San Francisco Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto turned it a strong performance on Thursday, allowing only two runs on five hits in a complete game win over the St. Louis Cardinals.
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Posey snapped a career-high 184 at-bat homerless streak with a two-run blast in Friday’s 8-2 victory and is 7-for-9 with four RBIs in the first two games of the series to lead the Giants, who trail the Dodgers by four games but are one ahead of the New York Mets for the top wild-card spot and three clear of St. Louis. Minnesota, which needs to go 8-7 the rest of the way to finish with fewer than 100 losses, just split a four-game series with the AL wild card-contending Tigers and will play the next 12 games against four teams – the Mets, Tigers, Seattle Mariners and Kansas City Royals – who are now over.500 and within six games of a playoff spot.
Pence got the Giants’ offense going with a two-run homer in the first inning, crushing a hanging breaking ball from Adam Wainwright into the left-field seats. The Giants have scored 14 runs over the past two games while allowing just four to the Cardinals.
DODGERS 6, DIAMONDBACKS 2 Rookie Brock Stewart pitched five effective innings and the Los Angeles bullpen took over from there as the NL West leader beat host Arizona.
Staked to a big early lead, Matt Moore (11-11) won for the fourth time in his last five starts. Fiers gave up singles to the first two batters he faced, but allowed only one more hit.
Astros 2, Mariners 1: Yuli Gurriel hit a two-run single, and Mike Fiers pitched six scoreless innings to lead Houston. This time it was Samardzija in the fifth inning, after singles by Eduardo Nunez and Denard Span had put runners at the corners with no out out.
“We just have to play better, that’s all there is to it”, manager Mike Matheny said. The Giants had erased the 1-0 deficit created by Moss’ first-inning homer with a run of their own in the second. Instead, it went for a sacrifice fly, scoring the game’s first run.In fact, all three baserunners advanced on Panik’s fly, setting up a two-run single by Posey on a blooper to right to make it 3-0.The Giants weren’t done. “We know where everybody stands”.
“It was great to see him start smiling and laughing when he touched home plate”, Belt said. After Giants manager Bruce Bochy didn’t have the confidence in him to start the ninth inning with a 2-1 lead, Castilla wound up blowing the save anyway after entering the game with one on and one out.
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That does seem to be the case, and if this turnaround ends up being the catalyst for another postseason run, it may go down as one of Bochy’s best decisions. Cueto threw 105 pitches in a game that was done in 2 hours, 33 minutes. The Giants beat the Cardinals in the NL Championship Series in 2012 and ’14, going on to win the World Series each time. NOTES: The Giants have won two in a row at home for the first time since August 18-19 against the New York Mets. He came off the disabled list Sunday after he had been sidelined since July 31 with a broken right thumb, and the medical staff and Matheny are being cautious to determine if Diaz can handle playing every day. Blanco had missed the previous 22 games.
