On Friday night at AT&T Park, fans were treated to “Buster hugs” promotional blankets, featuring the Giants’ star catcher with his arms spread wide offering a warm embrace.
On Sunday afternoon, it was the Giants’ offense that received a hug from Buster Posey, and it couldn’t have come at a better time in the team’s 13-8 victory over Minnesota.
After scratching across just two runs in the first 18 innings of the series, the Giants’ offense came to life in the late innings behind a lift from its best player, who recorded a season-high four runs batted and finished 3-for-5 in a much-needed win.
Posey began the day with an RBI groundout off of Twins’ starter Nick Turley, recorded a run-scoring single in the fifth inning off reliever Chris Heston, and delivered the game-defining blow with a go-ahead two-run double off right-hander Matt Belisle in the bottom half of the seventh inning to give the Giants’ a 6-5 lead they would never look back from.
A day after Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy expressed frustration at his offense’s inability to pick up the team’s pitching staff, Posey wasn’t the only San Francisco player who busted out at the plate.
The 17 hits the Giants recorded Sunday set a season high, and the 13 runs San Francisco scored was the team’s best offensive output since a 13-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves on August 28, 2016.
Right fielder Hunter Pence followed Posey’s go-ahead seventh inning double with an RBI two-bagger of his own, his second of three extra base hits on the day. Pence snapped a 7-for-51 stretch at the plate with a 3-for-5 outing, and enjoyed his first game with multiple extra base hits this season.
Pence and Posey were two of the five Giants’ hitters that recorded at least two hits on Sunday afternoon, as they joined third baseman Eduardo Nunez, rookie left fielder Austin Slater and shortstop Kelby Tomlinson, all of whom had three hits aside from Tomlinson, who had two hits and reached base on a seventh inning walk.
The offensive explosion helped the club bail out starting pitcher Matt Cain, who struggled through another rough start. The 13th-year Major League veteran lasted just 4 and ⅓ innings, allowing seven hits and five earned runs against a Twins’ lineup that tagged him for a pair of home runs.
Sunday’s start was the fourth time since the start of May that Cain had allowed at least five runs, but was the first time the Giants were able to bail him out in such a start with a win.
Cain had allowed just one home run at AT&T Park all season entering Sunday’s series finale, but in the top half of the second inning, shortstop Eduardo Escobar and center fielder Byron Buxton took him deep on solo shots that helped Minnesota knot the game 2-2.
For the first time this series, the Giants were able to dig into the Twins’ bullpen depth, as starter Nik Turley lasted just four innings, allowing four runs. After giving up a sacrifice fly to Aaron Hill and an RBI groundout to Posey in the first inning, Turley gave up an RBI single to catcher Nick Hundley in the fourth and a double to Nunez to lead off the bottom of the fifth that ultimately knocked him out of the game.
Posey’s fifth inning single off of Heston, a former Giants’ pitcher making his Twins’ debut on Sunday, pulled San Francisco within a run, and his two-run double two innings later off Belisle spoiled an opportunity for Turley to pick up his first career win.
The Giants’ relievers who followed Cain on Sunday were sharp for the most part, as George Kontos, Josh Osich, Hunter Strickland kept the Twins off the board again until the ninth inning, when newly acquired reliever Sam Dyson made his Giants’ debut.
The outing didn’t go as planned for Dyson, who faced five Twins’ hitters without recording an out, although one Minnesota player reached on an infield single and another on a Posey error.
Bryan Morris entered the game with the bases loaded and no one out following Dyson’s departure, and ultimately helped San Francisco cap off the win by recording the final three outs.
The victory improved San Francisco to 26-39 on the season, and helped the Giants pick up a game on the first-place Colorado Rockies, who began the day 16.0 games ahead of Bochy’s ball club before dropping their Sunday matinee against the Cubs’ 7-5.
