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Giants v. Cardinals, MLB Scores: Cards Drop Giants 6-1 to Avoid Series Sweep

The San Francisco Giants took the series 2-1 from the St. Louis Cardinals

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13 Total Updates since April 7, 2011
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Giants vs. Cardinals MLB Series Recap: San Francisco Can't Get The Sweep

The San Francisco Giants are making it a habit to win games in close and exciting fashion. Whether it be ninth inning comebacks to force extra innings that would eventually end in the twelfth in the pivotal home opener, or a ball slammed into centerfield after working a full count with two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth. Their loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in game three notwithstanding, Giants fans (and the team as a whole) should feel good about this past series and what they were able to accomplish in the clutch.

Giants Pitcher of the Series: Matt Cain - It's true that Cain had his earned run streak broken, but if the alternative is the slightly underwhelming bullpen or Jonathan Sanchez, it has to be Cain by default. He did go seven innings with five strikeouts, while allowing five hits and two earned runs.

Giants Hitter of the Series: Miguel Tejada - He got the walkoff in game two that was just amazing, seeing that ball drop into centerfield and out of the guy's hands was great, but he also hit a homerun in game one, a 5-4 victory in game one. It definitely was needed.

Stat of the Series: Brian Wilson's bad outings - Hey, not all stats of the series need to be good ... something awfully telling right now is the two hits and two runs he gave up in game two ... the Giants would eventually win the game, but Wilson needs to get that figured out more than anything, so that's why that stat sticks out.

Upcoming Schedule: The Giants will take on the Los Angeles Dodgers home at AT&T Park for a three-game set beginning on Monday and ending on Wednesday. After that, they're hitting the road again when they face the Arizona Diamondbacks for a three-game set.

Series Results:

Friday: Giants 5-4
WP: Dan Runzler (1-1)
LP: Brian Tallet (0-1)

Saturday: Giants 3-2
WP: Ramon Ramirez (1-0)
LP: Ryan Franklin (0-1)

Sunday: Cardinals 6-1
WP: Kyle Lohse (1-1)
LP: Barry Zito (0-1)

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Giants v. Cardinals, MLB Scores: Cards Drop Giants 6-1 to Avoid Series Sweep

The San Francisco Giants finished off their home opening series with the St Louis Cardinals with their third pregame ceremony in 3 days, honoring Buster Posey’s Rookie of the Year honors of 2010. But the joviality ended quickly after the game started as the Red Birds took out the defending champs by a score of 6-1.

Barry Zito (0-1) got pretty roughed up out there today, lasting 5 1/3 innings while allowing six hits, 4 earned runs, five walks and only one strikeout. His replacement, Guillermo Mota, had two strikeouts in his 2 1/3 innings of relief while allowing another two runs, including a homer to David Freese (3-4 3 RBI) to begin the 8th. Jeremy Affeldt was in after that for 1/3 inning of work, while Sergio Romo came in for the 9th.

The lone RBI for the Giants came from a broken bat single by Pablo Sandoval in the first inning, finishing the day 1-4. Freddy Sanchez went 2-4 while Eli Whiteside went 1-3 with a single. The only Giant to have an extra base hit today was Aaron Rowand in the 9th.

The Cardinals Kyle Lohse (1-1) had himself a great day on the mound, going for 8 full innings allowing 5 hits, an earned run, no walks, and five strikeouts. Albert Pujols went 0-5 for the day, Skip Schumaker went 2-4 with 2 RBI, while Matt Holiday went 1-2 with an RBI and a run scored in his first day back after an appendectomy.

Full box score can be found here.

The Giants start a three game homestand against the rival Los Angeles Dodgers Monday, with first pitch at 7:15 p.m. with a battle of lefties as Madison Bumgarner takes the mound for the Giants to face Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers.

For more discussion and analysis of the San Francisco Giants, head over to McCovey Chronicles to get in on the action.

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Giants vs. Cardinals: Miguel Tejada's Walkoff Leads Giants to 3-2 Victory over Cardinals

The San Francisco Giants continued their home opening weekend festivities with the World Championship ring ceremony, but the St. Louis Cardinals led by Jaime Garcia tried to spoil the party. But for the second night in a row the Giants used a walk off hit to get the win as Miguel Tejada’s flyball to center field was dropped, allowing two runs to score and the Giants to win by a score of 3-2 at AT&T Park.

Matt Cain went for 7 full innings tonight and allowed 5 hits, 2 earned runs, 2 walks, and 5 strikeouts. Dan Runzler came in in the 9th and made it interesting for himself with 2 walks, but got out of the jam with a strikeout. Ramon Ramirez (1-0) got the win in the ninth.

Mark Derosa hit a bloop single in the 5th that scored Pat Burrell, and was the extent of the Giants offense tonight until the ninth inning. The big news of the evening was that Andres Torres left the game with an injury to his heel, although what the specific issue is or it’s severity is still unknown. But his replacement, Nate Schierholtz, made the best of his opportunity going 3-3 with a triple on the night.

As for the Cardinals Jaime Garcia was lights out to start the game, and finished with 6 innings pitched, 4 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk and 9 strikeouts. Colby Rasmus scored the only RBI with a solo homer in the 7th while the other run came from a wild pitch from Cain in the 6th. Closer Ryan Franklin got tagged with the loss and the blown save.

Full box score can be found here.

The Giants finish up their 3 game series with the St. Louis Cardinals tomorrow for a 1:05 start at AT&T Park. You can catch the action on CSN Bay Area or KNBR 680 AM.

For more in depth discussion and analysis of everything Giants, head over to McCovey Chronicles to get in on the action.

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Giants vs. Cardinals, MLB Schedule Preview: Matt Cain Looking To Maintain Run Support

The San Francisco Giants' home opener was certainly an eventful one, no? For some reason, eight innings into the ballgame, Brian Wilson felt like the crowd hadn't yet got their moneys worth. So graciously, he decided to give up a hit or two, throw a couple slow pitches and generally put players onto base. The plate umpire apparently felt the same way, helping out Wilson with a few wayward calls and a terrible strikezone, and soon the bases were loaded! What fun for the home crowd, no? There's nothing like a dire situation at the top of the ninth inning to make you pucker up a little bit, and that's what we all got.

Giants fans appreciate the gesture, but it definitely was not a fun situation. Still, the defending World Champions (they will continue to be addressed as such throughout this season) battled back in the ninth to take it into extra innings, and eventually came away with the win in the twelfth inning. It was Aaron Rowand who brought home the scoring run to end the game with a deep blast to centerfield, giving him two home opener winning RBI in a row. Stranger things have happened.

But now we get Matt Cain again for the Giants, taking on Jaime Garcia for the Cardinals, and both are coming off impressive outings. Cain allowed five hits over six innings, while striking out three, extending his streak of not allowing an earned run to 27 1/3 innings in a 10-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Cain was impressive, dealing out there and generally very confident, but Garcia had himself a pretty good outing, as well.

The southpaw shut the Padres out 2-0 in the first shutout victory of his career in his last outing, He struck out a career-high nine batters and only allowed four hits in the win, so he's coming into Saturday's game with confidence. Cain is notorious for having a lack of run support from his supporting cast, but he was treated to several runs in his last outing - will that be able to hold up tonight against the Cardinals?

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Giants v. Cardinals, MLB Scores: Aaron Rowand's Game Winner Lifts Giants 5-4 in Twelfth Inning

The San Francisco Giants home opener at AT&T Park started off with a bang as the team celebrated last year’s success by raising their 2010 World Championship banner, while the fans were in for another treat as the St. Louis Cardinals forced the champs into extra innings.

And after leaving the bases loaded in the 11th, the Giants loaded them again in the 12th for Aaron Rowand to hit the game winning shot to deep center field for the 5-4 win against the Cardinals. It was an exciting and dare say torturous way to get the win, but it shouldn’t have even gotten passed the 9th in the first place.

Brian Wilson came out to close out the 9th, but ended up loading the bases, and with two outs allowed a 2 run single by Ryan Theriot after a 15 pitch at bat. Aaron Rowand hit a single with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, followed by a Buster Posey walk. Pablo Sandoval’s single brought up Rowand for the tying run, leading to extra innings.

Jonathan Sanchez had a decent outing for the Giants home opener, but I’m sure he would have liked to last longer. Sanchez went for only 5 innings, allowing 4 hits, an earned run, two walks and seven strikeouts. He did do a lot of work in those innings though, throwing 94 pitches in that span. Guillermo Mota pitched a perfect 6th for the Giants, Jeremy Affeldt took care of business in the 7th, but allowed the Cardinals second run in the 8th that Sergio Romo eventually cleaned up. After Brian Wilson’s blown save, Ramon Ramirez, Javier Lopez, and Dan Runzler came in for the rest of the game, allowing no hits or runs in 3 1/3 innings of combined work; Runzler (1-1) was the winning pitcher for the game.

Miguel Tejada made his first hit in a Giants uniform at AT&T Park a good one, smashing a home run to left center field to kick off the third inning, followed by RBI double from Freddy Sanchez scoring Jonathan Sanchez after he smoked a double as well. Pat Burrell hit his third of the season in the 6th for the Giants third and final run of the game while Brandon Belt was 1-4 with a double, his first major league hit at AT&T park. Andres Torres was 2-6 with a double, Aubrey Huff was 1-4 while Buster Posey was 0-3 with 3 walks.

As for the Cardinals, Jake Westbrook went for 5 2/3 innings, throwing 108 pitches with 8 hits, 3 earned runs, and 4 walks compared to just 2 strikeouts; he also had a throwing error on the day. Out of the Cardinals 8 hits only David Freese’s double was hot for extra bases; Albert Pujols went 1-6 for the day with a single and a stolen base. Brian Tallet (0-1) got the loss for the Cardinals.

Full box score can be found here.

The Giants will have their World Championship ring ceremony before tomorrow night’s game against the Cardinals, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m. with coverage on CSN Bay Area and KNBR 680 AM.

For more discussion and analysis of everything Giants, head over to McCovey Chronicles to get your fix.

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Giants vs. Cardinals, MLB Schedule Preview: TV Schedule For Giants Home Opening Weekend

As the San Francisco Giants begin their first homestand of the season Comcast SportsNet Bay Area will have extensive coverage of all three baseball games as well all of the pregame ceremonies before each game. The festivities begin with pregame coverage of the home opener on Friday, highlighted by the Flag Raising Ceremony. Saturday will feature complete coverage of the Giants players and coaches receiving their rings during the World Series Championship Ring Ceremony, and finishes on Sunday as the team pays tribute to Buster Posey with the Rookie of the Year Award presentation.

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area Schedule (all times PST):

Friday, April 8
12:00 PM: Giants Pregame Live (from AT&T Park)
12:45 PM: St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Francisco Giants
4:30 PM: Giants Postgame Live (from AT&T Park)
5:30 PM Chronicle Live (from AT&T Park)
6:30 PM: St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Francisco Giants (replay)
10:30 PM: SportsNet Central

Saturday, April 9

5:00 PM: Inside the Clubhouse: Defending the Title
5:30 PM: Giants Pregame Live
6:00 PM: St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Francisco Giants
10:00 PM: Giants Postgame Live
10:30 PM: SportsNet Central

Sunday, April 10
12:30 PM: Giants Pregame Live
1:00 PM: St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Francisco Giants
4:00 PM: Giants Postgame Live
4:30 PM: SportsNet Central
10:30 PM: SportsNet Central

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