SAN FRANCISCO – Entering Thursday night Aaron Hill had never had a hit against San Francisco reliever Sergio Romo. Well, now he can say he has one, after his two-run double with two outs in the twelfth gave Arizona a 7-6 win over the Giants at AT&T Park.
Hill is now 1-for-11 in his career off of Romo. But, his one hit couldn’t have come at a better time after Arizona (5-5) squandered an opportunity to give rookie right-hander Archie Bradley his second career win in as many starts. Instead, the win went to Randall Delgado.
Although the D-Backs pulled out the extra-inning win, Bradley (1-0) was the story, out dueling San Francisco ace, and 2014 MLB Postseason hero, Madison Bumgarner (1-2). The 22-year-old right-hander allowed two earned runs on four hits while walking two and striking out four in 6.2 innings of quality work.
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For the second-straight start, Rookie Archie Bradley out dueled one of the National League’s best pitchers.
The Oklahoma native is not scared of opposing big-name pitchers as he picked up his first career victory during his debut on April 11, defeating reigning Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-0.
Bradley allowed the first run of his career during the first inning as Buster Posey‘s RBI single scored Gregor Blanco. He averted anymore damage in the inning as he got Brandon Belt to fly out to left. He would not face any adversity again until the seventh inning, when he picked up his second earned run of the season when Panik scored on Crawford’s home run.
It appeared that Bradley would pick up his second career victory in as many starts thanks to Arizona slugger Paul Goldschmidt.
With the game knotted at 1-1 and runners on second and third with two outs in the top of the fifth, San Francisco Manager Bruce Bochy had a difficult situation in front of him. He had the option of asking Bumgarner to intentionally walk Goldschmidt and face Mark Trumbo with the bases loaded or let his ace try to get the last out of the inning.
Neither option was especially appealing.
During the second inning, Trumbo (1) touched up Bumgarner for a solo home run that tied the game. In fifth inning, Bochy decided to trust his ace and the Giants paid dearly as Goldschmidt (4) hammered Bumgarner’s 0-1 offering over the left-field fence.
Arizona shortstop Nick Ahmed led off the fifth with a single to center field. Bradley’s failed sacrifice bunt attempt and Ender Inciarte‘s fielder’s choice resulted in Ahmed being out at second and Inciarte standing on first with two outs. Diamondback’s center fielder A.J. Pollock followed and flipped a Bumgarner offering down the right-field line that would have easily scored the fleet-footed Inciarte if the ball hadn’t gone out of play.
The Giants had caught a break, or so it appeared. But Goldschmidt changed Arizona’s misfortune with one swing of the bat.
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San Francisco had a small rally in the bottom of the seventh as Brandon Crawford drilled a two-run home run off of left-hander Oliver Perez. Crawford’s blast, his second of the year, scored Joe Panik, who’s two-out single resulted in Bradley being removed from the game.
The Giants rally ended there as Arizona first-year Manager Chip Hale called on Brad Zeigler to face pinch-hitter Hector Sanchez. Zeigler struck out Sanchez looking and the threat was over.
Looking to preserve Bradley’s second win, Arizona first-year manager Chip Hale called on Addison Reed to close out the game. But Reed surrendered Panik’s two-out, game-tying triple.
San Francisco then had a chance to win as Crawford and pinch-hitter Casey McGehee walked to load the bases. But, left-hander Andrew Chafin came on in relief of Reed and struck out a Nori Aoki, forcing extra innings.
Arizona recaptured the lead in the top of the tenth on the strength of the long ball as A.J. Pollock (1) lined a two-out solo home run off of Santiago Casilla.
Again San Francisco rallied, and even threatened to win the game during the bottom of the tenth.
Blanco walked to start the inning and moved to third on Angel Pagan‘s infield single and throwing error by Hill. Evan Marshall replaced Chafin and immediately walked Posey to load the bases.
Facing a difficult situation, Marshall was able to strikeout Belt before surrendering an RBI single to Matt Duffy, which end tied the game at 5-5.
Marshall escaped anymore danger after inducing Panik into a fielder’s choice and striking out Crawford to preserve the tie.
The D-Backs would finally put an end to things in the twelfth on Hill’s clutch hit.
Ahmed, Pollock and Inciarte each had two hits apiece to pace the Arizona lineup.
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Joe Panik hit a clutch RBI triple in the Giants’ 7-6 loss.
Panik appeared to break out of an early season slump, going 3-for-6 to lead the Giants. Pagan, Posey and Duffy also collected multiple hits, recording two apiece.
San Francisco’s offense has struggled of late as the six runs for the Giants marked just the second time during the last eight games that the team has scored more than two runs. If San Francisco hopes to get back on track, the offense will need to pick it up and support a pitching staff, which outside of a 10-2 and 6-4 loss to San Diego, has been solid.
Giants’ right-hander Chris Heston hopes to keep the impressive start to his rookie campaign going as he will start game two of the four-game series. Arizona will counter with Josh Collmenter, who San Francisco defeated on Opening Day.
First pitch is set for 10:15 p.m. EST.
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