Giants Edge Rangers

SF 3  TEX 1
Bullpen woes Friday night cost the Giants a win and made things uncomfortably close yesterday afternoon. But today the ‘pen delivered a scoreless 2-2/3 in support of a strong start from Derek Holland (6-1/3, 3 H, 1 R) and that led to a series win for the home squad. Mark Melancon got the save, just like yesterday. Steven Duggar’s two-out triple drove in two in the 4th, and Evan Longoria scored on a passed ball after a triple in the 1st and that was just enough to prevail. How often have the Giants scored in an inning in which they hit a triple? I’d venture not too often. The triple, a feature of PhoneCo Park, is one of those baseball appendages that has fan appeal but not much value in the age of the home run. According to B-R there have been almost seven times as many homers (4484) as triples (662) this season, and ten times (6685) as many doubles.

Chris Stratton is apparently the starter tomorrow night against the Diamondbacks. I’m guessing we’ll see MadBum Tuesday and D-Rod Wednesday, but they may take advantage of the off-day on Thursday to to push the rookie (just off the DL) back to Friday. In that case they’ll probably use Ty Blach. Go Giants!

–M.C.