It was a crazy afternoon at AT&T Park as the San Francisco Giants found themselves in an back-and-forth battle with the Atlanta Braves on the shores of McCovey Cove. Both teams traded blows, got into each other’s bullpens, and had themselves an old-fashioned dogfight down to the last pitch. Unfortunately for the home team, the Braves were all over Brian Wilson, and completed the sweep by a score of 9-6.
Chipper Jones started it off with a 2 RBI ground rule double in the first, followed by a two run Buster Posey homer in the fourth. Not to be outdone, Jason Heyward came back with a 3 run homer in the 7th, followed by a 4 run 7th by the Giants. Miguel Tejada started it off with a bases loaded walk, then a RBI groundout by Nate Schierholtz. Then a 2 RBI double by Aaron Rowand, who had been 0-9 for the series prior, gave the Giants back the lead. Dan Uggla came up in the 8th, and blasted a tying home run into the left field bleachers, forcing extra innings. Nate Mclouth hit a 2 RBI single with the bases loaded in the 10th, followed by a Brian McCann RBI single to make get to the final score of 9-6, all off of Brian Wilson (L 0-1) who pitched both the 9th and 10th innings.
Jonathan Sanchez, who had been battling the flu all week, had a decent start going 5 innings with 2 hits, 2 runs, 3 walks, and 5 strikeouts. Jeremy Affeldt was roughed up in his inning of work, allowing the 3 run jack by Heyward after walking two, Sergio Romo faced only Dan Uggla in the 8th, yielding a homer, while Guillermo Mota and Javier Lopez had perfect innings of work.
The Braves Brandon Beachy lasted for 6 full innings, allowing 3 hits, 2 runs, no walks, and 7 strikeouts. Releiver Jairo Asencio was whom the Giants roughed up in the 7th with 4 runs and 4 hits, but the rest of their bullpen was stellar this afternoon as Eric O’Flaherty got the win (W 1-1) and Johnny Venters notched his first save of the year.
With the loss the Giants fall under .500 to 10-11. Full box score can be found here.
The Giants have an off day tomorrow, and then are off to Pittsburgh to take on the Pirates for a 3 game set at PNC Park. Matt Cain (2-1 3.42 ERA) will square off with the Pirates Charlie Morton (2-1 3.33 ERA) for the series opener on Tuesday, with first pitch scheduled for 4:05 PT.