Crawford homered in the fourth inning and the Giants won a series for the first time since the All-Star break, defeating Miami 1-0 Wednesday.
Advertisement
“That was insane, right?” “It’s not really a baseball school”.
A’s 2, Orioles 1 • Jake Smolinski singled and scored the deciding run in the third inning, rookie Zach Neal earned his first career win as a starter and host Oakland held on to beat Baltimore.
The lone run came on a home run from Brandon Crawford to lead off the fourth.
Phelps allowed only four hits, walked three and struck out five, but limited the damage on the scoreboard to Crawford’s solo home run.
SAN FRANCISCO: The Giants have been a bad bet of late with Samardzija on the mound, losing all four of his last four starts and all four of his last four starts on the road.
Ryan Vogelsong (1-2) gave up two unearned run and three hits in six innings while striking out five and walking one.
Marlins: RHP David Phelps (5-5, 2.45) will start his second consecutive game after moving into the rotation from the set-up role.
Philadelphia’s Freddy Galvis hit a three-run home run in the seventh inning as the Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2. Despite his notoriously prickly reputation from back in the day, I don’t recall him being ejected very much during his career.
Samardzija walked a couple in the sixth and Bochy went straight to his ‘pen despite the fact that Samardzija had thrown just 82 pitches.
Crawford, two days after becoming the first big leaguer in 41 years to collect seven hits in a game, met his predecessor, Rennie Stennett, on the field prior to the game.
“He’s basically been our best pitcher for the last month”, Mattingly said.
Indeed, Crawford made his first All-Star Game previous year, when he also won a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger award.
“We couldn’t mount anything”, Mattingly said. He got three hits in that game, and two the next. The Dodgers had caught them after being behind by as many as eight games; the deficit was 6 ½ at the All-Star break. Bonds argued after Marlins pinch-hitter Chris Johnson struck out looking on a pitch that was shown by TV replays to be outside the strike zone.
“(Bonds) didn’t think it was a strike, and I didn’t either”, Johnson said. “Human error is part of the game”.
Miami closed the series with no runs in its final 17 innings and just two in 25 frames.
The Giants, of course, credited their pitching instead of faulting Miami’s offense.
“With that one-run lead, I was trying to protect it”, Samardzija said. “You can’t tell in or out from the dugout; you’re going off the players”.
After Phelps escaped that jam in the bottom half of the fifth, Ichiro and Realmuto reached, and with two outs pinch hitter Giancarlo Stanton stepped to the plate, spelling the end of Phelps’ outing. Giants C Buster Posey returned to the lineup after injuring a finger while sliding on Monday.
The seven-hit game was the first since Stennett went 7 for 7 for the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field in 1975.
Advertisement
RHP Andrew Cashner (4-8, 4.96) is scheduled to start for the Marlins when they begin a three-game series Friday against the Chicago White Sox.
