Milestones, mashes, and a much-needed victory

The question all week: would the Giants employ a designated hitter during Madison Bumgarner's start or would the big guy hit for himself?

Ah, screw the DH; that's for mortals. MadBum swung the stick, and his third-inning double keyed a six-run outburst and the Giants snapped their recent dive with a 12-6 win Thursday at Oakland.

Bumgarner gets the party started. (CSN Bay Area Photo via Twitter)

As the season hits its midway point, the Giants are 50-31 (damn, that 50th win was a long time in coming) and hold a six-game lead in the National League West. Los Angeles, the nearest competition, kept pace with an 8-1 drubbing of Milwaukee.

It seemed San Francisco took out some building frustration on the A's, and starting pitcher Dillon Overton was the whipping boy. The night had begun as an extension of the previous three when Marcus Semien took Bumgarner's sixth pitch of the game out to left, staking Overton to a 1-0 lead. Then, the explosion.

But first, this milestone. Grant Green singled in the second, a soft liner into what would become a very busy center field, for his first Major League hit. Newly arrived from AAA, Green took the roster spot of reliever Chris Stratton and started at second base. 

The evening's second milestone had a somewhat-larger impact.

Having been victimized by offensive non-support in his last two starts, Bumgarner took matters into his own hands. He led off the third with a double, his drive going off the glove of A's center fielder Billy Burns. The hit made Bumgarner the first NL pitcher to hit safely while serving as his own DH since Ferguson Jenkins in 1974 (per Bay Are News Group's Andrew Baggarly). Apparently it took something extraordinary to right the ship.

Denard Span walked and Angel Pagan parachuted a looper just fair down the left field line to load the bases. Brandon Belt one-hopped the center field fence to drive in two, then Buster Posey dispatched with the fence altogether and lifted a shot that cleared the center field wall for a three-run homer. Giants 5, Athletics 1.

Want more? Crawford was next, and he unloaded over the scoreboard in right; we guess center needed the breather. There still hadn't been an out recorded in the third, and the Giants had put six runs on the board.

Mac Williamson broke the rally, fanning to continue his week from Hell. At least Green appeared safe in the on deck circle. 

Making up for lost time, or at least for three lost days, the Giants were back for more in the fourth. Span and Pagan opened the frame with back-to-back doubles to make it 7-1 and end Overton's night. The pitching change didn't matter. Belt was retired but Posey singled off Andrew Triggs to put runners at the corners, then Crawford took one through the left side to bring in Pagan and close the book on Overton. 

Jarrett Parker was caught looking for the second out, notable because he was hitting for Williamson. The snakebitten outfielder had already gone 0-for-2 and apparently the braintrust decided he'd done enough damage for one series.

When Buster hits 'em, they stay hit. (CSN Bay Area Photo via Twitter)

Not that Parker fared much better. Taking over in right, he promptly botched Billy Butler's fly ball, playing the catchable drive into a double that Jake Smolinski quickly cashed in. A 5-4-3 double play got Bumgarner out of the frame with no further damage and the Giants led 8-2 after four innings.

Thee offenses took a break through the middle innings but Oakland struck back for a pair in the seventh when Yonder Alonso took Bumgarer's 104th, and last, pitch of the night down the right field line for a two-run homer. As Hunter Strickland entered with one out, Giants fans could be forgiven if a feeling of dread started crawling up their spines. Strickland got a strikeout, then issued a two-out walk.The spider-sense was tingling up a storm with Semien at the plate, but Strickland retired him on a grounder to third and the arachnid anxiety abated. 

Cory Gearrin pitched a quiet eighth and Derek Law muddled through a two-run ninth as San Francisco salvaged the finale of the four-game, home-and-home set.

The Giants pounded out 14 hits and benefited from 11 walks, including five in the ninth against Fernando Rodriguez to account for the two runs and set up Belt's two-run pile-it-on single.

Crawford led the way with a three-hit night while Belt had a double and single to drive in four. Span, Pagan, Posey and Green all had multi-hit games. Oh, and that Bumgarner guy added a double.

Posey has been sorta hit and sorts not, so we're curious where this notorious second-half hitter will go. Thursday's 

effort represented the ninth time in the last 10 games that Posey has hit safely, although the round-tripper was only 
his third extra-base hit over that span. However, he did turn in a highly productive month of June overall, slashing .319/.381/.457 over 94 at-bats.

After pitching well and getting nothing but grief in his last two outings, Bumgarner got the win despite being less than sharp; a cosmic balancing of the scales or something. He went 6 1/3, giving up four runs on seven hits, striking out just four but not walking a batter. 

The Giants return to the familiarity of divisional play on Friday, traveling to Arizona for a three-game date with the Diamondbacks. Johnny Cueto (11-2, 2.42 ERA) squares off against Shelby Miller (2-7, 6.79).

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