Giants 10, Diamondbacks 5 - Big Inning, Big Loss

Record: 35-27. Pace: 91-71. Change on 2012: +5. NL West: +2.5

To say that Trevor Cahill had a bad day would be understating it. Last week was bad - 5 IP 9 H, 5 ER. Tonight was worse. He was noticeably off with his release point, his sinkerball wasn't sinking, his fastball wasn't locating. He only walked one, but that's only because he missed his pitches in the middle of the plate and they were hammered by the Giants.

The Giants' first run came when Hunter Pence stole second, and with two outs, he stole third and then scored when Miguel Montero's throw was in the dirt and skipped by Martin Prado. Cahill walked Andres Torres, who scored on a double by Brandon Belt. There was much debate as to whether or not Torres was actually safe, but it is safe to say that a throw less up the line by Gerardo Parra would've made it a much easier out call.

That second run didn't much matter once the fourth inning was completed. Cahill was BABIP'd to the nines in this frame: ground rule double, single, sac fly to score a run, single, sac bunt to score a run, ground rule double to score a run, single to score a run, and home run by Buster Posey to score two more. The Giants batted around, they scored six runs on six hits, and Gibson went to Josh Collmenter to get out of the inning down 8 to 0.

The Diamondbacks tried to make things interesting in the sixth inning (by this point, down 9 to 0) but all that really did was keep a few streaks alive. Madison Bumgarner gave up some hits, and Ramon Ramirez couldn't find the strike zone. Josh Wilson singled and Willie Bloomquist walked in front of A.J. Pollock, who doubled in the first run and kept the "We haven't been shut out!" streak alive. Paul Goldschmidt, who went 0-for-4 tonight, got an RBI with a groundout, extending his streak to 18 games and tying a franchise record. Miguel Montero almost hit a 3-run home run, but it was short by a few feet and ended up as a sacrifice fly. Cody Ross scored on a passed ball, and the score was 9 to 4.

Will Harris relieved next and gave up a home run to right to Hunter Pence, which was unfair on multiple levels. First, it put momentum right back into the Giants' dugout. Second, Pence hit it off the end of his bat and it didn't even make it to the bleachers in right, whereas Montero made excellent contact but it was so high it came back down into Pence's glove.

Harris allowed two more hits and a walk to load the bases, but didn't give up any other runs. David Hernandez pitched a clean eighth inning, and Tony Sipp gave up two hits but no runs in the ninth.

A Ninth Inning Rally (tm Aaron Sorkin) fell short. Cliff Pennington singled and, with two outs, scored on a double by Bloomquist, but that was it for the night.

Source: FanGraphs

Silver Slugger: G Parra, +5.2%
Frankincense and Myrrh: T Cahill, -31.6%

Don't believe the statistics: I'm sure that at least a third of tonight's 600+ comments in the gameday thread were either debating the close call at home plate or discussing the Snakepit writers' schedule. ish95 beat soco by just a few comments, and I think that's because the latter abandoned us for some pineapple strawberry ice cream. All present were: 4 Corners Fan, Airwave, Circa4life, Clefo, Diamondhacks, GuruB, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Lozenge, Marc Fournier, SongBird, The so-called Beautiful, Turambar, asteroid, benhat, blank_38, coldblueAZ, cole8865, ford.williams.10, hotclaws, imstillhungry95, piratedan7, shoewizard, since_98, snakecharmer, and soco.

There were funny comments tonight, but they weren't rec'd enough, so you go another day without a COTD.

The rubber game tomorrow afternoon is Tyler Skaggs vs Chad Gaudin. Anybody else feel good about this matchup?