Giants, A's grab victories

  • Discuss Comment, Blog about
  • Print Friendly and PDF

DETROIT (AP) - Brian Wilson stepped into the dugout, picked up a water cooler and heaved it against the bench. Then he grabbed a bat, trotted back over and gave the cooler a hefty slug.

Nothing is coming easy for the San Francisco Giants right now - even when they win.

The Giants finally caught a break after Wilson's ninth-inning meltdown Friday night. Detroit's Brennan Boesch lined into a double play with the bases loaded, and San Francisco held on for a 4-3 victory over the Tigers.

"Give yourself 30 seconds to completely lose it, then come back and be a part of the team," Wilson said.

Wilson blew a save opportunity for the second straight day - this time when he allowed Magglio Ordonez's RBI single in the eighth inning. San Francisco then scored three runs in the top of the ninth to go ahead 4-1, but Wilson (6-1) couldn't close it out. He had to be pulled with one out, the bases loaded and a run already in.

That's when he took a bat and went raging across the dugout. After disposing of the timber, the right-hander appeared to hit a box with his throwing hand, but he said afterward it was fine.

"It's not that enjoyable to go out there and give up two runs," Wilson said.

The Giants were coming off back-to-back losses to the Cubs - both in Chicago's last at-bat - and they almost dropped this one, too.

Jeremy Affeldt replaced Wilson, and Detroit pulled within one when second baseman Emmanuel Burriss muffed a slow grounder for an error. Boesch was up next and made solid contact, but hit the ball to right to shortstop Brandon Crawford, who caught the line drive and quickly stepped on second to double off Brandon Inge, ending the game.

It was Affeldt's third save of the season.

"I threw a curve that didn't go where I wanted, but he hit it off the end of the bat," Affeldt said. "I was like, 'Please no ... oh, yes."'

The Tigers dropped a half-game behind first-place Cleveland in the AL Central.

Madison Bumgarner allowed a run and five hits over 7 1-3 outstanding innings for San Francisco. He struck out nine and walked one.

Bumgarner departed following a walk by Inge. Wilson was next out of the bullpen, and Ordonez greeted him with a single to right to make it 1-1.

Athletics 5,

Diamondbacks 4

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Rich Harden pitched six strong innings in his season debut, Hideki Matsui had two RBIs and the Oakland Athletics beat the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Ryan Sweeney, Coco Crisp and Cliff Pennington each drove in a run for the A's, who won for the third time in 10 games following a four-game winning streak. Crisp also robbed Gerardo Parra of a homer and Matsui picked up his first steal since Sept. 12, 2007, for the New York Yankees at Toronto.

Kelly Johnson and Wily Mo Pena homered for the Diamondbacks, who have dropped five of six to fall three games back of NL West-leading San Francisco.

Arizona starter Josh Collmenter (4-5) lasted just 4 2-3 innings, yielding five runs and seven hits. The rookie right-hander is 0-4 with a 7.54 ERA in his last four outings and hasn't won since he beat Washington on June 3.

Harden, who was reinstated from the 60-day disabled list earlier in the day, allowed two runs and four hits in his first start for Oakland in three years.

Comments

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.

Sign in to comment