The San Francisco Giants were looking to avoid the sweep Thursday afternoon at AT&T Park at the hands of the visiting St. Louis Cardinals. The Cards took the early lead but the Giants as Matt Cain struggled early, but the offense continued to battle throughout the day, eventually rallying to take the 7-5 victory at a blustery AT&T Park.
Cain was struggling from the get go, giving up a pair of sacrifice flies in the first inning to give St. Louis the early 2-0 advantage. Buster Posey would answer back with an RBI single in the bottom of the frame, then taking the lead in the second after a Brandon Crawford two RBI single.
Matt Holiday would launch a two-run homer off of Cain in the third to retake the lead 4-3, but the Giants had a lot more fight in them.
San Francisco would plate two runs the sixth after an Emmanuel Burriss sacrifice fly and a David Freese throwing error would score another run. They added two more in the seventh inning as well, including Charlie Culberson's first big-league RBI with a fielder's choice.
Jeremy Affeldt worked a perfect seventh, though Sergio Romo would give up his first RBI of the season when Yadier Molina took him deep to straight away center in the eighth. But it was too little too late for St. Louis as Santiago Casilla finished with the save in the ninth.
Cain (W 3-2) would earn the win despite struggling a bit through his six innings of work, giving up four runs on eight hits, while Adam Wainwright (L 2-5) took the loss after his 5.1 innings, giving up five runs (two earned). The Giants had RBI from five different players, while Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt and Buster Posey all had multi-hit games.
The Cardinals were giving the Giants their chances all afternoon, including three errors in the game and nine walks from their pitching staff. They also suffered a blow to their bullpen as reliever Kyle McClellan left in the middle of an at bat in the seventh inning with an apparent injury.
For more on the Giants, head over to McCovey Chronicles.
