The Giants' starting rotation is a tricky predicament for Bruce Bochy to handle. He waited most of the year to get both Matt Cain and Jake Peavy back from the disabled list, but has seen insignificant progress or consistency from both of them. Before the trade deadline, Brian Sabean made a splash by acquiring Mike Leake to bolster the pitching staff though still solid starts have been hard to come by outside of their ace Madison Bumgarner. Now, to make matters worse, Cain is experiencing nerve pain in his elbow and is once again on the DL. Rookie Chris Heston has been reinstated in his place and was slated to make the start Sunday against the Cardinals. Heston has been a pleasant surprise for the reigning World Champs when he's able to locate his pitches down in the zone.
This unfortunately wasn't the case against the lethal Cardinals as they struck early with three runs in the first inning Sunday. The second pitch that Heston threw was taken deep by lead off man Matt Carpenter for his 20th home run on the year. Heyward tripled in a run and then the very next batter Molina knocked him in to wrap up a horrendous start for the young sinker baller on the mound.
Fresh off of a night in which they failed to score a single run, the Giants were desperate for offensive production. Luckily the Giants fought back with a pair of runs of their own in the first. Nori Aoki, Brandon Belt and Buster Posey all singled in the inning, but the big blow came from Marlon Byrd with a double to score two. Though, the Giants still trailed by a run, the inning signified hope that had previously seemed already lost.
The Cardinals added another run in the third off another Molina hit to extend the lead to 4-2. Molina hasn't put together his best season in his strong career, but in the last two series between the Giants and Cardinals, the veteran catcher has notched multiple clutch hits; including a home run off of Heston the last time they faced off. Heston was finally pulled in the fourth when he gave up another home run, this time off the bat of Brandon Moss. In his first start back, Heston only managed to survive 3 2/3 while allowing a total of nine hits and five earned runs. George Kontos replaced him and held the Cards at five runs all the way to through the fifth.
The Giants were able to collect a few more singles up to the fifth, but failed to score any further runs. While the Giants struggled, the Cards thrived with another home run from Mark Reynolds off a change up from Javier Lopez in the sixth. Lopez worked out of the inning though despite his early blunder. The bottom half of the sixth provided more hope for the Giants as they scored another pair of runs. Three straight hits from Belt, Posey and Byrd led to the first run while the second run scored on a ground ball from Tomlinson. Despite the obvious disappointment of young Heston faltering, the Giants overall had a decent night all around when all was said and done.
Hunter Strickland constructed a solid seventh inning on the mound, but Michael Broadway permitted the seventh run for the Cards on a single from Garcia to score Kolten Wong.
For his fourth hit of the night, Belt singled to lead off the bottom half of the eighth. Although Posey struck out, Marlon Byrd came through again with a triple deep into triples alley in right field of AT&T Park. With his third hit of the night, Byrd's hot streak continues as he is accelerating at the perfect time heading into a series with the first place Dodgers. Former Dodger Jonathan Broxton finished off the inning with another two strikeouts to strand Byrd only 90 feet away from home.
Josh Osich and Santiago Casilla combined to shut down the Cards in the ninth to bring the game into the bottom half of the inning. Typically dominant left hander Kevin Siegrist entered the game for the save in the ninth. He struck out both Adrianza and pinch hitter Susac to get to the top of the lineup. Despite having a good night at the plate, Aoki wasn't able to get the job done as the game ended with him grounding out to Wong at second.
With the series lost on the 7-5 game, the Giants need to correct their rotation to continue competing.
Though, the Giants managed a total of twelve hits, all of them came from either the one, three, four or five hitters. In all reality the Giants played good enough baseball to win, but the start from Heston was too much for them to overcome. Fortunately for the Giants, they won't lose ground on the first place Dodgers as they were no-hit by Jake Arrieta and the Cubs.
The Giants will head into a three game series in Los Angeles with Jake Peavy (4-6, 4.21 ERA) on the mound for game one. The interesting matchup comes in game two when the two team's aces square off with Bumgarner (16-6, 2.97 ERA) hurling for the Giants and Greinke (14-3, 1.61 ERA) opposing him for the Dodgers. If all goes well the Giants can come out of the series only a half game back with a three game sweep.