enough offense to win the National League West by scoring eight runs while their best hitter, Adrian Gonzalez, struck out four times.

They left town looking like a playoff team.

Now, according to one player who has been around the block, the Giants need to forget the Padres even exist.

"We've got seven games left with them? We don't care about those seven games now," said reliever Guillermo Mota, who surrendered the final two runs Sunday. "What we care about is winning series. They've been playing good. We do, too. But it's not between us and San Diego. It's us and the whole league right now. We've got to go to Philly and take care of business."

Mota had one final word on the Padres, though.

"Every team has a down time," he said. "Every team has its lumps. They haven't had their lumps. You don't think they're going to be playing like that all year, do you? If they do, congratulations."

The Giants have to wear this defeat until they open a six-game trip to Philadelphia and St. Louis on Tuesday night. If they insist upon viewing the glass as half full, they remain well within striking distance of first place despite being owned by San Diego.

The wild card is there for the taking, too, which makes the coming week so crucial. The Phillies and Cardinals could be two of their primary competitors.

On Sunday, the Giants did little to electrify a sellout crowd of 42,834.

Buster Posey, elevated to second in the lineup with Jose Guillen batting fifth, hit a two-run homer, his ninth of the season and second at home, accounting for both Giants runs.

Posey had three of the Giants' four hits against Wade LeBlanc and two relievers. Manager Bruce Bochy had said he planned to give Posey a long-awaited rest Tuesday night, giving him 72 hours off. After the loss, Bochy said, "I have a right to change my mind."

Guillen made his first start with the Giants, and even his first hit turned sour. With San Diego leading 6-2, he opened the fourth with a blast into deep right-center and was thrown out easily trying for a triple. Guillen acknowledged that making the first out at third base, especially when your team is behind, should "never, never, never" happen.

"I think the day off comes at a good time," Bochy said, the wear evident on his face. "This team is grinding hard. It's been a tough schedule."

It only gets tougher, chief.

Box Score

Giants win over Padres a long time coming

John Shea SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
It took 11 innings. And three hours and 34 minutes. And one of the biggest broken-bat groundouts of the season. And five relievers throwing shutout ball. And a Giants catcher actually stretching a single into a double. And a game-ending single that did in the majors' best bullpen.

The Giants finally proved they needn't keep losing to the Padres.

Juan Uribe singled home Buster Posey for a 3-2 Giants victory Saturday, and suddenly the first-place Padres aren't so invincible. Suddenly, the Giants are thinking about winning a series. Newcomer Jose Guillen will be in the lineup for today's finale, and Tim Lincecum will try to be good ol' Timmy, having shelved his hands-over-the-head windup.

After going 1-8 against the Padres, momentum at last arrived.

"It's a big win," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "It gets to the point where you start thinking about it too much. They won a lot of these games, and three or four could've gone the other way, just like today. You've got two good teams scrapping for runs, and it's good to come out on top."

Excuse Posey for knowing little about the Padres' one-sidedness. By the time he arrived from the minors May 29, the Giants were in a 1-7 hole. This series is his first look at the San Diegans, and he's already a difference-maker.

He opened the 11th inning with a grounder up the middle, off second baseman Jerry Hairston Jr.'s glove. As the ball rolled slowly from Hairston, Posey alertly hustled to second, putting him in position to score on Uribe's hit.

"I didn't know he was that fast," said Bochy, perhaps having Bengie Molina flashbacks. "Good hustle on his part. He won the game for us."

Posey slid across the plate, jumped in the air and waved an arm in his most animated moment with the Giants. He was typically even-keeled at his locker afterward, saying of the teams' season series, "It doesn't really matter what happened in the past."

It's hard to overlook, though. Seven of the 10 games were decided by one run. None of the others was decided by more than three. As Aubrey Huff said, "Winning today, we can come out tomorrow a little looser, and maybe we can try to win by a little more than one run."

Lincecum is coming off a rough start against the Cubs, yielding four first-inning runs for the first time in his career, and said he's reverting to his old windup. It seemed his decision, though he said he chatted with his father/mentor, Chris, between starts.

"Just trying to simplify things and get to what I was doing. Not too many moving parts," Lincecum said.

The Giants fell behind 2-0 Saturday with nemesis Mat Latos in control, but recharged Pablo Sandoval homered to open the seventh, chasing Latos, who twice beat the Giants 1-0.

The Giants tied it in the eighth when Mike Fontenot singled, advanced to third on Huff's double and scored on Pat Burrell's broken-bat RBI groundout to second, which earned Burrell a big ovation.

Chris Ray, Javier Lopez, Brian Wilson, Sergio Romo and winner Santiago Casilla combined for four shutout innings after Madison Bumgarner gave up two runs on eight hits in seven.

Box Score

Giants can't back up Sanchez's pledge

Left-hander allows three runs in 5 1/3 innings vs. Padres

Cash Kruth
MLB.com
Friday night didn't exactly go how Jonathan Sanchez predicted.

Five days after guaranteeing a sweep of the Padres, the Giants starter allowed three runs in 5 1/3 innings and took the loss, as San Francisco fell to the Padres, 3-2, at AT&T Park.

Despite the loss, Sanchez (8-8, 3.60 ERA) said afterward he didn't regret the comments he made after his last start in Atlanta.

"I believe in my team. I'm confident in them," said Sanchez, who gave up five hits. "Nothing against them, but I know if we keep fighting out there and keep playing like this, better and better, I think we're going to make it."

Friday's loss continued the Giants' season-long struggles vs. the Padres, against whom the Giants now are 1-8. The win furthered San Diego's lead over the Giants in the National League West to 3 1/2 games.

All nine games have been decided by three runs or fewer, where the difference between winning and losing comes down to the little things.

On Friday, the Padres showed the Giants they have the upper hand in that aspect, which has led them to having the upper hand in the division.

In the second inning with the game tied at 2, San Francisco had runners on first and second with no outs. But Sanchez failed to execute a sacrifice bunt -- bunting it back to the pitcher, who nabbed Juan Uribe at third -- and Aaron Rowand was picked off almost halfway between second and third by Padres starter Clayton Richard (10-5, 3.80).

Afterward, Giants manager Bruce Bochy said Rowand thought the Giants had called a play, which Bochy said was not the case.

The Padres, meanwhile, were able to score in the second inning on a sacrifice fly and also drove home the game-winning run in the sixth inning on a fielder's choice grounder.

"They do the little things right and we haven't," Aubrey Huff said of the Padres' dominance of the Giants. "Runner at third, they're able to get a sac fly. In the second, we have first and second, nobody out, and can't get the bunt down, and that kind of set the tone. We just didn't do the little things that push across runs."

San Diego thought it should have broken a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the fourth inning, when Padres manager Bud Black put the game under protest following a baserunning controversy.

With two outs and runners at first and third, San Diego's Chris Denorfia hit a hard chopper up the middle that bounced off Sanchez to the right side of the infield and ricocheted toward Giants second baseman Freddy Sanchez. San Diego's Scott Hairston was in the way of Sanchez, and first-base umpire Marvin Hudson immediately called Hairston out on runner's interference.

Black argued with umpires for several minutes before crew chief and second-base umpire Derryl Cousins announced the Padres were playing the game under protest. Chase Headley, who was on third at the time, did not score on the play.

After watching the play following the game, Cousins told a pool reporter the crew was "100 percent" right on the call.

Regardless, the point was moot.

Huff almost gave the Giants the win in the eighth, drilling a deep fly ball to center field. With Uribe on first, Huff slowly trotted out of the batter's box, but Denorfia caught the ball at the base of the wall and Posey grounded out to end the inning.

Huff was visibly upset in the dugout and said afterward he thought the ball was gone.

"Yeah. It's all I've got. I've hit that ball a lot and it's usually gone, let's put it that way," Huff said. "But it's just the way this park is. You live and die with your park and we died on that one."

On Saturday, the Giants will look to rebound and try to not fall too far behind the division leaders.

"You always say playing teams like this that are in first place, you always want to take two out of three and we've still got a chance to do that," Huff said. "So we've got to come back tomorrow and definitely get this one."

Box Score

No decision no problem for Cain if Giants win

Alex Pavlovic Mercury News

No decision no problem for Cain if Giants win

The Giants' vaunted starting pitchers haven't been credited with a win in nine games, and Thursday's starter couldn't care less.

Matt Cain left with a four-run lead in the sixth inning of an 8-7 win over the Chicago Cubs, but said "it doesn't matter" how the Giants win, and he's happy that "all the guys are getting the job done right now."

The right-hander did his part, overcoming a rough first inning and giving the offense a chance to get in gear.

Cain threw 31 pitches in the first inning, including a 10-pitch strikeout of Kosuke Fukudome. He gave up two runs on Xavier Nady's double to left-center field, but exited the lengthy frame feeling good about his stuff.

"I knew I had thrown a lot of pitches, but I felt like I was throwing strikes," Cain said. "They were fouling off a lot of good pitches."

Cain buckled down, leaving after 121 pitches. He allowed three earned runs, eight hits and a walk, and matched his season high with nine strikeouts.

"Matty battled his butt off until we were able to score some runs," said Pat Burrell, whose fifth-inning grand slam put the Giants ahead until the Cubs scored three runs in the eighth.

Freddy Sanchez was 1 for 19 before picking up two hits Thursday. While his bat has gone cold, his glove is as good as ever -- and it's one of the main reasons he continues to see regular playing time.

Sanchez

nd as always, made all the routine ones look easy. He hasn't made an error in 72 games this season.

Disabled left-hander Dan Runzler (dislocated left knee) said he feels great and is ready to make a rehab start for Class-A San Jose on Saturday. Fellow left-hander Jeremy Affeldt (left-oblique strain) will pitch for San Jose tonight.

Mike Fontenot, acquired from the Cubs on Wednesday, made his Giants debut in the sixth inning. Fontenot pinch hit for Cain and struck out.

Box Score

Resurgent Burrell power Giants past Cubs

John Shea
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
He's not just Pat the Bat. He's Pat the Arm. And Pat the Clutch. Not to mention Pat the Been There Done That Clubhouse Guy.

Pat Burrell is finding his new baseball life in San Francisco a reawakening. Two years removed from winning a ring with the Phillies, he's a leading force in the Giants' pursuit of their first postseason in seven years, and he's doing big things at the right time.

Burrell was the difference-maker in Wednesday night's 5-4 victory over the Cubs, hitting an eighth-inning homer to break a tie, giving him game-deciding RBIs in four of the past six Giants wins. He also singled home two runs in the first inning and made a key defensive play.

"Given that opportunity to come here, I'm thankful for it," said Burrell, who joined the Giants on June 3 after Tampa Bay gave up on him. "To be able to contribute and get back into a pennant race, I really couldn't ask for anything more than that. I'm more than excited to be here, and hopefully we'll continue to roll."

Burrell is batting .348 in his last 15 games with 10 of his last 16 hits going for extra bases. His recent game-winning surge included a homer to beat the Dodgers, a sacrifice fly to beat the Braves, another sac fly to beat the Cubs and Wednesday's game-deciding shot.

Apparently, he's also making a difference off the field.

"You talk about his clubhouse presence," Barry Zito said. "He's got that young fire and veteran type of mentality. He wants it real bad, and that's what we need right now."

Zito was thankful of Burrell in two ways. Not just for the two-run single that highlighted a three-run rally in the first inning, but for the play he made in the second. He fielded Welington Castillo's double off the left-field wall and hurriedly threw to shortstop Juan Uribe, whose throw to the plate caught Blake DeWitt.

DeWitt, who recently joined the Cubs from the Dodgers, didn't slide and tried to take out Buster Posey, who held firm. Posey came out OK, but DeWitt cut his lip on Posey's mask.

"The guy tested him," Zito said.

Zito didn't hold the 3-0 lead. He surrendered a home run to Marlon Byrd, who sprinted the bases, apparently in a hurry to make his 11th homer official, and gave up two more runs in the sixth on a double by Xavier Nady and bloop single by Alfonso Soriano.

With the score 3-3, Aaron Rowand hit his 10th homer, but the Cubs quickly retied it when Tyler Colvin homered over the right-field wall off Zito, who got the hook and a no-decision. Colvin leads the NL in rookie homers with 18.

When Rowand homered, Burrell went nuts in the dugout in support of his old Phillies teammate, who no longer is the starting center fielder.

"It's always very difficult for someone like him who's an everyday player," Burrell said, "and to be in a situation where we're all trying to fight for playing time, to see him come up there was huge for us and huge for him."

He's Pat the pal, too.

Box Score

Lincecum's career-worst first sinks Giants

San Francisco can't recover from four-run opening frame

Chris Haft
MLB.com
The Giants endured a sinking feeling in more ways than one Tuesday night as they lost to the Chicago Cubs, 8-6.

They sensed the deflation of watching Tim Lincecum display the vulnerability that has plagued him at least once in every month since April. In one of the worst performances of his career, Lincecum allowed six runs in four innings as his ERA climbed from 3.15 to 3.41.

San Francisco also slipped in both the National League West and Wild Card standings. San Diego's victory over Pittsburgh lengthened its division lead over the second-place Giants to 2 1/2 games. And the Giants also lost sole possession of the top spot in the Wild Card race after maintaining it for 19 days, falling into a tie with Cincinnati at the head of the pack.

The Giants tried their best to avoid their fifth loss in seven games. Facing deficits of 4-0, 6-2 and 8-4, they rallied each time as Buster Posey collected four RBIs in a 3-for-5 effort. But while the Giants matched Chicago's 14 hits, two more double-play grounders muted their offense.

In what may have been the evening's most positive development for the Giants, Pablo Sandoval emerged from his season-long slump to record his first three-hit game since July 17 and only his second such performance since June 1.

"I don't care about the season for me," Sandoval said. "I only care about getting the team to the playoffs."

That will become a daunting task if Lincecum (11-6) continues groping for his form. Entering the season's stretch drive with an ineffective ace would be a nightmare for the Giants, though manager Bruce Bochy tried to allay fears.

"We need all of the guys at the top of their game," Bochy said. "I think Tim will bounce back."

Searching for consistency with his delivery, Lincecum allowed four first-inning runs -- the most he ever has yielded in the opening frame -- and abandoned the hands-over-the-head windup he began employing two starts ago.

Pitching mostly from the stretch, Lincecum retired 10 of 11 batters after Kosuke Fukudome's two-run homer punctuated the Cubs' first-inning outburst. But he surrendered a pair of runs after he had two out and nobody on base in the fourth -- a telling lapse, given the Giants' repeated comebacks.

"It's still something I'm working on," Lincecum said of his modified windup. "Obviously I wasn't feeling comfortable with it today, which is frustrating."

In his between-starts throwing session and simply by concentrating on his delivery as he plays catch, Lincecum will determine whether he sticks with his new windup, reverts to the one that helped him win the last two National League Cy Young Awards or pitches from the stretch.

"You don't find consistency by not picking up a ball," he said. He indicated that he might consult his father, Chris, who helped him develop his pitching mechanics, though for simplicity's sake the younger Lincecum has been increasingly trying to monitor himself.

Remaining confident also is part of that process.

"Just know that you're going to come out of it and not to get too down about it," said Lincecum, noting that he feels fine physically. "Everybody in here has high expectations of themselves, and when things like that happen, you kind of wear it. It's about bouncing back and staying mentally strong."

Still, placing Lincecum's outing in perspective is startling. He has yielded more than six runs just once in his 114-game career. As a rookie on June 13, 2007, he lasted 3 2/3 innings against Toronto and was responsible for all of the Blue Jays' scoring in a 7-4 loss. He allowed six runs for the second time this season -- the other lapse occurred in a 4 2/3-inning stint on May 26 in a 7-3 loss to Washington -- and for the fifth time in his career. But the other three instances occurred in 2008 or earlier.

Lincecum has lasted less than five innings in four games this year. That happened twice last season.

The Cubs' four first-inning runs matched the number of runs he allowed in the first innings of his 32 starts last year. Entering this game, Lincecum's career first-inning ERA was 2.09, his best of any inning.

Cubs starter Ryan Dempster (10-8), who yielded four runs (three earned) and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings, appreciated his teammates' effort.

"I was able to make some pitches in situations and get out of jams," Dempster said. "More important, these guys came out and put a four-spot up against Lincecum and that's not an easy thing to do. They came out swinging the bats great."

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