Game Wrap 8/30/2014: Giants 3 Brewers 1

It was Jake Peavy's turn to take a no-hitter deep into the game.  This one lasted until there were 2 outs in the 8'th inning when Mark Reynolds poked a flare that dropped in RF.  The Giants offense put together a 3 run rally in the 4'th inning and that was enough for Peavy, the bullpen and a very impressive Giants defense.  Key Lines:

Michael Morse- 1 for 3, 2B.  BA= .281.  Morse doubled over Carlos Gomez in CF with Sandoval and Pence on base.  Pence almost ran down Sandoval at the plate in scoring the second run.  Morse is a tremendous bat to have in the 6 hole and he's not nearly the defensive liability at 1B that he is in LF, which creates a dilemma of what to do when and if Brandon Belt comes off the DL.

Brandon Crawford- 2 for 3, BB, SB(4).  BA= .228.  Crawford his looking like he feels better on the field.  In addition to a nice game at the plate, he made at least 2 highlight reel defensive plays in the field.  Maybe he should have gotten or taken some days off earlier if he was hurting?

Jake Peavy- 7.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K's.  ERA= 4.15.  Another throwback performance by Peavy.  This is the guy who the Giants had to battle against in San Diego all those years.  He has a 2.66 ERA in 7 starts for the Giants.  He took a no-no into the 8'th inning with the help of some pretty amazing defensive plays, which he acknowledged as he came off the field after giving up the hit.  After losing his first 3 starts for the Giants, he is now 3-1 in his last 4 starts and a big part of why the Giants are making noise in the pennant races again.

Sergio Romo- 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 3.96.  Romo struck out Carlos Gomez on 3 pitches and make him look pretty helpless at the plate in the process.  There was one hanger in the middle, though, that could have been hit a long way, that Gomez just missed.  Bochy obviously thinks Romo is back.  Romo would have come out for the 9'th inning had the pitcher's spot not come up in the bottom of the 8'th.  The Brewers had a string of RH hitters coming up which Romo is much better against, so it made sense.  Bochy wanted to save Casilla for todays's game.

Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 0 K, Save(13).  ERA= 1.82.  Casilla made it interesting by giving up a leadoff double to Lucroy followed by an RBI single to Braun.  In Casilla's defense, Lucroy and Braun are two of the best hitters in baseball and could do that to anybody.

The Dodgers lost to the Padres 2-1 in extra innings for the second night in a row, so the Giants Win closed the gap in the NL West to 2.5 games.  The Cardinals split a twinbill with the Cubs so the Giants lead for the first Wild Card playoff spot is 1 full game over the Cards, 2 games over the Pirates and 2.5 games over the Braves.

It's Madison Bumgarner's turn to try for a no-hitter/perfect game this afternoon facing Kyle Lohse.  Oh, and he's going for a series sweep and the Giants 6'th win in a row too!