SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
Aubrey Huff, an aficionado of disco music, changed his walk-up tune to the Bee Gees' '"Stayin' Alive" ' for this homestand. What a perfect symbol for the Giants' 4-3, 11-inning victory against Chicago that opened it.
In a game as frustrating as it was crucial, the Giants drew 10 walks in the first nine innings, seven by Carlos Zambrano in his first start since a June 25 dugout tantrum that landed him on the restricted list. But an offense that went stone-cold in Hotlanta stayed that way until it scratched for the winning run in the 11th against Marcos Mateo, a pitcher making his major-league debut.
Edgar Renteria dropped a flyball single down the left-field line to open the inning. Huff got him to third with a line single to right. The Cubs walked Buster Posey intentionally to load the bases for Pat Burrell, who stroked the first pitch deep into center field for a sacrifice fly that won the game.
"It wasn't looking good early," manager Bruce Bochy said. "We left some men on base, but after a tough trip in Atlanta, it was nice to get a win to start the homestand. The boys are glad to be home, there was a big crowd (41,943) and we had cooler weather. It was good to win that game."
Indeed, all the talk of this weekend's showdown series against first-place San Diego - including Jonathan Sanchez's prediction for a sweep - obscured the importance of this four-game set against the Cubs. They are playing out a bad season and had lost 10 of 11 games before coming to San Francisco.
If the Giants do not gobble up wins against this team, the Padres games will lose a lot of their sheen.
The Giants went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position, but countering that was a tremendous effort by the bullpen. Guillermo Mota, Sergio Romo, Brian Wilson, Ramon Ramirez, Javier Lopez and winner Chris Ray held the Cubs scoreless for 5 1/3 innings after Madison Bumgarner surrendered three runs over 5 2/3 for his first no-decision of the year.
"Our bullpen won the game for us," said Bochy, noting that the winning run came at a good time because "we were running out of pitchers." After 3 hours, 38 minutes of baseball, Bochy probably would not have been amused by the coincidence of that statement coming on the day the team finally reduced its pitching staff from 13 to 12.
For all its struggles, the offense did erase deficits of 2-0 and 3-2. The Giants finally cashed in a walk, to Andres Torres starting the fifth inning, when Renteria singled and Posey blasted a ground-rule RBI double to left-center. Zambrano's final act of wildness, a wild pitch, brought Renteria home for a 2-2 tie.
With the Giants down 3-2 in the sixth, Travis Ishikawa hit a one-out single and scored on Torres' two-out single to left.
Ishikawa played a bigger role later when he dived to stop what would have been a two-out, go-ahead single in the 10th by Koyie Hill. In the bottom of the inning, Ishikawa was thrown out at home trying to score from first on a Torres double, but no matter.
The Giants had experience due up in the 11th in Renteria, Huff and Burrell against a rookie pitcher, and they did what they needed to create the winning run.
"That's what you're hoping the meat of your order does," Bochy said. "Win the ballgame."
Tim Lincecum goes for his 12th win tonight.
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