Game Wrap 6/15/2011: Giants 5 D'Backs 2

The Giants played a terrrific game on another hot desert evening and had some breaks go their way as they stretched their lead in the NL West by beating their closest pursuers. Key Lines:

Aaron Rowand- 2 for 5. BA= .250. Gamer was just that in the 8'th inning playing LF after a defensive substitution put Andres Torres in CF with Burrell coming out of the game. Kelly Johnson had blooped a single to LF and was on first base, not a slow runner by any means. Justin Upton then pulled a ball down the LF line into the corner. Gamer got himself in perfect position to field the carom and it bounced directly into his bare hand. In one motion his threw a strike to Tejada who was the relay man in shallow LF behind 3B. Tejada wasa able to calmly throw another strike to Eli Whiteside to nail Johnson by at least 5 feet. Eli didn't have to block the plate. He just put his glove in front the plate and Johnson had no choice but to slide into it. Might have been a game saver right there. Great defensive teamwork there!

Aubrey Huff- 2 for 4. BA= .239. Huff usually hits better against lefties and he seems to own Joe Saunders. He also seems to be playing more within himself instead of trying to be the hero of ever game.

Pat Burrell- 1 for 2, 3B, BB. Burrell hit a liner down the LF line that caromed straight back off a fencepost almost back to the D'Backs dugout. While Willie Bloomquist was chasing it practically all over the field, Burrell was humping it around the bases sliding into third with a triple. I'm surprised they didn't have to come out and give him a nitro or two under his tongue after that one! Pretty funny!

Bill Hall- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .229. Are the Giants catching lightning in a bottle with Hall? He singled in the go ahead run in the 6'th and then scored the first insurance run in the top of the 9'th after doubling over Chris Young's head.

Eli Whiteside- 1 for 3, 3B, BB. BA= .211. Whitey drove in Bill Hall with one insurance run and then scored another on a wild pitch. Nearly did a face plant on a headfirst slide into 3B but came up grinning. Whitey is 6 for 16 over his last 5 games with 2 BB's.d Gotta catch more balls behind the plate, though. He whiffed on a strike 3 to Kelly Johnson allowing Johnson to reach base.

Madison Bumgarner- 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 6 K's. W(3-8). ERA= 3.21. The roof was open again on a hot evening. Tough place to pitch and the D'Backs have a serious lineup. He gave up 2 dingers but they are both solo shots. Another strong game for the kid. Good to see him get the W.

Bullpen- 3 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. Not an overpowering night for the bullpen, but they got the job done holding a 3-2 lead which eventually built into a relatively easy win. Wilson gets his 20'th Save after allowing his usual 2 runners with 2 outs.

With the W, the Giants stretch their NL West lead over the D'Backs to 2.5 games. The Rockies beat the hapless Padres to remain 6 games behind while the Dodgers got hammered again by Cincinnati to fall 9 games back. The Pathetic Padres are now a full 10 games off the pace and fading fast.

Ryan Vogelsong tries to keep the magic going and pitch the Giants to a series sweep tomorrow evening against Ian Kennedy who is always tough on the Giants and has been tough on everybody this season.