The San Francisco Giants defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks, 7-3, on Thursday behind a six-run second inning in their final home game of the year. Hector Sanchez, second baseman Marco Scutaro and right fielder Hunter Pence each had two RBI on the day.
Arizona pitcher Patrick Corbin got the start and found himself getting knocked around in the second inning. After San Francisco's Buster Posey led off the inning with a single, Pence took Corbin deep to score two. The Giants singled again, and a Sanchez double scored another run, putting San Francisco ahead 3-0. Pitcher Barry Zito added another single to push Sanchez to third, and a passed ball scored Sanchez and advanced Zito to second before Scutaro homered to clear the bases.
Zito went six innings and got the win, giving up three runs off six hits. He had three strikeouts.
Corbin took the loss and was pulled after the third inning, ending the day with the Giants nabbing seven hits and six earned runs off him as Arizona trailed 6-0. Diamondbacks pitcher Bryan Shaw went two innings and gave up a hit, and Arizona used three more pitchers to finish the game.
Arizona would score two runs in the fourth inning to put a little pressure on the Giants. The Diamondbacks loaded the bases with two outs, and a Chris Young single plated two runners. In the top of the sixth, Arizona's Cody Ransom hit a two-out double and Jacob Elmore followed it up with a ground-rule double to score another run for the Diamondbacks, cutting their deficit to 6-3.
But Sanchez knocked a solo home run over the left field fence in the bottom of the eighth inning to pad the lead by four runs.
With the division locked up, Bruce Bochy's team has a three-game series with the San Diego Padres and another against the Los Angeles Dodgers remaining on the schedule.