Giant Streak

This streak has to be said.  The Giants beat the Padres 6-0 on Tuesday evening, for their fifth victory in a row.  It was also their third consecutive shutout, including the last two blanking the Padres, statistically the hottest hitting team in the National League.  And suddenly the Giants are in second place, 3.5. games behind the Dodgers.

As in the previous games, the Giants got excellent starting pitching deep into the game.  This time it was Ryan Vogelsong, starting only because of injuries, but with streaks of solid and even great starts in his past with the Giants.  He pitched a shutdown seven innings. In the final two innings  Kontos and Petit challenged the Padres hitters and struck them out.

That much was the same, but there were three notable differences from yesterday: first, they fielded well with some excellent plays, including one by Brandon Belt, and second, speaking of Belt, his hitting came around.  Third, they got hits to bring in baserunners pretty efficiently.  It was 5-0 after 5, and Joe Panik made it six with his second home run in the past three days.  Which puts him on pace for, what, 55? Okay, maybe not.

On the downside, Pagan was out of the lineup with an injury to his finger that hampers his ability to swing the bat.  Tomorrow a day game so he's unlikely to play then either.

On the other side of the continent, the Pirates are going the other way--still not scoring runs but giving up even more.  Their streak is a losing one, I think at four now.