Giants score on "Singles Night" at Busch

For the second consecutive day, San Francisco's offense was condensed into a handful of at-bats. No one complains when it works. A pair of RBI singles in the top of the fourth and a walk-aided three-spot in the ninth told the story Friday in St. Louis as the Giants trimmed the Cardinals by a 5-1 score.

The blur, Randal Grichuk, wasn't fast enough. (AP Photo)

At 35-22, the Giants continue to set the pace in the NL West, leading The Hated Dodgers by 5 1/2 games. LA tripped Atlanta 4-2 on Friday behind thre homers from Cory Seager.

Johnny Cueto didn't have his best outing but still Houdini-ed his way to his ninth win of the 2016 campaign, even with Chris Sale, Stephen Strasburg and Jake Arietta for tops in the Majors. Cueto has been San Francisco's Mad Max, getting six of those wins on the road.

Cueto went six innings, allowing a run on four hits. His command was rhe issue, he walked five against just one strikeout and exited after 105 pitches. Some nice defense didn't hurt.

He was matched by Adam Wainwright (7-plus IP, 6K, 1BB, 2ER), the onetime ace now aging vet who picked this night, this freaking night, to remember he's Adam Wainwright.

We knew when we wrote it that we were temping fate with that crack in yesterday's blog. The Baseball Gods have no sense of humor. Bunch of kill-joys.

The first of two scoring bursts came courtesy four singles within five at-bats. Joe Panik opened the fourth with a single and took third on a single by Buster Posey. Then the Brandons did what the Brandons do, with Belt and Crawford stroking RBI singles.

Yep, it must have been Singles Night at Busch Stadium; only with less scoring. Special event ticket required, we're sure.

Those tallies answered the run Sr. Louis had put up just an inning before, and probably left the Cards wondering what might have been. An error, single and two walks had given the Cards a run and full bases with two out, but Cueto got Randal Grichuk on a come-backer to thwart the big inning. 

The Giants had a chance to add on when Panik and Matt Duffy singled to open the eighth only to see reliever Seung Hwan Oh sit the heart of the order (Posey, Belt, Crawford) all down on strikes. Cards Manager (and ex-Giant) Mike Matheney might have wished he'd left him in the game.

Life Hack: Do not play with this stuff.

After Oh poured strikes past Giants bats in the eighth, Cardinals relievers couldn't throw one for pay or pleasure in the ninth. 

Like Atlanta's Aaron Blair on Thursday, the Cards found out freebies are an Acme dynamite kit and it will go off. Three walks set up Denard Span's two-run single, and Duffy got an RBI in a safety squeeze to give San Francisco its final total.

The much-maligned Giants pen did considerably better. Manager Bruce Bochy mixed and matched his way through the last three innings. Josh Osich, Cory Gearrin, Javy Lopez, Hunter Strickland and George Kontos were called into duty with Osich surrendering the only hit.

Each of the top six hitters in the Giants lineup hit safely (all singles), with Panik and Crawford getting two each to lead an eight-hit attack.

With break-even locked up, the Giants will try to turn the 10-game road trip into a winner on Saturday. Jeff Samardzija (7-3, 2.74 ERA) matches up with Michael Wacha (2-6, 4.99 ERA) who is just glad Travis Ishikawa won't be on hand.

Injury Update: Hunter Pence's did more than just pull a hammy running out a grounder Wednesday in Atlanta. This report from The Chron quotes team officials as saying a tendon was torn from the bone and Pence will require surgery, sidelining him until August. After being the team's iron man through 2014, Pence has lost significant time to injury in each of the past two seasons. Pence, 33, is in year three of a five-year, $90 million contract.

(box)