San Francisco Giants’ Angel Pagan (16) is greeted by teammate Gorkys Hernandez after hitting a two-run home run off Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Joel De La Cruz during the second inning of a baseball game, Friday, Aug. 26, 2016, in San Francisco.
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Albert Suarez started in place of Jake Peavy, who was placed on the disabled list earlier in the day with a back strain. Giants manager Bruce Bochy said he has not decided who will pitch in the No. 5 spot in the rotation moving forward. “That three-run homer was the difference in the game and our [bullpen] did a great job to hold them there”. “I feel good now”, he said. “It’s good to kind of quiet the crowd a little bit because they get riled up when they’re up, if you can get on the board and get them down, they’ll back off you a little bit”.
Adonis Garcia bounced a single through the left side.
“I was feeling very good”, Suarez said. I put some good swings on those pitches. It was supposed to be outside and it wasn’t. “I just tried to keep my head up and get ready for the next one”.
Jeff Samardzija had a simple game plan against the Atlanta Braves that helped him earn a much-needed win and moved the slumping-but-still-surviving San Francisco Giants closer to first place in the NL West. But they all came in succession leading off the fourth, and produced the only runs Foltynewicz would need.The 24-year-old, who limited the Giants to one run on three hits over six innings in a 5-3 Braves win earlier this season, almost duplicated the feat in the rematch.He gave up a solo home run to Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford, his 12th, leading off the second inning, but limited the Giants to just four other hits before leaving with two on and two out in the eighth.A two-out double by Denard Span and walk by Angel Pagan put the potential tying runs on base in the eighth and brought the hard-throwing Cabrera out of the bullpen.He got Joe Panik to ground softly to first baseman Freddie Freeman to kill the threat.Foltynewicz (7-5) walked one and struck out six in his 7 2/3 innings. The 24-year-old struggled with his control before being demoted at the end of June, issuing as many walks as strikeouts (29) while surrendering eight homers in 50 2/3 innings – including three home runs in a four-inning loss to the Giants on June 2. The left-hander said he “couldn’t have walked up there and set (the pitch) in a more flawless place”.
His only mistake came when Crawford socked an 0-1 fastball for his 12th homer. He played through it on Friday but said when he went to take batting practice in the cage on Saturday afternoon he “couldn’t take a full swing”. “It’s very impressive where it landed”. The Giants had an even later lineup scratch when 1B Brandon Belt came up with a sore neck after warmups. Belt came off the bench to pinch-hit in the eighth and struck out against Foltynewicz. The move announced Saturday is retroactive to August 21.
Peavy underwent an MRI on Saturday, the results of which weren’t immediately known, Bochy said. He was throwing to Trevor Brown, with catcher Buster Posey getting a night off. Hunter Pence missed a second consecutive game with hamstring tightness. Bochy said Pence continues to improve, but is still day-to-day. He’s expected to slot into the fifth spot in the rotation the next time it comes up on September 2.
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Braves: RHP John Gant was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett to make room for Blair. He is 0-5 with a 7.99 ERA and 1.757 WHIP. Cueto has two wins and a 3.86 ERA in his previous three games against the Diamondbacks.
