There's a lot to celebrate, the Giants swept the Dodgers and Matt Cain earned his first win of the season. After two nights of walk-off wins, tonight seemed pretty normal at AT&T Park.
The offense and Hunter Pence had no problem with their at-bats to secure the 4-3 victory over Los Angeles. Pence went 2-for-4 with two doubles and a season high four RBI's and successfully has hit safely in 25 of the 31 games this year.
"It literally feels like it's been three weeks of one-run ball games, win or lose," said Hunter. "It builds character. It builds strength. We as a team feel like we play good as a unit. We're kind of getting numb to that close game, where you can really just focus on the task at hand."
There's a lot of truth to that statement. San Francisco has mastered the art of comeback games. The Dodgers again rallied back, as they did last night. But this time, there was no hero hitting a walk-off blast. The defense did their job for the win.
After Cain's exit, the bull pen took over in the eighth. George Kontos walked Juan Uribe to load the bases. Jeremy Affedlt faced pinch-hitter Adrian Gonzalez who hit a two-run single off the first pitch. Then Dee Gordon followed with a RBI single to cut the lead 4-3.
"I feel better about our club walking out of here than I did walking in," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "Coming in, I didn't think we were playing that good. But we played tough all series. I know we got swept. But I can't sit here and be all mad. I'm disappointed in the way we played tonight."
The Giants offense got rolling early behind Pence, after taking a 1-0 lead, his fielder's choice grounder scored Marco Scutaro in the third. Then he doubled in the fifth when he bounced a high fastball off the center-field wall scoring Pablo Sandoval and Buster Posey for the 4-0 lead.
Cain, who pitched his second best start of the season, typically does well when facing Los Angeles. He received a standing ovation when left the mound. Matt's victory snapped a streak of 11-games without a starter earning a win. A Giants starter hasn't won since April 21.
"All of us starters, we hadn't been pitching the way we wanted to as starters," he explained. "We wanted to get us off that little skid we were on. It just took some time."
"As usual, our boys are entertaining," manager Bruce Bochy said. "They made it close again. But I was happy for Matty, the way he threw the ball."