The offensive explosion, however, overshadowed yet another fantastic performance by Jonathan Sanchez, who seems to be showing consistency for the first time in his major-league career. His line: 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 12 K. He struck out a career-high 12 batters, but what's even more amazing is he was able to keep his walks to an absolute minimum - zero...quite an improvement upon his seven walks in his previous start. At this point, I think he's guaranteed a spot in the postseason rotation...or at least, he should be. He's got some of the best stuff in the majors, and when he's able to exercise control, he pitches like the elite stars of the game.
Notes:
- Huff and Posey's back-to-back home runs marked the 7th time the Giants have done so this year. The last time they did it was also against the Dodgers, when Renteria and Burrell hit back-to-back shots in LA on September 4th as part of a 5-4 comeback win.
- Jose Guillen finally homered. The whole purpose of his acquisition was to add a little pop to the Giants' lineup, and he has not shown much of it since coming here. The last time he hit a home run was almost a month ago, on August 17th against the Phillies. Let's hope this is the start of something...
- Jonathan Sanchez continued the incredible Giants starting pitching: Giants starters now have a 1.99 ERA over their last 17 games, during which they've tossed 13 quality starts.
- The Giants have a team ERA of 1.58 for the month of September, which is already halfway done. This leads the majors by a significant margin.
- Edgar Renteria had four hits in the leadoff spot. I don't think anybody saw this one coming...that was a bold move by Bruce Bochy -- not necessarily surprising by a manager whose philosophy centers around using veteran players, but nevertheless a bold move. The last time Edgar Renteria had four hits was way back in the beginning of the season -- on April 7, the third game of the season, Renteria went 5 for 5.
- Huff, Posey, Sanchez, Guillen, and Renteria each had multiple hits. It's not surprising to see the team score 10 runs when their 1, 2, 3, and 4 hitters each have a multi-hit game.
Tomorrow: Another battle of southpaws -- Bumgarner will face off against Randy Wolf. The Giants bat a collective .221 (36 for 163) against Wolf in their careers, although he's not a particularly great pitcher. He's got a 4.53 ERA on the year, but over his last nine starts he's had an impressive ERA of 3.07...Bumgarner doesn't pitch as well by the shores of McCovey Cove, but his best major league start ever was against this Brewers team. On July 6, he went eight scoreless innings at Miller Park allowing just three hits. He'll look to continue the recent dominance of the Giants rotation.
The Giants are back in first place. They have a 0.5 game lead in the NL West, and are tied for the lead in the NL Wild Card. This is a legitimate run at the playoffs, and if they can start consistently getting even three runs of support every game, they will surely get a ticket to October baseball.
Jonathan Sanchez, August 8, 2010: "If we get to first place, we're not going to look back."
