This is becoming like Dejavu lately! The Giants are getting great pitching performances nightly in September, but a lot of them have been wasted because of terrible offense.
Well, we finally broke free from the "curse of Billingsley" with a 2 out, broken bat bloop from the bat of Mike Fontenot in the bottom of the 7th. No one else on the Giants could get the big hit with runners in scoring position, so I guess that's why we had to rely on a former Cub! He knocked in Emmanuel Burris who was running for Travis Ishikawa, who pinch hit for Matt Cain earlier in the inning.
Matt Cain and Chad Billingsley both threw great games. Cain went seven innings, allowing no runs, only 3 hits, while striking out 5 and walking none. it was his second career victory over the Dodgers, both coming this year. Billingsley, who had a 0.61 era vs the Giants this year, did it again. He went seven innings giving up 1 run on 6 hits, striking out 7 and walking 2. He took the tough loss.
The Panda failed twice in this game with runners in scoring position, but he hit a key ground ball to second base in the 8th inning to score an insurance run with Aubrey Huff at 3rd base and Buster Posey at 2nd. The Dodgers infield wasn't playing in all the way, so when Pablo's ground ball was fielded by second baseman Ryan Theriot, it was too late to throw Huff out at the plate. Huff beat the high throw with a slide.
That ended up being the game winning play because in the ninth inning Andre Ethier hit an opposite field homerun off of closer Brian Wilson. Wilson ended up striking out Jay Gibbons to end the game and putting the Giants a half game back of the first place Padres in the West. They are also a half game behind the Braves for the Wild Card lead.
Tomorrow the Giants will try to take the series with Jonathan Sanchez and his new toy, the change up, going to the mound to face tough veteran lefty Ted Lilly. The Padres start a tough series against the Cardinals, so it could be a great time to make a run at the division title.
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