SAN FRANCISCO – The Giants didn't make a splashy move at the trade deadline, but promoting righthanded pitcher Tristan Beck back up to San Francisco this week has added a reliable arm to the bullpen.
Thursday, the right-hander pitched four scoreless innings with three strikeouts following Giants opener Scott Alexander's scoreless inning to help secure a 1-0 victory over the Diamondbacks (57-53) and a series victory over San Francisco's division — and NL wild-card — rival. This followed two innings of scoreless relief in Sunday's victory over the Red Sox after Beck was recalled from Triple-A Sacramento.
Beck, a Stanford alum, has allowed five earned runs in 32 innings pitched across his two major league stints, walking just nine and striking out 23.
The 61-49 Giants, now tied with the Orioles for the most wins in the major leagues when scoring fewer than three runs (44), pulled four games ahead of the Diamondbacks in the NL West standings.
After stringing together a couple of somewhat high-scoring games, tallying four runs in back-to-back games for the first time in two weeks, San Francisco got carved up by RHP Brandon Plaadt early on, who entered the game with an 8.20 ERA.
Shortstop Brandon Crawford, who hit a triple and a home run respectively in his previous two games, and .305 hitter Wilmer Flores were not in the lineup for rest. Kapler told the media pregame that Crawford had jammed his pinky finger during Wednesday's triple.
In his first trip through the lineup, Plaadt retired all nine in a row. The second showdown with leadoff hitter LaMonte Wade was another story. Wade hit his 11th home run of the season over right field to give San Francisco an early 1-0 lead.
Wade entered the game with a .457 OBP as a leadoff hitter, third-highest in the league, and now has four hits in his last three games after being mired in a 12-62 slump. Wade's home run was all the offense the Giants would get or need, being held to 2 hits.
The Giants went with another opener, giving Scott Alexander one inning before turning to the 27-year-old Beck, who threw four scoreless innings in a featured role.
The Giants are now 15-5 when employing an opener.
Sean Manaea came in for a cup of coffee before being replaced by Luke Jackson.
Arizona had one of its best chances to score in the top of the sixth, when leadoff hitter Corbin Carroll swiped his 34th bag of the season, then advanced to third on a rare bad throw by rookie catcher Patrick Bailey.
Jackson induced a harmless Emmanuel Rivera flyout to Michael Conforto for the third out.
Taylor Rogers worked his way out of another two-runner jam in the top of the eighth, getting a popup and then taking a ground ball to the shoulder before making the throw over to first.
The Giant's bullpen and defense, which has had the second-best fielding percentage in baseball since July 1 (.994), closed out the game. Camilo Doval got his 33rd save of the season, Beck earned the victory and improved to 3-0, and Pfaadt dropped to 0-5.
The Giants finished the nine-game homestand with a 7-2 record, and won't have to travel very far to face their next opponent. The flailing Oakland A's and their league-worst 30-79 record will host the team on Saturday in the Bay Bridge series.
No comments:
Post a Comment