It seemingly had been a very, very long time since the San Francisco Giants had a dominating performance on both sides of the ball at AT&T Park, but put together a doozy against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Madison Bumgarner was brilliant, Chris Stewart launched his first home run in the Show, and the G-Men blanked the Buccos on Grateful Dead night by a score of 6-0.
Bumgarner (W 7-11) led the charge for the Giants ninth shutout of the year, pitching seven innings of four hit ball, fanning 10 Pirates and walking one along the way. Bummy had struggled with his command a bit in some of his shorter outings this season, but was on point tonight pitching 17 first pitch strikes to the 27 batters he faces, along with throwing 71 of his 101 pitches for strikes. Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla would close out the game from the bullpen, leaving Buccos on the bases in both of their innings pitched.
Aubrey Huff had himself a night, going 3-4 with an RBI double in the fourth and a solo jack in the sixth, his 11th of the year. Chris Stewart's first home run as a Giant came in the fifth, leaving the team one solo homer short of the MLB record of 19 straight solo shots by Philadelphia in 1914. Cody Ross and Orlando Cabrera added RBI singles of their own in the 8th, along with an RBI groundout from Nate Schierholtz, but finished the night 0-3.
James McDonald (L 7-6) pitched very admirably for Pittsburgh, spraying only four hits in his six innings of work, while walking three and fanning four. It marked yet another outing that McDonald couldn't make it into the seventh inning, doing so only once so far in 2011 in his last outing against the Cubs.
With the win the Giants move to 64-53, keeping their half game lead over Arizona in the NL West. Full box score can be found here.
The Black and Orange will send out lefty Jonathan Sanchez (4-6 4.10 ERA) for the series finale on Wednesday, and will square off with Jeff Karstens (8-6 3.05 ERA) for the Pirates. First pitch is set for 12:45 am PT with coverage on CSN Bay Area and KNBr 680 AM.
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