Rich Aurilia hit his first homerun of the season and the bullpen turned in 4 2/3 innings of shutout ball as the San Francisco Giants rallied to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-3, taking the weekend series, two games to one. Aurilia’s shot off Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright (5-3) broke a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning and made a winner of Merkin Valdez (2-0). The Giants rallied behind Pablo Sandoval, whose RBI single erased a two run deficit in the fifth. Brian Wilson threw the ninth for the save (12).
In the opener, Matt Cain (6-1) continued to dominate, pitching into the seventh inning while giving up only two runs (one earned) on six hits, striking out five and lowering his team leading ERA to 2.31. Pablo Sandoval drove in two in the winning effort and Brian Wilson threw a scoreless ninth for the save.
In the middle game, Albert Pujols stroked two homeruns (15, 16) as the Cardinals rallied to beat Barry Zito (1-6), 6-2. The Giants scored on winning pitcher Chris Carpenter (3-0), becoming the first team to tack an earned run this season on the St. Louis ace. Sergio Romo made his first appearance of the season, throwing 2/3 of an inning while surrendering two runs.
Analysis, a series win is always great. Nice to see that the team overcame the early deficit to win on Sunday. Also nice to see Romo come back, though he had some rust, to be sure. Equally great that Sandoval is back in the lineup, albeit at first base. This is my criticism. I understand that they want to play Sandoval at first to rest his sore arm (as opposed to having him hurl throws across the diamond from third base). I get that. However, Travis Ishikawa, who was swinging a scorching hot bat against Atlanta, didn’t pick up the stick one time against the Cards. That’s not smart. We’ll see if he can get some at bats this next series. Brian Wilson was nails this series. Also great to see that Cain continues to dominate. He was my preseason pick for Cy Young and I’m not changing it now.
The Giants will next travel to Washington DC to play the Nationals as Randy Johnson shoots for win number 300. The Cardinals will next host the Cincinnati Reds.
