[新聞] Giants' bats break out in twin-bill …
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Giants' bats break out in twin-bill opener
By Chris Haft / MLB.com | 6/28/2011 8:06 PM ET
CHICAGO -- Unfortunately for the Giants, it remains a novelty when their
offense emerges. Fortunately for them, their outburst Tuesday against the
Chicago Cubs was timely.
Ryan Vogelsong fell short of his stifling standards, but the Giants
compensated by thumping Cubs pitchers early and often to capture the opener
of a day-night doubleheader at Wrigley Field, 13-7.
San Francisco lengthened its winning streak to six games, reached a
season-high run total and collected 18 hits, another 2011 best. Each Giant in
the starting lineup hit safely, led by Miguel Tejada and Pat Burrell, who
rapped three apiece.
The Giants asserted themselves in the first inning by scoring three runs, a
total they exceeded only twice in their previous 10 games. Manager Bruce
Bochy called his club's uprising essential, "especially when you figure
you're going to give up a few more runs than normal." The liveliness of
batting practice and the warm weather (game-time temperature: 79 degrees)
indicated to Bochy that this would be a higher-scoring affair than the Giants
typically experience.
They welcomed the difference.
Aaron Rowand, Tejada and Burrell, who have endured barren stretches
offensively, combined to amass eight hits, seven RBIs and six runs scored.
Rowand entered Tuesday batting .220 (11-for-50) with just two extra-base hits
in June. But he went 2-for-5 with a walk and highlighted his day with a
bases-loaded double that drove in three of the Giants' five runs in the fifth
inning.
Mired in a 9-for-47 skid (.191) as the game began, Burrell went 3-for-5 to
lift his overall batting average from .225 to .237. He singled home a
first-inning run, launched a two-run homer in the third and singled and
scored in the fifth.
Tejada concluded the Giants' scoring with a ninth-inning homer that probably
seemed meaningless to everybody but him. It was his first long ball since he
connected off St. Louis' Jake Westbrook in the April 8 home opener, ending a
drought of 225 at-bats.
The Giants tormented Cubs starter Doug Davis (1-7), who permitted 10 runs and
12 hits in 4 2/3 innings.
"He's flat got to be a pitch-maker," Cubs manager Mike Quade said. "He walks
a fine line. He doesn't have the kind of stuff that he had when he was a
youngster. He needs to get people swinging. He needs to get them off the
plate."
Rowand set the offense's pace by scoring San Francisco's initial run on
Aubrey Huff's first-inning single. Unsure whether center fielder Tony Campana
would catch the ball, Rowand took a couple of steps back toward second base
before accepting third-base coach Tim Flannery's "go" signal and churning
home. He made it with a headfirst slide, brushing the plate with his left
hand an instant before Cubs catcher Koyie Hill tagged him.
"I expect [Flannery] to send me on every ball until he tells me to stop,"
Rowand said. "That ball, it's a coin flip whether [Campana] was going to be
able to catch it. I didn't want to get doubled off if he comes up with it, so
I had to hold for a while."
Vogelsong (6-1) won his third consecutive decision despite yielding a
season-high six runs (three earned) in five innings. That ended his streak of
outings in which he allowed two runs or fewer at nine, one short of Juan
Marichal's San Francisco-era single-season best of 10 in 1966.
"I never really got comfortable all day," said Vogelsong, who surrendered two
home runs -- matching the total he allowed in his previous nine games.
"Rhythm-wise, tempo-wise, sometimes I was too quick, sometimes I was too
slow. I just never really got a comfortable pace going."
Vogelsong still flashed the form that has made him a candidate for the
National League All-Star team. With two runners aboard in the third inning,
Vogelsong escaped by striking out the Cubs' fourth and fifth hitters, Aramis
Ramirez and Carlos Pena. Ramirez missed a 91-mph fastball one pitch after he
hit a vicious foul line drive. Behind on the count 3-1 to Pena, who hit a
two-run homer in the second inning, Vogelsong flung two changeups in a row
past him to end the threat.
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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