Highlights? This Giants win belonged on a blooper reel

Can there be a full moon during a day game?

It was an afternoon of strange goings-on, but few at AT&T Park complained on Saturday as the Giants toppled Arizona 4-2 to set up a possible sweep of the last series before the All-Star Break – the first serious benchmark on the road to an Orange October.

Struggle, struggle. Giants win so all is forgiven. (AP Photo)

It was just weird; for all practical purposes a 2016 Diamond Follies special crammed into 8 ½ innings. Behold the weirdness, in bullet form:

·         A comeback is keyed by a sunny popup that hits an infielder (Mike Lamb) on the shoulder;

·         A reliever (Javy Lopez) shoulder rolling on his way to the bullpen;

·         An outfielder (Brandon Drury) face planting into the mound in that same bullpen;

·         A baserunner (Angel Pagan) clocked by the throw on a steal attempt.

And those paled in comparison to Buster Posey hitting an unaware Jake Peavy (who was arguing with an umpire like he does everyone else on game day) in the chest with a return throw to the mound that neatly dropped into Peavy’s glove.

And we’re cutting a break to the woman who tried to catch a foul ball with her food tray. It looked like the food fight scene from Animal House with slightly less Belushi.

What wasn’t funny at all was San Francisco reaching a season-best 23 games over .500. You have to wonder what’s going on in La La Land where the Blue Meanies tripped up woeful San Diego to run their mark to 50-40. Ten games over .500 at the 90-game mark is something they’d think would have them sitting pretty in the NL West. Instead they’re 6 ½ games behind the 56-33 Giants, who still haven’t put a healthy team on the field.

The Giants had the resurgent Peavy on the mound but he didn’t get far. The Diamondbacks began the fourth inning with four consecutive hits, including RBI singles from Yasmany Tomás and Drury, to erase a 1-0 Giants lead provided by a Brandon Belt triple in the third. The Giants tacked on a run in the sixth on Ruben Tejda's double but the story was the Houdini-esque escapes by the pen. 

Crawford battles the sun, and wins. Lamb should take notes. (AP Photo)

 Albert Suarez, back in the bullpen, found trouble with a walk and a Ramiro Pena error in the seventh but got Paul Goldschmidt swinging, then Josh Osich got the ever-dangerous Lamb to ground out to ground out. 

Sergio Romo looked sharp in a quick eighth, the Santiago Casilla had to pitch around a Phil Gosselin double in the ninth to get his 21st save.

While Peavy didn’t get the win, his three strikeouts moved him past Vida Blue for 58th place on the all-time strikeouts list (2,177). Peavy ranks fourth among active pitchers behind CC Sabathia, Bartolo Colon and Felix Hernandez.

Each team had eight hits, with Pagan and Belt getting two each for the home team. Crawford, Green, Peavy and Ruben Tejada completed the slate.

The Giants have one more tilt remaining before the All-Star break, and they’ll get to finish the pre-All-Star session later than everyone else thanks to the ESPN. Ace Madison Bumgarner (9-4, 2.09 ERA) gets the prime-time assignment the Giants while touted prospect Archie Bradley (3-4, 4.81) will get the start for the D-backs.

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-- SSFGF