Game Wrap 09-05-2010: Giants 3 Dodgers 0

This was a game the Giants really needed to win. The season is dwindling down. The Giants need to win series and take advantage of opportunities to gain ground. Jonathan Sanchez came up clutch for his second start in a row facing a tough opponent in a pressure situation. There were a couple of times in the game where you could see him start to lose it, but each time he gathered himself and got back on track ending up with a dominant start and a much needed W. Buster Posey was again the sparkplug to get the Giants on board first and Juan Uribe supplied a couple of welcome insurance runs with another dinger. Key lines:

Buster Posey- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .328. Buster drew a walk in the second inning. Advanced to 3B on Jose Guillen's single up the middle and hustled home on Sandoval's sac fly to medium deep RF just barely sliding into home plate ahead of Barajas tag. Buster wore a hole in the seat of his pants the rest of the way.

Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 3, 2B, SF. BA= .273. Pablo was a big contributor with the sac fly and then singling ahead of Uribe's 7'th inning dinger.

Juan Uribe- 1 for 1, HR(19), 2 BB. BA= .249. Batting 8'th, the Dodgers wanted no part of Uribe as long as Sanchez was coming up next. I think they figured they would see a PH if they walked him in the 7'th. Uribe made them pay for pitching to him. He used his enormous strength to pull an offspeed pitch he go out in front of down the line into the LF short porch curving it around the foul pole.

Jonathan Sanchez- 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K's. ERA= 3.39. Just a dominating performance from a rapidly maturing Sanchez. I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again. I believe he is on the verge of becoming one of the elite pitchers in baseball.

Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 2.52. Had the Dodgers flailing at pitches with crazy, crazy movement.

Brian Wilson- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(40). ERA= 1.88. No messing around tonight. Wilson put them down 1,2,3 hardly breaking a sweat.

With the W, the Giants moved to just 1 game behind the NL West leading San Diego Padres who lost yet again to the Rockies 4-2. The Rockies moved up to 4.5 games behind the Pads, but did not gain ground on the Giants who remained 3.5 games ahead of them. In the Wild Card race, the Phillies finally lost a game to the BrewCrew 6-2 so the Giants gained ground there too, now 2 games behind the Phils.

The Giants continue their road trip in Arizona tomorrow afternoon for a Labor Day game against the D'Backs, who have played awfully tough lately. Madison Bumgarner leads off the series for the Giants against Ian Kennedy who has had a surprisingly good season. The Dodgers have a chance to help out the Giants with a series in San Diego. Vicente Padilla goes against Mat Latos in the opener.