Eli Whiteside's bat and Brad Penny's arm
lifted the Giants to a 4-1 victory over the Diamondbacks, but it was too
little, too late for San Francisco in its run to the postseason.
Colorado's victory over Milwaukee on Wednesday officially eliminated the
Giants from the National League wild card race after the club went just 3-6
leading up to this three-game series.
"We saw the score and it's a hard fought season," Giants manager Bruce Bochy
said referring to the Rockies' 10-6 win over the Brewers. "We knew the last
few days, it's a real longshot but there's still hope. But we saw the score
but they went out and played well tonight."
Whiteside went 3-for-3 with a homer and three RBI, while Penny (4-1) hurled
his first complete game since 2005, scattering six hits and walking just one
while allowing one unearned run and striking out five.
Kevin Mulvey (0-3) was charged with four runs on five hits and a walk in a
six-inning start for Arizona, which has lost four of six.
"It's a great experience getting to face big leagues lineups like that,
getting to start and getting to go deep into the games, into the sixth
inning," said Mulvey. "Each lineup is a big league lineup. There's no break.
Every hitter is going to do damage if you make a mistake."
Mulvey quickly loaded the bases in the second, giving up a pair of singles and
hitting Aaron Rowand before Whiteside plated a pair with a base hit to right.
Rowand later scored on a Eugenio Velez sacrifice fly.
An error on Penny allowed Gerardo Parra to score in the fourth, but San Fran
got the run back in the bottom half on Whiteside's second homer of the year.
Penny retired seven straight at one point, survived a leadoff single in the
seventh and set down the Diamondbacks in order in the eighth.
The hefty right-hander stayed in for the ninth and went 1-2-3 to log his
fourth career complete game and first since August 20, 2005 against Florida
while he was a member of the Dodgers.
Game Notes
The finale of the three-game set on Thursday features a pair of aces in
Arizona's Dan Haren and San Francisco's Tim Lincecum...Penny, who threw 109
pitches, came in 8-3 with a 2.13 ERA in 16 career starts against Arizona...San
Francisco leads the season series 12-5...Stephen Drew had two of Arizona's six
hits, none of which went for extra bases.
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