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A's swept by Giants
By Joe Cronin June 14, 2009 |
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In a series with both teams going in opposite directions, the San Francisco Giants swept the Oakland Athletics in three games, the "Battle of the Bay". The reasons are apparent: great Giants pitching and poor Oakland hitting. On Friday, Tim Lincecum shut the A's down 3-0, on Saturday, Randy Johnson won 5-2, and today Matt Cain stopped the Athletics with one run off four hits. Just Jack Custs' first pitch home run in the right field seats as the second batter of the game. The final score was 7-1. Matt Cain pitched a complete game, only the seventh of his career, but his third is the last five starts. He struck out 9 and didn't walk anyone, throwing 119 pitches. "Matt has been good all year", said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, "tremendous change up. After the first inning homer, he was in the groove after that. He was even strong in the ninth. We're scoring runs for him now. He felt good and wanted to finish the game." This was the seventh win in a row for Matt. Is the most exciting play in baseball the inside the park home run? In the third, with Pedro Sandoval walking and on third after Rich Aurilia singled, Nate Schierholtz hit a ball to deep right center for an inside the park home run. "That shows how fast he is", adds Bochy, "It was hit in the perfect spot. Nate deserves more playing time." It is the most exciting play, just ask the Pac Bell faithful. Oh yes, Pablo Sandoval alse homered, in the first inning. The Giants have been playing very well as of late, winning 9 of their last 12, and 15 of their last 21. They are 34-28, six games above 500, and just about tied for the wild card. But it is waaay to early to talk about that, as today's game was number 62 in a 162 game schedule. But it's fun to look. Interleague play has the Angels in for three and Texas for three. As Manager Bochy says, "Two good American League teams are coming in. We have to play our best ball." Oakland starter Brett Anderson was tagged with the loss (3-7), giving up six runs in four innings. He struck out six and walked only one. |
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