Game Wrap 7/26/2015: Giants 4 A's 3

The Giants completed a sweep of their cross Bay rivals by jumping on A's starter Kendall Graveman early then making a 1 run lead stand up over the last 5 innings.  Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 1 for 4, BB.  BA= .269.  Pagan reached base in his first 2 PA's, then used his speed to stay out of DP's and came around to score both times to account for half of the Giants 4 runs.  He reached base 6 times in 15 PA's for the series.

Matt Duffy- 2 for 4, HR(9).  BA= .302.  Matt Duffy drove in 3 of the Giants 4 runs.  He continues to make a lot of things look silly such as draft and prospect rankings, big longterm FA contracts and trades for suspect veterans to fill holes.  The Duffman has the 3'rd highest fWAR of MLB rookies in a strong year for rookies and is forcing his way into the conversation for ROY.  Matt Duffy!

Buster Posey- 4 for 4, 2B.  BA= .328.  Buster is now 6'th in MLB in BA, 4'th in the NL.  He is also 3'rd in the NL in fWAR at 4.4.  Bryce Harper continues to lead with 6.0.

Brandon Belt- 2 for 4.  BA= .280.  Belt was 5 for 12 in the 3 game series.  He is hitting .375 over his last 7 games and .327 over his last 15.

Tim Hudson- 5 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 4.80.  A shaky 5 innings for Timmy against his old team, but he completed 5 to get the W.  Are the Giants looking for a SP at the trade deadline, to replace Huddy in the rotation?

George Kontos- 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 1.46.  Kontos' terrific season continues.  Where would the Giants be without him?  Does he deserve to be in the conversation for team MVP?

Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's, Save(26).  ERA= 2.97.  Another torture Save.  I still think the Giants biggest need at the trade deadline is a shutdown closer, but Casilla seems to keep getting the Saves, if in heart attack inducing fashion.

The Win cut the Giants deficit in the NL West to just 1 game behind the Dodgers.  So much for Dave Cameron's prediction on Fangraphs that the Dodgers would put the NL West race to bed by the trade deadline or by the All-Star break, I don't remember which, but boo Dave Cameron.  Wrong again!  I realize the Dodgers could pull away at any time.  The Giants have a very tough schedule in August, out right now, they are putting serious heat on the Dodgers and they finally  have both Hunter Pence and Nori Aoki healthy.  The Giants lead in the race for the second Wild Card playoff spot grew to 2.5 games over the Cubs.

The Giants now start a 3 game home series against the Milwaukee Brewers with another ROY candidate, Chris Heston, facing Kyle Lohse in game 1 tonight.