Offensive outburst backs sharp Shark, Giants down D’Backs

It was a beautiful day for baseball in San Francisco and the Giants took advantage of the nice weather, showing off some power and giving their starter some rare run support defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-3.

Jeff Samardzija pitched 6-1/3, striking out three and keeping the Arizona offense at bay. He opened the game walking the first batter he saw and watched him come around to score two batters later when the Giant-killing Paul Goldschmidt doubled him home. Samardzija settled down after that and didn’t give up another run until the RBI single in the fourth inning to Daniel Descalso.

Samardzija told SFBay how he felt about his performance:

“I felt pretty good today. I thought they battled me pretty well. I used the fastball today and that caused me to use a lot of pitches. They stayed short and didn’t strike out but overall I felt good the defense played well behind me especially Parker’s throw.”

But it was the Giants offense that headline this contest.

Miguel Gomez broke the seal for San Francisco, getting their first hit of the game in the second inning off of Arizona starter Patrick Corbin. He got things started, his two out single  was able to prolong the inning which led to Jarrett Parker driving a full-count fast ball over the center field wall for a two-run homer to give the Giants a 2-1 lead.

In the third, Hunter Pence sent a line drive to left field with the bases loaded to score Samardzija and Gorkys Hernandez making their lead 4-1. And in the fifth inning, catcher Nick Hundley slammed one back up the middle to score Hernandez and Buster Posey moving their lead to 6-2.

Arizona tried to rally back in the top of the seventh, loading the bases after a hit, walk and hit batter but a Bruce Bochy pitching change to Albert Suarez shut the door on Arizona’s comeback limiting them to only one run on a David Peralta RBI groundout making the lead 6-3.

Bruce Bochy spoke after the game about Suarez coming in and shutting things down.

“He’s a nice swingman, if you start him or have him in long relief. I wanted to give (Hunter) Strickland and (Sam) Dyson some rest but we did have Dyson up so its nice to see Suarez get a seven out save against a very good ball club.”

Up next

The Giants (44-69) finish their homestand with three against the Chicago Cubs (58-52) Monday night, when Matt Moore (3-11, 5.80 ERA) duels Jake Arrieta (10-8, 3.88 ERA).