It was the Giants’ first splash hit since September 2014, when Belt hit one off Andrew Cashner – 622 days ago.
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His performance on Wednesday night almost matched that of opposing San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner.
Only when the bullpen pulled it out could Williamson exhale. He struck out seven over eight innings, allowing three hits and two runs with two walks.
But he insisted he’d learned from earlier late-game failures, which helped lead to two demotions already this season.
“San Francisco has a good team, we have a good team, and we just had one of those series with each other back and forth”, said Young, whose fourth-inning homer against Bumgarner gave the Red Sox a short-lived 1-0 lead. Boston ranks in the top half at 11th with 72. The following game Betts in his first two at bats homered again, making it five home runs in seven plate appearances.
Red Sox right-hander Rick Porcello (7-2) and Giants righty Albert Suarez (1-1) are scheduled to pitch the series opener, which will be the first meeting of the recent World Series winners since 2013. Casilla faced only two hitters in the ninth, and struck out Jackie Bradley Jr. looking after Williamson dropped a Hanley Ramirez fly ball.
The Giants’ cleanup-hitting catcher is out of Tuesday’s lineup because of an irritated nerve in his right thumb, and from the way Manager Bruce Bochy described it, Posey is likely to miss Wednesday’s game, too. Shaw struck out on a curveball from Lopez, who Bochy replaced with Hunter Strickland as his sixth pitcher of the night. Brandon Belt hit a breaking ball from Price into McCovey Cove with one out in the fourth inning, marking the first Splash Hit by a Giants player since September 25, 2014 – also hit by Belt – and the 69 since AT&T Park opened. He had two hits in both of the games this series, and he has 18 hits over the last 10 games.
Price stayed in, retiring the next three batters on a ground out, strikeout and fly out to register his first complete game of the season. “It turns out to be a one-pitch swing”.
Bochy said it’s unbelievable that Posey, through all the normal dents and dings you pick up behind the plate, has put up such robust offensive numbers over the years. “You have to take the good with the bad”.
Jarrett Parker hit a home run for the second consecutive game, sending a solo shot into the arcade in the third inning. He threw 101 pitches through six innings, giving up four hits and the single run to the aforementioned Young. Before C Trevor Brown did it Wednesday night, the last Giant other than Posey to start a game pitched by Bumgarner was C Andrew Susac on September 17, 2014.
Boston loaded the bases in the top of the tenth against Giants closer Santiago Casilla, who struck out two in a flawless ninth but ran into trouble in the 10th.
Red Sox: Brock Holt, sidelined since May 20 with a concussion, was set to spend all day Wednesday being examined by renowned concussion specialist Dr. Micky Collins at the University of Pittsburgh. He spent Wednesday being examined by the University of Pittsburgh’s renowned concussion experts. “The symptoms are there but they’re diminishing”, Farrell said.
Super-sub Gregor Blanco has filled in admirably for right fielder Hunter Pence (hamstring surgery), but the club has struggled to get consistent production in left since Angel Pagan (strained hamstring) exited the lineup on May 23. RHP Sergio Romo (elbow strain) threw up to 90 feet. In order to improve on last seasons performance in the next 88 games Betts needs to hit basically at the same average and only needs 4 more home runs and 32 runs batted in.
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That’s what the specter of facing a left-hander with a 1.91 ERA in 12 starts will do.
