If you thought the Giants had a big sixth inning on Thursday, Friday night probably knocked you out of your chair.
On an evening in which the Cardinals and Mets also won, The Giants blasted the Dodgers for seven runs in the sixth on Friday, en route to a 9-3 shellacking that keeps San Francisco in control of their postseason fate.
With all three teams winning, the Giants stay in the second Wild Card spot, a game ahead of St. Louis with two remaining. The Giants could clinch the playoffs tomorrow with a win and Cardinals loss.
After a rough first inning, Madison Bumgarner was solid, giving up only four hits in his next six, exiting in the seventh with five strikeouts. Bumgarner finishes the regular season with 251 Ks, joining Tim Lincecum, Jason Schmidt and Christy Mathewson as the only Giants pitchers with 250 in a season.
The Giants offense gave Bumgarner a second chance in the bottom of the first, scoring two runs of their own after the big left-hander spotted Los Angeles two in the opening frame. Buster Posey opened the scoring for San Francisco by drilling a hanging curve from Rich Hill up the middle, scoring Gorkys Hernandez from second. Angel Pagan tied the game with a sacrifice fly that scored Brandon Belt from third, and rather quickly, the Giants nearly matched Hill’s 2.05 ERA through one.
It wasn’t Pagan’s best work of the night, that came in the fourth inning, when he body slammed a Dodger fan who ran into left field.
Epic footage of the night. @SFGiants #respectPagan pic.twitter.com/s3taWXuUiJ
— Eric OConnor (@ericoconnor22) October 1, 2016
Kelby Tomlinson made the defensive play of the evening in the top of the second, saving an errant throw by Brandon Crawford from going into the outfield, before tagging out Kike Hernandez at second who must’ve thought the ball was out of reach.
With their playoff spot already clinched, the Dodgers elected to pull Hill after five innings of work. Los Angeles would never recover.
Tomlinson’s had his second big moment of the game in the sixth inning, when his single off Brandon McCarthy loaded the bases with no outs. The Dodgers elected not to warm up a reliever in the bullpen, making it clear that if McCarthy was going to clean this mess, he was going to have to do it himself.
Needless to say, he didn’t succeed.
Conor Gillaspie gave the Giants the lead in the next at-bat, hitting a scorching two run double down the right field line. Two batters later, Bumgarner smashed a two run double of his own down the left field line. Denard Span followed up with a hard hit single of his own, and McCarthy’s nightmare finally ended when he was pulled for Josh Ravin.
But it wasn’t over yet.
Brandon Belt welcomed Ravin to the game by blasting a three-run shot to center field, his 17th of the season.
When the smoke cleared the Giants had scored seven runs in the inning, with the score sitting at 9-3.
Things won’t get any easier tomorrow with Clayton Kershaw taking the hill for Los Angeles. He will be facing either Albert Suarez or Ty Blach depending on who manager Bruce Bochy elects to go with. Bochy did not reveal who he was leaning toward before Friday’s game. First pitch is at 1:05 pm on KNBR 680.