San Francisco Giants Morning Minute: Moore Snaps Skid

On this edition of the San Francisco Giants Morning Minute, we discuss Moore snapping a losing streak with a nearly-historic night.

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Good morning, San Francisco Giants’ fans, and welcome to another edition of the Giants Morning Minute. On Thursday, the Giants took the final game of a three-game set with the Dodgers, 4-0, avoiding the sweep. Matt Moore (1-3) earned his first win as a Giant, while Ross Stripling (3-5) took the loss in a spot start.

With the Giants’ win, they creep back within two games of the Dodgers in the NL West. The two teams still have six head-to-head matchups left this season. The Giants also picked up a game in the wildcard, as both the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins lost. They are 1.5 games up on the Cardinals, and three games up on Miami.

Here’s what went on Thursday.

1 – Moore Ends the Skid

With the Giants one loss away from a sweep at the hands of their archrivals and a four-game deficit in the division, Matt Moore took the mound for his first taste of the Giants-Dodgers rivalry. Looking for his first win with the Giants, Moore put his stamp on the rivalry in might fine fashion.

Moore had everything working from the get-go. His fastball command was leaps and bounds better than his first four starts, as he pounded corners and routinely found himself with count leverage. His curveball was sharp, with a big, loopy break that teased opposing hitters. His changeup kept them off balance, forcing a lot of weak swings.

In the third inning, Moore threw possibly his best sequence as a Giant to Charlie Culberson. Behind 1-0 in the count, he forced Culberson into an early swing with a changeup for strike one. He followed it up with a fastball low and away, and Culberson was way late on the swing. A curveball down in the dirt broke his swing down completely for strike three. That was his best sequence on a night of great sequences.

Through six innings, he allowed just one walk, coming with two outs in the second. In the seventh, he gave up his second walk, but held the Dodgers hitless for another inning. After a leadoff walk in the eighth, he retired three straight to take his no-hit bid into the ninth.

But it was decision time. Moore had thrown 119 pitches in eighth inning, just one shy of his career-high. Bochy gave him more leash, allowing him to hit to lead off the top of the ninth. He took the mound in the bottom, sprinting to his spot, just three outs away from etching his name in the history books.

In the ninth, he retired the first two he faced and was matched against rookie sensation, Corey Seager. He forced a weak flyball from Seager on his 133rd pitch, but the young shortstop placed it in the exact right spot, as it fell in shallow right field for the game’s first hit. Bruce Bochy went and got Moore immediately after, who exited with a gigantic smile on his face to a standing ovation from the opposing fanbase.

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That smile, a big, infectious, grin like Moore wore, had been missing from this team for a while. A smile like that is what this team needs going forward. They need to have fun again. What’s more fun than flirting with history?

And of course, Moore needed a bit of help from his friends as well.

2 – Friends to the Rescue

When John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the song “With a Little Help From My Friends”, they were talking about a pitcher looking for a no-hitter. It’s a historical fact, you don’t need to look it up. And on Thursday, Moore got by with plenty of help from his friends.

In the second inning, Span made a long running catch on an Adrian Gonzalez liner, snaring it just before it bounced against the turf in left-center field. In the fifth inning, Brandon Crawford fielded a grounder deep in the hole after it snuck under Eduardo Nunez‘s glove, and made the long throw to first look easy as he retired Rob Segedin. Span was back at it again in the ninth, sliding into the gap to rob another hit, this time off the bat of Enrique Hernandez.

And of course, the offense backed Moore up, something they couldn’t do for Johnny Cueto on Wednesday. In the fourth inning, Crawford led off with a single and moved to second on a comebacker that Stripling couldn’t handle cleanly. Brandon Belt brought him home with a liner to left-center to beat the shift and break the scoreless tie. That would have been enough on Thursday, but Joe Panik followed with a two-run home run, making it 3-0 and a bit easier to exhale.

Span didn’t just do it with his glove, either. In the sixth inning, he came up after a two-out walk and an error, and singled through the hole for the fourth and final Giants’ run.

To finish things off, Santiago Casilla threw one pitch, getting Turner to pop up for the last out.

This was another all-around win that the team was been sorely lacking lately. They took advantage of opportunities given, like Turner’s error in the fifth. The pitching was outstanding. The defense made the plays they were supposed to, and a lot of the ones they probably weren’t supposed to. It was great to see.

Next: Giants Morning Minute: Still Not Clicking

And that will do it for this edition of the Giants Morning Minute. Up next, the Giants win try to build a winning streak back at AT&T Park against the Atlanta Braves. Coming off his great start on Sunday, Jeff Samardzija will toe the rubber for the Giants, opposed by Braves’ rookie Joel De La Cruz, who is still in search of his first win.

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