• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Posey, Giants silence red-hot Braves

Jul 18, 2012 - 3:15 AM Atlanta, GA (Sports Network) - The Giants made short work of Jair Jurrjens on Tuesday night and put an end to the Braves' seven-game winning streak.

Buster Posey drove in a season-high five runs, Barry Zito threw seven shutout innings and San Francisco rolled to a 9-0 victory in the opener of a three- game series that was all but over minutes after Jurrjens walked off the field in the fourth inning.

How bad were things for Jurrjens and the Braves? The resurgent right-hander was out of the game with his team trailing 8-0 before Zito gave up his first hit in the fourth inning.

"Since the first hitter you could see they had my command," said Jurrjens. "They're a good team. I made a lot of bad pitches and they got hits on them."

Zito (8-6) allowed just three hits and a walk and struck out four on a night when the Giants needed far less from the lefty to extend their winning streak to four games.

He moved to 4-0 in five career starts at Turner Field, but said the stat was "coincidental."

"Sometimes you feel good and you end up at the same park a lot," he said. "I don't think there's a whole lot to it. It's a fun place to pitch. Just a real nice yard. They got a great lineup and you can't take them lightly."

Eight of the Giants' runs were charged to Jurrjens -- six in the fourth -- to match a career-worst for the former All-Star.

Indeed, Jurrjens (3-3) looked less like the pitcher who went 3-0 in his last four starts since being called back up from the minors last month, and more like the pitcher who was sent down after laboring to an 0-2 record and a 9.37 ERA in his first four outings this season.

He gave up eight hits and three walks and threw 73 pitches in 3 1/3 innings, pulled from the game with Atlanta in a 5-0 hole. Posey delivered a three-run double off Luis Avilan minutes later, all of the runs charged to Jurrjens.

"It was a tough one," Jurrjens said. "It was just a tough one. Just a game for us to put behind us and prepare for tomorrow."

Posey, who had three hits, knocked in the first two runs with a double in the first inning and a single in the third before the Giants really poured it on.

Angel Pagan and Hector Sanchez hit back-to-back singles leading off the fourth; Pagan reached when Jurrjens failed to touch first base while covering the bag, and Sanchez would leave with a sprained left knee.

Zito then made it 3-0 with a single he slapped past a drawn-in Chipper Jones at third base.

It snowballed for Jurrjens after that. Following a walk to Gregor Blanco and RBI singles by Ryan Theriot and Melky Cabrera, he was pulled for Avilan, who made his second major league appearance.

Posey greeted the reliever with a double to the left-center field wall, scoring all three runners for an 8-0 lead.

"I feel like we've struggled a little bit to get that big hit and kind of bust some games open," said Posey. "The last road trip in Washington, we had a game where we're up four or five runs and we just couldn't seem to get the big hit to get some separation and we were able to do that tonight."

It marked the third time this season Atlanta allowed six runs in an inning.

It matched the worst career outing runs-wise for Jurrjens, who also gave up eight runs in 3 1/3 innings to the San Diego Padres on April 12, 2010.

Zito also helped another run cross in the fifth, bunting Brandon Crawford to second after a single. Crawford scored on Blanco's single a batter later for a 9-0 lead.

Game Notes

Sanchez is day-to-day...The Braves are 8-2 in the last 10 meetings between the teams...The Giants, who were coming off a three-game sweep of the Astros, started a six-game road trip against the Braves and Phillies...Zito got his third win in his last seven starts...Atlanta's seven-game winning streak was its longest since a nine-gamer from May 26 to June 3, 2010.