Photo by Josie Lepe
San Francisco, CA - After going six scoreless innings, the Giants found their offense in the seventh. Scoring four of their runs behind great defense, San Francisco continued their winning streak at home and shutout the D-backs 4-0. Unlike last night when the hits came from the top of the lineup, tonight everyone contributed.
"Every time we came back to the dugout we were cheering each other, 'Let's help him out!'" said Gregor Blanco. "We wanted to try to put a run across."
Hunter Pence leadoff the seventh with a walk and Blanco followed with a RBI double bringing the sellout crowd to their feet. Brandon Crawford was safe at first when he hit an infield single and pinch-hitter Matt Duffy hit a double driving in the Giants next run making it a 2-0 game.
The offense wasn't done yet, a wild pitch scored in Crawford while Angel Pagan was at-bat. San Francisco extended their lead 3-0. Pagan's sacrifice fly added on another run while Arizona almost emptied their bullpen. The hits continued in the eighth when Travis Ishikawa hit a RBI single making it a 5-0.
"It was one of those nights when I was kind of all over the place and couldn't really get anything consistently working for me," Ryan Vogelsong said. "I basically tried to throw the best pitch I could every time, and it worked out for us."
Vogelsong didn't have his best stuff tonight but he finally got the run support he's been missing most of the season. He tossed 6 2/3 innings, allowing two hits, five walks and three strikeouts. His counterpart Josh Collmenter lasted six innings allowing three hits, two walks, two strikeouts and one hit batter.
"His pitches were getting up there, he was out of synch, we had to get somebody going in case something happened," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. "He just had a hard time getting his rhythm in the first two innings. But what a great job he did to regroup, finding his delivery and was hitting his spots."
A good battle royal on the mound as the game remained tied 0-0 through six frames. Vogelsong walked his first batter in the first and walked two more in the second. He got better by the fifth when he struck out the side. Vogelsong then retired the next three batters before begin chased off the mound after giving up a double and his fifth walk in the seventh.
"They're playing well," D-backs manager Kirk Gibson said. "They got some breaks. They played hard. They keep pressing the issue, and we didn't respond."
San Francisco earned their eighth consecutive home win, their longest win streak since a nine-game run from May 6-22, 2011. They are now 15 games over .500 for the first time since June 25th. The Giants starting pitchers have collectively posted a 0.95 ERA along with 69 strikeouts and just 12 walks in their last nine games at AT&T Park.