Down 4-0 by the fifth inning, the Giants did not throw in the towels. Not one bit.
Matt Cain settled down and threw shutout innings in the fifth, sixth, and seventh for a final line of 7 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 6 K.
The Giants offense put together a noble (and successful) comeback effort. In the seventh inning, Posey cut the deficit to three with a solo home run. In the eighth, Renteria and Burrell cut the lead to one with back-to-back solo home runs. Finally, in the ninth, after a Cody Ross single (which he just barely beat out), Juan Uribe crushed a two-run homer to left-center field off of Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton.
Brian Wilson came in, and after Dodgers had runners on the corners and just one out, he was able to settle down and shut the Dodgers down, securing the Giants win.
The Giants, now that the Padres have lost a staggering nine games in a row, are now just two games back in the NL West.
Now, here are some notes:
Each day brings more evidence that Jose Guillen should not be a starting outfielder. Pat Burrell hit a home run, Andres Torres is, well, Andres Torres, and Cody Ross scored the game-tying run. Oh, yeah and Jose Guillen had a golden sombrero (four strikeouts in a game, for those of you that aren’t well-versed in baseball terminology).
Although not completely relevant to the Giants, it’s quite interesting to note that the Dodgers have not caught a runner stealing since July 23. Darren Ford stole second in the eighth inning with two outs and the Giants down 4-3.
The Giants have now executed three comebacks of four runs or more: June 4 against the Pirates; July 20 against the Dodgers (you might remember that as the game in which Bruce Bochy got Broxton taken out of the game because Mattingly stepped on the mound twice); and of course, Saturday, September 4 against the Dodgers.
Props to Pat Burrell: he was able to come off the bench and battle for an eight-pitch at-bat, culminating in his solo home run off of Octavio Dotel.
The Giants had four home runs. Quite satisfying.
Saturday’s game was symbolically a juxtaposition of the Dodgers’ and Giants’ relative seasons. At home, the Dodgers blew a game they should have won thanks to yet another poor performance by Broxton, who has brought the Dodgers down with him during his second-half downfall.
The Giants, in contrast, executed a beautiful comeback, and Brian Wilson was able to settle down and shut down the Dodgers to win the game, as he has done for most of 2010.
Uribe had a WPA of .622 on Saturday: he raised the Giants’ chances of winning the game by 62.2 percent with his offensive performance.
Watch out for Matt Kemp—9 for 20 in his career against Sanchez. If the Giants can secure the series win on Sunday night, it will go a long way toward building momentum as they get ready to face a hot Diamondbacks team and then the division-leading Padres.
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