Span slugs G-men to victory in Moore's debut

After two-batters Matt Moore had surrendered a walk, a double, and an early lead. Our initial thought: “This guy is gonna fit right in.”

The newbie showed flashes in his Giants debut. (AP Photo)

Perhaps we were still fighting the disillusionment of watching the Giants gack away a late 4-0 lead from the night before. Or perhaps it was the dismal performance to the pitching staff as a whole since the All-Star Break that colored our judgement. Whatever the case, Moore got a no-decision but pitched well enough in his Giants debut to counter another poor offensive performance before Denard Span saved the day in a 3-2, 10-inning win at Philadelphia.

Whatever the case, the Giants did manage to avoid an embarrassing sweep at the hands of the rebuilding Phils. They aren’t bad, but they’re like a 16-year-old fumbling around in the back seat after prom; lots of potential but no idea what to do.

The Giants have no such excuse. The best team in baseball after 90 games has gone 0-5-1 in the six series since, winning just five times in 19 tries. The lone saving grace is that Los Angeles has taken only marginal advantage of the collapse. The Hated Dodgers (that really needs to be stitched onto their uniforms) are just 6-4 over their last 10 to the Giants’ 4-6.

To recap, San Francisco still holds the lead in the NL West, and no one is more surprised that we are. Their 62-46 mark is good for a two-game edge over 60-48 LA, with Colorado still lurking eight games back at 54-54 and the Rockies are playing the best ball in the division over the last week and a half.

The retooled Giants don’t yet seem comfortable with how the pieces fit together. That was evidenced by Moore, who just arrived from Tampa Bay in exchange for a king’s ransom that included Matt Duffy and a pair of top prospects. He showed flashes of the dominant lefty poised to become one of the top pitchers in the game before Tommy John surgery derailed that train 15 months ago. He also had a few debris-on-the-track moments.

Moore went six innings, giving up two runs on three hits. He also unleashed his inner Damian Moss with six walks; three of them to leadoff hitters and two of them provided the only blemishes on the scoreboard, but in a technical sense it was a quality start. It was also encouraging that his fastball topped out at 96 with a breaker that was more accurate than his heater and was at times unhittable.  

The down side, he was twice staked to a lead he couldn’t hold. The Phillies got the afore-mentioned quick response in the first and benefitted from some buzzard’s luck in the sixth on a walk, a 37-hopper through the middle, a bloop hit and a would-be double-play ball that wasn’t hit quite hard enough.

All Span needed was a little motivation. (AP Photo)

Span, a disappointment through four months, may have gotten his wake-up call with the addition of Edurado “Stone Hands” Nunez. The AL all-star shortstop has struggled at third but his bat and speed made him a threat to Span’s lead-off spot;  that and Span’s .333 OBP.  Span went 7 for 15 with two stolen bases and four runs scored in the series and played a role in all three Giants runs.

Span singled and scored on a Brandon Crawford base hit in the first then lofted a sacrifice fly to plate Joe Panik in the fifth before clubbing the eventual game-winner in the top of the tenth. Severino Gonzalez’s 2-2 pitch was down and in, and Span took it up and out. The solo shot down the right-field line was the decider, with an assist from Santiago Casilla.

God, we can’t believe we’re writing this. Since the Giants passed on adding a closer, a move Casilla was openly against, he’s done the job. It did take a nice play from Nunez to help Casilla through a quiet tenth to get the save, but this was half a day after two-strong innings in Wednesday’s 12-inning loss. Lest we forget, Sergio Romo pitched a well-timed one third of an inning to get the win. Hunter Strickland, Derek Law and Will Smith backed up Moore to get the Giants that far.

Span had three of the Giants eight hits with Crawford, Panik, Angel Pagan, Hunter Pence and Trevor Brown also hitting safely. The six Giants pitchers allowed just four hits combined.

It was only  the Giants second road win in 11 tries since the break, not good news considering they find themselves in the midst of a nine-game roadie for the second time in that span (against just seven home dates).

 It doesn’t get easier as they open a three-game series at NL East-leading Washington on Friday (the teams split four at AT&T last weekend). Jeff Samardzija (9-7, 4.30 ERA) gets the call against Gio Gonzalez (6-9, 4.29 ERA).

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