SAN FRANCISCO— On Wednesday, August 20, the San Francisco Giants defeated the Los Angeles Angels 7 to 2, ensuring at least a split of the four game series.
Johnny Cueto made the start for the Giants and held the Angels scoreless through the first five innings before giving up two runs in the sixth inning. Meanwhile, the Giants’ offense struck for five early runs off of Angels starter Patrick Sandoval. In the 3rd inning, first basemen Wilmer Flores hit his fifth home run of the year, a three-run home run to left field. An inning later, designated hitter Austin Slater hit a two-run home run, his fourth of the season. Since suffering a right elbow strain, Slater has been unable to play the outfield. Yet, he has continued to start at designated hitter against left handed pitchers because of his immense success against them this year.
In the sixth inning, the Angels started to mount a comeback, helped by yet another Giants’ defensive mistake when center fielder Mike Yastrzemski couldn’t catch Angels’ second basemen Tommy La Stella’s deep drive. La Stella scored on a double by Angels’ third basemen Anthony Rendon. The Giants’ bullpen almost blew another lead as Cueto’s replacement Andrew Suarez faced three batters and failed to record an out. The Angels had the bases loaded and left fielder Justin Upton at the plate with the chance to tie or take the lead. Yet, Giants’ left-handed reliver Caleb Barager struck him out, ending the Angels’ best chance at coming back.
The Giants added two more runs in the seventh inning and then their bullpen shut down the Angels the rest of the game.
SF Giants manager Gabe Kapler told Maria “That was a good win. Johnny pitched great, and obviously, he was able to go deeper into a game for us. We were able to hand the ball over to the bullpen, and they did a nice job for us.”
The Giants have now won back-to-back games for the first time since the end of July. They will try to win this series and make it three wins in a row on Thursday.
