Giants back locked-in Beede just enough for 1-0 win

Rookie Tyler Beede (W, 5-9, 5.02 ERA) has struggled to find himself this season, but facing the Marlins Friday he was simply marvelous.

Beede had all of his pitches working and matched Sandy Alcantara (L, 5-13, 3.93 ERA) goose-egg-for-goose-egg through 6-1/3 innings of three-hit ball, and with the help of two other rookies he locked down the Giants 1-0 series-opening victory.

Beede got into a rhythm right away and he said it helped him string each shutdown inning after the next together for his second consecutive positive outing.

He said that while he wanted his offense to be able to put something together, he felt the quicker he could get back out on the mound after each inning, the better:

“I wanted to be out there every chance I could get, I just felt that good. I felt like my rhythm and tempo were allowing me to repeat my delivery and throw quality pitches, and me and Buster were on the same page.”

Beede scattered five strikeouts and relied on his defense to do its job, so 33,419 fans enjoyed watching tight defense on a warm summer evening, even as they groaned at the Giants repeated failure to cash in.

After Beede allowed a leadoff single to Starlin Castro in the second, rookie second baseman Mauricio Dubón immediately turned two on a grounder to clean the slate.

When Jorge Alfaro led off the next inning with bullet to right, Mike Yastrzemski came though with a stunning shoestring catch to steal a hit.

And Vogt, transplanted to left field from his normal position in the squat, raced to snag a sharp liner, nearer to center than left, to open the fourth.

All three of these plays contributed to low-stress innings for Beede, allowing him to maintain his locked-in rhythm, something he said he appreciated:

“The guys helped me out a lot today, they had some great plays out there. Yaz obviously had a great diving play, Vogt was looking nimble out there in left and a great double play up the middle from the guys.”

With one out in the seventh and at 87 pitches, manager Bruce Bochy decided to quit while he was ahead and hooked Beede for Tyler Rogers after the starter gave up a hit and then walked a batter.

The skipper was glowing with praise for Beede, though:

“It’s about being consistent with your command, he got back into the count when he had to by locating the ball — that’s what it’s about. He didn’t beat himself by walking guys or making mistakes, he had good focus out there, really good concentration.”

Beede said he would have liked to stay in a little longer but he was more than happy to give Rogers, with whom he came up through the minors, the ball:

“When I see Tyler Rogers come in any game, like I did in the minor leagues, I get pretty relieved just to know that he’s going to do his job and get out of any situation.”

The submarine reliever was first called up August 27, and Wednesday he changed his warmup music to the ever so appropriate, “Yellow Submarine” by the Beatles. He said it was at the direction of closer and bullpen leader Will Smith. Rogers said:

“I can hear him giggling in my head right now. I don’t think I could’ve said no.”

In 10 outings over 10-1/3 innings this season Rogers has allowed just five hits and two runs, and Friday he was perfect. He coaxed Castro to fly out to left before whiffing Walker, stranding an inherited runner and protecting Beede’s shutout.

Beede certainly appreciated the performance and said he was glad to see Rogers, who spent five of six years in the minors with a sub-three ERA before finally getting called up this season:

“I’m super happy for him to be able to come up here and just continue to be Tyler Rogers. The Giants are lucky to have a guy like that, who they can throw out there in big-time situations and they can lean on him. So another great hold from Rog. We joke all the time whenever he gets a hold, ‘Throw out the yellow football flag — holding Rog!’ So hopefully that’s a joke we can continue to throw out there.”

Rogers would pitch a 1-2-3 eighth as well, striking out two more and adding to his consistent body of work. He said he’s glad that Bochy has had the confidence to put him in so many high-leverage situations so quickly and he hopes to spend September proving himself to be reliable and hard-working:

“Anytime the manager puts you out there it’s a good feeling. I’ve been in some pretty big situations pretty quickly. [I] just fall back on my time in the minors. The situation’s the same, it’s just a different city.”

With lights-out closer Smith benched with back inflammation, Bochy gave the ball to yet a third rookie Friday to tie the bow in the ninth, Shaun Anderson (S, 2, 3-4, 5.09 ERA).

Anderson had experience in college as a closer for the University of Florida, but never in the big leagues until this week when he earned his first save Tuesday facing the Pirates.

The righty came through again Friday, allowing one hit before shutting the Marlins (51-96) down for his second career save, and Bochy said it’s a role the 24-year-old will be tasked with until Smith is back to health.

The skipper said he was very proud of the three rookies combining for such a clean shutout:

“This is the time for these guys to shine and show that they belong up here. You’re hoping that they show that they can pitch here and so it was a really nice job by the three kids today. You know that was a close ballgame, one-run ball game and that didn’t faze ’em at all.”

The Giants (71-77) had relatively more success at the plate against Alcantara than the Marlins did against Beede and Co. They touched Alcantara up for nine hits, but they stranded eight runners, including wasting two doubles from Brandon Belt. Ultimately they barely pulled out the win on a fifth-inning rally that produced just one run, courtesy of a leadoff Stephen Vogt double.

Bochy said it was satisfying to get the win, but he could do without the razor-thin margin or victory:

“I wish it was 10 nothing! I mean we play a lot of these [close] games, believe me. It’s always good to win a game like this.”

San Francisco finally scratched across the lone run in the sixth when Vogt swatted a 2-0 fastball off the wall in right to open the frame and moved to second on a ground out. Buster Posey then hit a slow grounder between third baseman Castro and shortstop Miguel Rojas and into right field to score the only run the Giants would need to seal the deal.

Up Next

Madison Bumgarner (9-8, 3.77 ERA) will face Robert Dugger (0-2, 4.29 ERA) in Saturday’s 6:05 p.m. game with the Marlins at Oracle Park.

Julie Parker is SFBay’s San Francisco Giants beat writer. Follow @SFBay and @InsideThePark3r on Twitter and at SFBay.ca for full coverage of Giants baseball.