[新聞] Giants pound on D-backs
05/29/2008 2:30 AM ET
Giants pound on D-backs
Team amasses season-high run total vs. NL West leaders
By Chris Haft / MLB.com
PHOENIX -- Although Wednesday night's game at Chase Field wasn't officially
part of the Giants' 50th anniversary celebration, they performed as if Mays,
McCovey and Cepeda appeared in the batting order.
Ray Durham, Bengie Molina and Fred Lewis fared quite nicely as facsimiles of
the San Francisco Hall of Famers -- along with the rest of the Giants, who
rolled to an 11-3 triumph over the Arizona Diamondbacks. The decision assured
the Giants of a winning record on their three-city, nine-game trip. They're
5-3 entering Thursday's finale.
The role reversal in this series continued as the third-place Giants, who
amassed a season-high run total, subdued the National League West-leading
D-backs for the second time in a row after losing nine of 11 games here since
the beginning of the 2007 season.
The Giants also sustained their offensive surge in May. They're batting .280
and averaging 4.7 runs per game this month, compared to corresponding figures
of .245 and 3.2 in March/April. This improvement has been offset by the
Giants' .235 overall average with runners in scoring position, which
partially accounts for their 9-15 May record. But San Francisco has begun to
emerge from these doldrums, hitting .295 with runners in scoring position in
its last seven games.
"We're getting our hits. It's just a matter of getting runs across the
board," center fielder Aaron Rowand said. "I think you are seeing what we're
capable of doing. It's just a matter of doing it consistently."
Leading the charge against the D-backs was Durham, who has hit for average
(.333 in his last 31 games) but little power, as his .382 slugging percentage
entering the game demonstrated. This time, Durham drove the ball as
impressively as he did two seasons ago, collecting four RBIs with a
second-inning home run and a bases-loaded double in the sixth, which happened
to be the second four-run inning in a row for the Giants.
Durham's homer was his second of the season and his first in 111 at-bats
since April 5 at Milwaukee. He explained his outburst by paraphrasing the
adage of getting a good pitch to hit.
"Earlier, when I was struggling, I was taking a lot of fastballs," said
Durham, who's batting .289 overall. "Now that I'm swinging the bat halfway
decent, or the way that I feel that I can, I'm swinging at those fastballs."
Molina, the NL's reigning Player of the Week, went 3-for-4 with two RBIs
while extending his hitting streak to 10 games. He's bating .590 (23-for-39)
in that span.
"When good hitters get in a zone, they're fun to watch," manager Bruce Bochy
said. "Bengie's been in a zone for a while."
"There's a couple of things he can work on," Durham deadpanned. Turning
serious, Durham said of Molina, "He's amazing. I enjoy watching him hit."
The Giants had much to enjoy against Arizona's Doug Davis (2-2), who made his
second start since undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous thyroid, and four
relievers. Complementing Durham and Molina, Emmanuel Burriss stroked a
two-run single to conclude the fifth-inning uprising, Rowand stroked a pair
of RBI singles and Lewis reached base four times and scored three runs. Every
starting position player hit safely except for Randy Winn, who scored two
runs.
Luck clearly aided the Giants. A pair of infield singles abetted their big
fifth, Davis' final inning. Starter Jonathan Sanchez (3-3) earned his first
win since April 25, ending a streak of five fruitless outings, while blanking
Arizona for five innings. But he needed two line-drive double plays to
survive.
"I thought they were base hits," admitted Sanchez, who departed after
surrendering two runs in the sixth.
But after watching the Giants drop six of their first seven games, then
endure two losing streaks of five games or more during May, Bochy welcomed
the good fortune.
"The ball's got to bounce your way sometimes," Bochy said.
Chris Haft is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the
approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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