ekansekans's blog: "df"

PHOENIX -- Hunter Pence has the most RBIs on the San Francisco Giants since he was acquired in a deadline deal with Philadelphia. Ryan Mathews Jersey . Now hes looking for a few more hits. Pence belted his first grand slam in more than four years, Matt Cain dodged trouble for five-plus innings and the Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-2 on Friday night. Pence has 34 RBIs and 37 hits with San Francisco. He is batting .233 with four homers in 41 games with the Giants. "I need to get more hits is what that tells me," Pence said, "Make them pitch to (Buster) Posey with runners on." Pences third career grand slam capped a five-run third inning for the NL West-leading Giants, who won for the third time in four games and are 11-5 in their past 16. Cain sparked the outburst with a leadoff walk and moved to second on Marco Scutaros one-out infield single. After Pablo Sandoval singled to centre to load the bases, Posey hit a grounder to third and Cain slid under Ryan Wheelers throw on a close play to make it 1-0. Pence followed with a long drive into the left-field stands for his 21st homer of the season. "You can never walk the pitcher," Diamondbacks starter Tyler Skaggs said. "I thought they were good pitches but I ended up walking him and then the whole inning kind of exploded." Cain (14-5) walked three in the first and stranded five runners over the first two innings. The right-hander allowed four hits, walked a season-high five and also hit a batter. He was charged with one run and struck out two. "That was a gutsy effort," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "It just got to a point where I had to go get him." Cain failed to make it through six innings for the second time in his last three starts. "I couldnt put away some guys like I wanted to," Cain said. "I got too fine with some pitches." Reliever Santiago Casilla also drove in a run for the Giants, who remained 7 1/2 games ahead of Los Angeles with 18 games remaining. The Dodgers beat St. Louis 8-5 on Friday night. Chris Johnson drove in both runs for the Diamondbacks, who stayed 4 1/2 games behind the Cardinals for the second wild-card spot. Skaggs (1-2) allowed five runs and five hits in four innings after lasting only three innings in his previous start against San Diego on Sept. 7. "Its been unacceptable on my part the last two outings," the 21-year-old left-hander said. "Its almost been embarrassing." Arizona left 15 men on base against seven Giants pitchers. "We certainly had our opportunities," manager Kirk Gibson said. "A lot of plays we didnt play very well tonight. We made it harder on ourselves and we didnt capitalize on the opportunities we did have." After putting the first two runners on three times in the first five innings, the Diamondbacks finally broke through in the sixth. Cain hit Miguel Montero in the foot and Justin Upton singled to right. Cain then gave way to Jose Mijares, who yielded an RBI single to right by pinch-hitter Johnson that made it 5-1. Guillermo Mota came on and hit John McDonald in the left shoulder to load the bases before retiring Chris Young on a line drive caught by a diving Sandoval at third for the first out of the inning. "That was a game-saving play," Bochy said. "If that ball gets down the line its a different ballgame." Jeremy Affeldt, the Giants fourth pitcher in the inning, got Adam Eaton to ground into an easy force at home and struck out Aaron Hill to end the threat. Casilla threaded a bases-loaded single into right field in the eighth for his first career hit, putting the Giants ahead 6-1. "I think we were all kind of shocked he made contact," Bochy said. "He found a good place." Johnson added an RBI single in the ninth for Arizona. NOTES: Sandoval, returning to the lineup after two days off, finished 3 for 4. . Cain threw 34 pitches in the first inning and 106 overall. . The roof at Chase Field was open during the game for the first time since June 9. . Diamondbacks LF Jason Kubel doubled off Angel Pagan at first in the seventh for his 13th outfield assist of the season, a new club record. ... Montero, who walked three times and was hit by a pitch, became the second Diamondbacks player to reach base four times without a hit in a nine-inning game. Luis Gonzalez accomplished the feat twice. ... Arizonas Double-A Mobile affiliate won its second straight Southern League championship series title Friday night and its rookie-level team in Missoula won the Pioneer League championship series. ... LHP Wade Miley, the second of three straight rookie southpaws, will take the mound for the Diamondbacks against veteran LHP Barry Zito. Zito is 5-8 in 19 career games against Arizona but 2-0 in three starts this year. ... The Diamondbacks will stage their first-ever alumni game after Saturdays game. Philip Rivers Jersey . Valencia clinched third place for the third straight season under Emery but the Basque coach was under pressure over the final stretch as the Spanish club lost to rival Atletico Madrid for a place in the Europa League final. Antonio Gates Jersey . Playing under Wimbledons retractable roof on Centre Court because of rain, No. 3 Sharapova served well, returned aggressively and swept the final eight games. http://www.chargersteamstore.com/philip-rivers-jerseys . The team announced Sunday that the roster moves will be made on Monday. Dozier will take the spot of slugger Justin Morneau, who will placed on the disabled list with a sore right wrist. Eric Weddle Jersey . Anthony Calvillo, Utah State (19th CFL/15th Montreal) Calvillos back after another outstanding year and a contract extension during the off-season. Ryan Mathews Womens Jersey . Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland remained the overall leader for a fourth straight day. The cyclists, who opened in Belgium, completed a 197-kilometre ride from Orchies that featured five small climbs to an uphill finish in the fishing port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.ST. LOUIS - Power pitching often dominates in the post-season. Soft tosses by Randy Wolf got the Milwaukee Brewers back to even in the NL championship series. The 35-year-old lefty outfoxed the St. Louis Cardinals for seven innings to earn his first post-season win and the Brewers got two more hits from Ryan Braun in a 4-2 victory Thursday night that evened the NL championship series at 2-all. "It was a big feeling just to be back out there again after my last start," said Wolf, hit hard by Arizona to force a deciding Game 5 in the first round of the playoffs. "Just to be able to get another opportunity to pitch again was important. "You know, Ill be honest with you, the day after the Diamondbacks start, I didnt eat or shower that day," he said." Flipping some pitches in the mid-60s mph, Wolf allowed two runs and six hits, striking out six with one walk. Matt Holliday and Allen Craig homered for the Cardinals, representing their only runs in the last 16 innings. "I think its classic because playing each other so many times, were dead even," manager Tony La Russa said. "It comes down to that day, who makes the pitch." Francisco Rodriguez allowed a hit in the eighth and John Axford of Simcoe, Ont., finished for his second save of the series and third this post-season. The Brewers ended an eight-game road losing streak in the post-season dating to the 1982 World Series opener at St. Louis. And Wolf ended a lengthy drought of his own -- before Thursday, his 342 starts without a post-season victory were the most among active pitchers. Game 4 loser Kyle Lohse moves to second on the list at 298 starts, trailing only Ted Lillys 318. Jaime Garcia faces Zack Greinke for the second time in the series in Game 5 Friday night. Either way, the NLCS will be decided back at Miller Park. "Were pretty much the only team thats played pretty well in Milwaukee. Flip the page and hopefully come back to tomorrow. Its a great series. Nobody is going to run away," Cardinals star Albert Pujols said. Jerry Hairston Jr. doubled twice with an RBI and Wolf hit one of the Brewers five doubles. Braun is batting .471 (16 for 34) in the post-season with two homers and nine RBIs. The Cardinals needed more heavy duty from their bullpen, too, after Lohse, pitching on 12 days rest, failed to make it out of the fifth. "Im not going to blame it on the layoff," Lohse said. "Were professionals and weve got get the job done. Tonight, we didnt do it." Pujols was a quiet 1 for 4 for St. Louis, which was 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and is 0 for 15 after the first inning of Game 3. "They have good pitching, but we have good pitching, too," Hairston said. "Theyve been good for us all year long." Wolf kept the Cardinals off-balance with soft tosses and retired 13 of his last 15 hitters in his fourth ccareer post-season start. Antonio Gates Womens Jersey. It was a huge improvement from Game 4 of the NL division series at Arizona in which he surrendered seven runs in three innings. Wolf also struggled in his last two regular season starts, allowing 10 runs in 11 2-3 innings. "Regardless of how the game went, I was satisfied with the fact that I was going to have that opportunity," Wolf said. "Its kind of a weird word, but its redemption to go back out there." For the fourth straight game, the Cardinals had to lean heavily on their relievers. Lohse sailed through three innings and then allowed three doubles and three runs to his last eight hitters, and was charged with three runs in 4 1-3 innings. St. Louis relievers have worked 17 1-3 innings in the series. Two of La Russas moves paid off. Bumped down one spot to fifth, Holliday hit his first post-season homer and doubled. Craig started in place of Lance Berkman, who was 3 for 32 lifetime against Wolf and had a minor right thigh bruise from getting hit by a pitch in Game 3. Craig hit his first career post-season homer made it 2-0 in the third. The Brewers tied it in the fourth with their first runs since the third inning of Game 3 on doubles by Prince Fielder and Jerry Hairston Jr. and an RBI single by Yuniesky Betancourt. Lohse was pulled after Nyjer Morgan doubled to start the fifth and advanced on a groundout, the heart of the order coming up. Brauns single off Mitchell Boggs put the Brewers in front although second baseman Ryan Theriots sprawling stop transformed Fielders smash into an inning-ending double play. Rickie Weeks singled and Hairston doubled again to open the sixth, and the Brewers soon had a two-run cushion. George Kottaras of Markham, Ont., hit a grounder against a drawn-in infield off Arthur Rhodes, and Theriot bobbled the ball on a short hop for an error. The Cardinals streak of scoring in the first inning ended at five games when they went down in order against Wolf, but they hurt the left-hander with opposite-field power the next two innings. Wolf fell behind the count to six of the first 14 hitters and the Cardinals were 4 for 5 with two homers, a double, single and walk. NOTES: Injured Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright caught the ceremonial first ball for the second straight game, this time from former Cardinals CF Jim Edmonds, accompanied by a young son who also made a throw. ... Home plate umpire Mike Everitt got stung in the upper right arm area by a foul ball off the bat of Rafael Furcal but stayed in the game. ... Mark Kotsay started in RF in place of Corey Hart, 2 for 17 against Lohse. ... The longest of Wolfs three previous preseason starts was 5 1-3 innings with the Dodgers on Oct. 19, 2009, at Philadelphia. ... An Anheuser-Busch wagon pulled by Clydesdales and loaded with baseballs made a circuit around the warning track during the pregame ceremonies. ' ' '