Johnny Cueto battled Coors Field to a QS while the Giants got sustained offensive production up and down their lineup to take the rubber game of the weekend series. Key Lines:
Denard Span- 3 for 5, HR(2), Assist(3B). BA= .268. Span's dinger was a long tater into the middle deck in RF, estimated distance 441 ft. He also surprised Gerardo Parra, who is not slowpoke, by throwing him out when he tried to advance to 3B on a long flyball out. Span got some help from Matt Duffy who has become quite the tagging wizard at 3B. On this play, Duffy moved several feet toward 2B to take the throw and then slapped a tag down on Parra's leg before his hand hit the bag.
Buster Posey- 3 for 4, 2B, BB. BA= .280. Buster reportedly called a hitters meeting before Saturday's game. It seemed to light a fire under him as much as the rest of the lineup. 5 hits, 3 for extra bases in the last two games.
Hunter Pence- 3 for 5, 3 2B. BA= .304. Pence appeared to be moving much better today than Saturday. This was confirmed by postgame comments reported by Baggs. He basically played pepper with the Coors Field OF wall in this game.
Brandon Belt- 2 for 5, 2 2B. BA= .289. Belt was also moving much better and did not appear to be slowed at all in legging out this 2 doubles.
Brandon Crawford- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .260. Crawford has become THE elite defensive SS in MLB. His UZR/150 so far this year is 29.5 compared to 11.9 last year. That is well ahead of the #2 Nick Ahmed of the D'Backs. Crawford as accumulated an fWAR of 1.8 so far. With the season almost exactly 1/3 completed, he's on a pace for 5.4 compared to 4.7 last year.
Gregor Blanco- 3 for 3, 2B, BB. BA= .276. Blanco has a 5 game hit streak in which he is 10 for 21. He's had a rough time on the basepaths, though, with instant replay not being kind to him.
Johnny Cueto- 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 2.31. Cueto reportedly had a stiff back which curtailed some of the variations in his windup and delivery. He battled the Rockies and Coors Field until the Giants offense had built up a comfortable lead(if there is any such thing at Coors Field) enabling the bullpen to have a relatively stress-free final 3 innings.
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The Win enabled the Giants to remain 4.5 games ahead of the second place Dodgers who topped the Mets 4-2. The Rockies fell 7.5 games behind in 3'rd place with the Loss. The D'Backs beat the Padres 6-2 leaving the Snakes 9 games behind in 4'th place and the Padres 11.5 behind in the cellar.
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The Giants move on to Atlanta where they have an early game tomorrow with Jeff Samardzija facing Mike Foltynewicz. We'll just call it Shark vs Folty, or maybe the battle of the eye charts.
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