SAMARDZIJA LOSES PERFECTO IN 7TH, CUBS LOSE GAME IN 9TH
Sanchez's Walk-Off 2B Wins Game for Giants
SAN FRANCISCO, May 26 (AP) - Chicago Cubs starter Jeff Samardzija took a perfect game into the seventh inning before yielding a double to Angel Pagan, and the San Francisco Giants rallied for three runs over the final three innings for a 3-2 win at AT&T Park. Samardzija left the game with a 2-0 lead but the Cubs bullpen surrendered six baserunners over the final two innings to blow that advantage.
Yusmeiro Petit started the game for the Giants, surrendering a pair of runs over six innings. Neither starting pitcher received a decision.
The Cubs drew first blood on Luis Valbuena's solo home run off Petit in the second.
Chicago added a run in the fourth, but missed an opportunity to pad its lead further. Anthony Rizzo led off with a base hit and then caught Petit napping by stealing his first base of the year. Starlin Castro struck out but Valbuena lined a double to right-center, plating Rizzo to make the score 2-0. Wellington Castillo followed with a single to right, but San Francisco right fielder Hunter Pence gunned down Valbuena on a close play at the plate for the second out. Nate Schierholtz then singled to left, advancing Castillo to second before Darwin Barney flied to right for the third out. Without the out recorded on the bases, there's no telling how big an inning it might have been for the Cubs, but they settled for a two-run advantage.
For quite some time, it appeared that might be enough. Samardzija retired the first 18 Giants he faced, striking out half of them, before Pagan opened the bottom of the seventh with a double to left-center. Pence drew a base on balls on a 3-2 count, putting the tying runs on first and second. Buster Posey's weak grounder to the right side was handled by Barney for the first out, but the runners advanced to second and third. That brought Pablo Sandoval to the plate, and Cubs manager Rick Renteria, not liking what he'd seen from Samardzija for the first three batters of the frame and facing a left-handed dominant switch hitter with the tying runs in scoring position, lifted his starting pitcher in favor of southpaw James Russell. Russell induced a soft grounder to first from Sandoval for the second out, but both runners advanced 90 feet, with Pagan scoring the first Giants run of the game. Russell walked Michael Morse intentionally and then retired Hector Sanchez on a grounder to second to escape further damage.
Petit was lifted for a pinch hitter in the sixth and replaced on the mound by Juan Gutierrez who retired all six batters he faced in the seventh and eighth innings.
In the bottom of the eighth, Wesley Wright took over for Russell, who'd been pinch hit for in the top of the inning. Wright promptly walked Brandon Crawford and Brandon Hicks to open the frame, and Renteria wasted no time sending Neil Ramirez to the mound to face pinch hitter Gregor Blanco. Blanco dropped down a perfect sacrifice bunt, moving the runners to second and third with one out, and Crawford scored to tie the game on Pagan's grounder to short. Pence flied to left for the final out, but the Giants had tied the game at two.
David Huff came on for San Francisco in the top of the ninth and hit Rizzo with a pitch leading off, but kept his composure and retired the next three batters in order.
Brian Schlitter took over for Chicago in the bottom of the inning and got Posey on a fly to left but then yielded a double into the left field corner to Sandoval, who was replaced on second by pinch runner Ehiran Adrianza. Morse drew a relatively meaningless walk from Schlitter, bringing Sanchez to the plate. He worked the count full and then roped a fastball off the brick wall in right, scoring Adrianza with the winning run as the sellout crowd went crazy.
5/26/2014, ChN14-SF14, AT&T Park
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP
2014 Cubs 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 5 0 4 0
2014 Giants 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 3 0 5 0
Cubs AB R H BI AVG Giants AB R H BI AVG
Bonifacio cf 4 0 0 0 .266 Pagan cf 4 1 1 1 .287
Lake lf 4 0 0 0 .170 Pence rf 3 0 0 0 .285
Rizzo 1b 3 1 1 0 .279 Posey 1b 4 0 0 0 .281
Castro,S ss 4 0 0 0 .294 Sandoval 3b 4 0 1 1 .265
Valbuena 3b 4 1 2 2 .224 Adrianza pr 0 1 0 0 .200
Castillo,W c 3 0 1 0 .222 Morse lf 2 0 0 0 .276
Schierholtz rf 3 0 1 0 .192 Sanchez,H c 4 0 1 1 .162
Barney 2b 3 0 0 0 .198 Crawford,B ss 2 1 0 0 .217
Samardzija p 2 0 0 0 .136 Hicks,B 2b 2 0 0 0 .144
Russell p 0 0 0 0 .000 Petit,Y p 1 0 0 0 .222
Coghlan ph 1 0 0 0 .200 Colvin ph 1 0 0 0 .324
Wright,W p 0 0 0 0 .000 Gutierrez p 0 0 0 0 .000
Ramirez,N p 0 0 0 0 .000 Blanco,G ph 0 0 0 0 .282
Schlitter p 0 0 0 0 .000 Huff p 0 0 0 0 .000
31 2 5 2 27 3 3 3
Cubs INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Samardzija 6.1 1 1 1 1 9 77 54 4.64
Russell H 7 0.2 0 0 0 1 0 15 8 1.15
Wright,W 0.0 0 1 1 2 0 10 2 8.25
Ramirez,N BS 1 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 6 5 2.93
Schlitter L 1-3 0.1 2 1 1 1 0 18 9 5.29
8.1 3 3 3 5 9 126 78
Giants INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Petit,Y 6.0 5 2 2 1 5 73 52 2.38
Gutierrez 2.0 0 0 0 0 1 19 16 4.57
Huff W 2-2 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 17 10 4.82
9.0 5 2 2 1 6 109 78
ChN: Coghlan batted for Russell in the 8th
SF : Colvin batted for Petit,Y in the 6th
Blanco,G batted for Gutierrez in the 8th
Adrianza ran for Sandoval in the 9th
2B-Valbuena(5), Pagan(9), Sandoval(13), Sanchez,H(4). HR-Valbuena(6).
RBI-Valbuena 2(17), Pagan(22), Sandoval(21), Sanchez,H(7). SB-Rizzo(1).
K-Lake, Rizzo, Castro,S, Castillo,W, Samardzija 2, Posey, Sandoval,
Sanchez,H, Crawford,B 2, Hicks,B 2, Petit,Y, Colvin. BB-Castillo,W, Pence,
Morse 2, Crawford,B, Hicks,B. SH-Blanco,G. HBP-Rizzo. HB-Huff.
GWRBI: Sanchez,H
Temperature: 73, Sky: clear, Wind: none.
Attendance: 41,624
Game Time: 2:44