Maybe all they needed was a little kick in the pants.
On a day that saw the San Francisco Giants release two of their veterans players and call up another youngster, Bruce Bochy and his boys apparently were tired of losing ballgames. Jeff Keppinger and Pablo Sandoval's back-to-back jacks got the team rolling, while Madison Bumgarner's brilliant outing kept it going as the Giants avoided the sweep at the hands of the Chicago Cubs by a score of 4-0 at AT&T Park.
Bumgarner (W 9-12) was absolutely lights hand in his eight innings pitched this afternoon, allowing only two Cubs hits while walking only two, all the while fanning an impressive 11 batters along the way. He threw first pitch strikes to all but 5 batters he faced, 119 pitches total, while lowering his ERZ to 3.43 on the year. Sergio Romo shut the Cubbies down in the ninth.
As for the offense, Keppinger and Sandoval's back-to-back show ignited the crowd, hitting their sixth and 16th of the year respectfully. Kep would add another with an RBI single in the fifth, followed by a Chris Stewart RBI double in the sixth. Every Giants starter got a hit aside from Cody Ross (0-3) who continues to struggle and Carlos Beltran (0-3, BB) who has cooled off a bit the last few games.
Rodrigo Lopez (L 4-6) got shelled in his 5 and 1/3 innings, allowing all four runs on nine hits, along with two walks and two strikeouts.
With the win the Giants move to 72-65 on the season, crossing their fingers that the D'backs finally lose a game tonight. Full box score can be found here.
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