azdad1978
Championship!!!!
By Jack Magruder, Tribune
SAN FRANCISCO - Bob Melvin’s grandparents have had San Francisco Giants season tickets since the 1960s, and Melvin spent many an arctic spring night in Candlestick Park.
But he may not have had a more excruciating experience than Thursday, when the Diamondbacks squandered Russ Ortiz’s best start of the season and fell, 4-3 in 13 innings, before 34,824 fans at SBC Park.
"It was just one of those games. All night we had a chance. That’s all we can do. The guys on the other side are thinking the same thing. All night they had a chance. It just came down to somebody had to win, and they just happened to win,’’ Ortiz said.
Lance Niekro, whose tworun home run in the sixth inning was the only damage off Ortiz, scored the winning run on Deivi Cruz’s pinch-hit single with no outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 13th.
Cruz was the last position player the Giants had left, and he batted for their final reliever.
Niekro singled to open the 13th and went to third on Pedro Feliz’s double. After Edgardo Alfonzo was walked intentionally, Cruz hit Michael Gosling’s first pitch between third and shortstop to end the Giants’ three-game losing streak.
Ortiz and Jason Schmidt entered Thursday’s game tied for the most victories in the major leagues since the start of 2003, at 37, and despite their best efforts left the same way.
Ortiz may have been a little better, giving up two runs in seven innings in his best Diamondbacks start, but the Giants outlasted the bullpen.
Chad Tracy’s three-run homer gave the D-Backs a 3-0 lead in the fourth, after Luis Gonzalez singled with one out and Shawn Green continued his domination of Schmidt with a two-out single, his 12th hit in his last 25 at-bats against Schmidt.
Tracy has three homers and 10 RBIs and has hit safely in 13 of his 15 games.
Ortiz, who has won 34 games in San Francisco, gave up a two-run homer to Niekro with one out in the sixth and was two innings away from his first career victory against the Giants after being replaced by Brian Bruney in the eighth.
But Bruney, pitching for the fifth time in the last six days, walked Ray Durham on a ninepitch at-bat to open the inning, then walked Omar Vizquel, who was squaring to bunt the whole at-bat.
Durham went to third on a long fly to right by Niekro and scored on Feliz’s fly to deep left-center to tie it at 3.
Like Javier Vazquez in the first game of the series, Ortiz continued the D-Backs’ stretch of quality starts. DBacks starters have limited opponents to three earned runs or less in nine of the last 11 games.
Ortiz has given up seven earned runs in his last 18 innings.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=40027
SAN FRANCISCO - Bob Melvin’s grandparents have had San Francisco Giants season tickets since the 1960s, and Melvin spent many an arctic spring night in Candlestick Park.
But he may not have had a more excruciating experience than Thursday, when the Diamondbacks squandered Russ Ortiz’s best start of the season and fell, 4-3 in 13 innings, before 34,824 fans at SBC Park.
"It was just one of those games. All night we had a chance. That’s all we can do. The guys on the other side are thinking the same thing. All night they had a chance. It just came down to somebody had to win, and they just happened to win,’’ Ortiz said.
Lance Niekro, whose tworun home run in the sixth inning was the only damage off Ortiz, scored the winning run on Deivi Cruz’s pinch-hit single with no outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 13th.
Cruz was the last position player the Giants had left, and he batted for their final reliever.
Niekro singled to open the 13th and went to third on Pedro Feliz’s double. After Edgardo Alfonzo was walked intentionally, Cruz hit Michael Gosling’s first pitch between third and shortstop to end the Giants’ three-game losing streak.
Ortiz and Jason Schmidt entered Thursday’s game tied for the most victories in the major leagues since the start of 2003, at 37, and despite their best efforts left the same way.
Ortiz may have been a little better, giving up two runs in seven innings in his best Diamondbacks start, but the Giants outlasted the bullpen.
Chad Tracy’s three-run homer gave the D-Backs a 3-0 lead in the fourth, after Luis Gonzalez singled with one out and Shawn Green continued his domination of Schmidt with a two-out single, his 12th hit in his last 25 at-bats against Schmidt.
Tracy has three homers and 10 RBIs and has hit safely in 13 of his 15 games.
Ortiz, who has won 34 games in San Francisco, gave up a two-run homer to Niekro with one out in the sixth and was two innings away from his first career victory against the Giants after being replaced by Brian Bruney in the eighth.
But Bruney, pitching for the fifth time in the last six days, walked Ray Durham on a ninepitch at-bat to open the inning, then walked Omar Vizquel, who was squaring to bunt the whole at-bat.
Durham went to third on a long fly to right by Niekro and scored on Feliz’s fly to deep left-center to tie it at 3.
Like Javier Vazquez in the first game of the series, Ortiz continued the D-Backs’ stretch of quality starts. DBacks starters have limited opponents to three earned runs or less in nine of the last 11 games.
Ortiz has given up seven earned runs in his last 18 innings.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=40027
