Game Wrap 5/11/2011: Giants 4 D'Backs 3

It wasn't a walkoff win tonight, but still an interesting and exciting game the Giants won. Jonathan Sanchez battled poor fastball command in the early innings but hung tough to keep his team in the game. The Giants offense chipped away at Armando Galarraga and managed to gain the lead in time for Sanchez to get credit for the victory. The bullpen nailed it down from the 7'th inning on. Key lines:

Andres Torres- 2 for 3, 2B, BB. BA= .324. Torres is back! On base 3 times out of 4, his last hit, the game winner, was one of his patented long line drives that seemed to carry forever and finally bounced into the CF seats for a ground rule double driving in Tejada from 3B.

Aubrey Huff- 1 for 4, HR(4). BA= .211. Huffy got ahold of one and sent it to the top of the wall in right-center, a prodigious blast into a swirling wind that had picked up as the game went along.

Miguel Tejada- 3 for 4, 2B. BA= .213. It's a wonder what a little competition will do for you. In fairness to Tejada though, he has hit a lot of balls hard that have been caught.

Jonathan Sanchez- 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 3.68. After his last start, it was easy to think Sanchez was headed for another early exit after giving up a leadoff double and a walk. He was able to limit the damage in the first inning and again in the second. After a Henry Blanco HR in the 4'th, he really settled down and pitched fine 5'th and 6'th innings to end up with the QS and the W. Hopefully he grew as a pitcher in the process. A nice, gritty effort from Durty tonight.

Ramon Ramirez- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.08. Ramirez looks a bit bigger than he did last year and he seems to have found another gear on fastball regularly getting it up to 94 and with all kinds of movement. Right now, he's pitching as well as anyone on the team.

Brian Wilson- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, Save(12). ERA= 4.15. Wilson clearly didn't have his best stuff tonight. He managed to dig himself out of a hole created by a leadoff double and a walk with no outs. On the last out, you had to hold your breath as Kelly Johnson sent on to the warning track in left-center. Wilson has been used a lot lately. Maybe he should be unavailable tomorrow? Better yet, maybe the Giants can build a big enough lead that it's not a Save situation in the ninth.

The Giants moved within percentage points of the Reeling Rockies who were rained out today. The Dodgers blanked the Pirates 2-0 to also gain a half game on the leaders at 3 games behind. The Dangerous D'Backs, of course, lost a half game to 4.5 games back while the Pesky Padres lost to the BrewCrew 8-6 and dropped to 5.5 games back.

Matt Cain takes to hill tomorrow afternoon trying to keep the winning streak going and complete the Giants second sweep in a row. The Giants have now won 5 in a row and 7 of their last 8 games.

Buster Posey seemed to get his bell rung a bit on a foul back that caught him flush in the middle of the faceguard on his catcher's helmet. The new helmets come to more of a point in front to deflect the energy of most foul tips, but this one was dead center. I would expect Buster to sit out tomorrow's afternoon game.