San Francisco, CA – Pablo Sandoval hit a two-run double to help the San Francisco Giants take a 5-3 win to a split of a classic doubleheader with the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday.
Gregor Blanco, Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt each drove in a run for the Giants, who dropped the opener of this set by a score of 9-3 and snapped a three-game losing streak.
Barry Zito didn't make it out of the fifth inning as he was touched for three runs on six hits with three walks and four strikeouts over 4 2/3 frames. Santiago Casilla (4-2) pitched 1 1/3 frames to pick up the win.
The win gave San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy 1,500 victories in his managerial career.
"I don't know what that number means except that I'm fortunate to be doing this as long as I have," said Bochy. "I wish we were in a better situation right now, but I think you're blessed if you're playing it. Again, I'm not sure what it means, but to be mentioned with some of these managers, I'm humbled."
Corky Miller drove in a pair of runs while Todd Frazier went 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored for the Reds, who had won five of six coming into the night game.
Greg Reynolds (0-1) was charged with five runs on eight hits over five innings in his season debut.
Due to a July 4 game in Cincinnati being rained out, the contest was rescheduled for Tuesday and Cincinnati dressed in its home uniforms and batted in the bottom of the innings for Game 2. However, it is still considered a road game for the team, and a home game for the Giants.
In their away uniforms and starting the top of the first at-bat, the Giants gave the crowd something to cheer about with a three-run opening.
Tony Abreu hit a one-out single and Buster Posey was hit by a pitch. Sandoval then doubled home both runners and Pence followed with a single for a 3-0 lead.
In the second, the Giants made it a 4-0 game on Blanco's sac fly that plated Brandon Crawford, who led off with a double and took third on Zito's sac bunt.
The Reds answered in the bottom of the inning on a two-run double from Miller.
In the fifth, Belt chased home Abreu on a groundout to give San Francisco a 5-2 lead.
Cincinnati kept it a two-run game in its turn at the plate in the fifth as Jay Bruce singled with two outs and came home thanks to a double to center from Frazier.
The Reds left men on second over the next three innings, and again got a man to second base in the ninth off of Sergio Romo, but he struck out Devin Mesoraco to pick up his 24th save of the season.
"One or two would have been nice. We had base-runners on almost every inning and had runners on second base a number of times. Their pitchers shut us down," Reds manager Dusty Baker said.
Game Notes
Cincinnati was 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position and stranded 14 men on base ... It was San Fran's first win in six games against Cincinnati this season ... Bochy is the 21st manager in baseball history to reach 1,500 wins.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.