Giants closer Brian Wilson, who coughed up Pat Burrell’s game-winning homer on Friday, didn’t have to wait long for redemption — only 24 hours and 9 1/2 innings as the Giants evened their series with the Phillies on Saturday with a 3-2 win in 10 innings.

Luckily, the Phillies didn’t lose any ground as the Mets were crushed by the  Arizona Diamondbacks by a 10-4 score and the San Diego Padres pounded the Florida Marlins by a score of 7-2.

In the top of the tenth inning, after reliever Rudy Seanez got the first out on a pop fly to shallow leftfield, rightfielder Randy Winn singled and stole 2nd base.  Then catcher Benji Molina, who went 3 for 5 for the game, singled to drive in the lead run.  After centerfielder Aaron Rowand struck out, Seanez gave up two more singles but got pinch hitter Jose Castillo to ground out to escape further damage.  But the one run held up to be the game winner with Seanez charged with his 2nd loss.

Wilson opened the Phillies’ half of the tenth inning by walking Burrell.  But then Jenkins grounded into a fielders choice with the runner at 2nd base.  Wilson then struck out late inning catching replacement Carlos Ruiz and shortstop Eric Bruntlett ended the game by grounding out to short.

Giants starter Matt Cain held the Phillies to 3 hits, two of them being solo homers to 2nd baseman Chase Utley (his ML leading 13th HR in the fourth) and to Geoff Jenkins (his 2nd HR of the season in the 5th), while issuing 1 walk and striking out his season-high of 8 in 7 innings before leaving with a tight right hamstring after walking catcher Chris Coste to open the 8th inning.

AP sports writer Rob Maaddi notes the following on Matt Cain for Yahoo sports;

He’s allowed three runs in his last three starts after getting tagged for nine runs against St. Louis on April 18.

Cain expects to be ready for his next start.

“I should be fine,” he said.

The Giants took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a Randy Winn single to centerfield after leftfielder Fred Lewis walked to lead-off and stole 2nd base.

After Utley’s 4th inning solo shot, Lewis followed a Cain foul out with a solo shot in the fifth putting the Giants up 2-1.  Jenkins then knotted the score with his solo shot in the Phillies’ fifth.

The snoozing Phillies offense wasted a fine performance by Brett Myers who went seven innings giving up 2 runs on 6 hits while walking 3 and striking out 10.  The Frisco bullpen held the Phils totally except for two walks and Chad Durbin and Brad Lidge kept the Phils in the game by holding the Giants to a walk and a single in the eighth and ninth innings.   Giants lefthanded reliever Jack Taschner held the Phillies in check in the ninth to earn his first win of the season.

The Ryan Howard strikeout watch continues.  The st baseman is batting .170 with 42 strikeouts in 30 games and in 126 plate appearances.  Seasonalized, that’s 227-229 strikeouts.

For all of the scores, boxscores and recaps on Saturday’s games, click here.

In Sunday’s get-away game, young 24 year old Tim Lincecum faces ace lefthander Cole Hamels.

Following the Giants, the Arizona Diamondbacks, with the best record in the Majors, meet the Phils for 4 games beginning on Monday.  Pitchers for the series opener are rookie Max Scherzer and veteran lefthander Jamie Moyer.

For the scores, boxscores and recaps on Sunday’s games, click here.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at 5:17 am and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary, Phillies and NL East, Analysis, Predictions, etc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.