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Giants stay hot in win over Arizona

Apr 9, 2014 - 3:22 AM San Francisco, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Tim Hudson's eight strong innings and Brandon Belt and Angel Pagan's continued hot hitting made for a successful home opener for the San Francisco Giants, who dealt the Arizona Diamondbacks a 7-3 loss in the first of a three-game series.

Belt slugged his fifth homer of the young season and finished 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI, while Pagan went 2-for-3 with two runs scored to raise his average to .441.

Hudson (2-0) impressed as well in his first AT&T Park start as a Giant, with the offseason pickup yielding three runs -- two earned -- and not walking a batter to beat Arizona for the second time in five days.

"If he's capable of pitching like he did today, that's a tough matchup for anyone," said Diamondbacks slugger Mark Trumbo.

Michael Morse and Brandon Crawford also had two hits and a pair of RBI for San Francisco, which owns a National League-best 6-2 record at the moment.

Arizona, on the other hand, fell to 2-8 and got a shaky outing from starter Trevor Cahill (0-3), who lasted just 3 1/3 innings and was tagged for five runs and eight hits.

Martin Prado recorded three of the Diamondbacks' seven hits on the afternoon.

Belt gave the sold-out home crowd something to cheer about very early on, golfing a Cahill pitch over the wall in right center with Pagan aboard in the bottom of the first inning to stake the Giants to a 2-0 lead. The blast tied him with Trumbo for the current major league in home runs.

"I've got more balance than I've had in the past and it's enabled me to get better contact," said Belt of his hot start.

A throwing error by San Francisco second baseman Brandon Hicks on a potential double-play ball in the top of the second inning enabled Prado to score from second, but the Giants reached Cahill for three more runs in the third to extend their advantage.

Pagan began the outburst with a leadoff double and Belt followed with a single to put two on for Buster Posey, who clubbed a one-out base hit to center to bring in the first run. Two batters later, Morse shot a single through the right side to plate both Belt and Posey and increase the margin to 5-1.

Paul Goldschimdt doubled in the fourth and came around on a Miguel Montero sacrfice fly to briefly bring the Diamondbacks closer, but Arizona failed to get a runner past first in any of Hudson's next three innings.

Crawford put the game out of reach with a two-run single off Ryan Rowland- Smith in the bottom of the fifth. The hit came after Hunter Pence drew a two- out walk and advanced to third on Morse's ground-rule double to left that Trumbo lost in the sun.

Hudson had retired 11 of the last 13 hitters he faced until Tony Campana led off the eighth with pinch-hit triple and scored the game's final run on Gerardo Parra's groundout.

Game Notes

Hudson tossed 7 2/3 scoreless innings to defeat Cahill and the Diamondbacks in Phoenix on Wednesday ... The Diamondbacks are now 0-4 in openers this year, having also lost the first game of the 2014 season (to the Dodgers in Australia), their home lid-lifter to the Giants last week and Colorado's home opener this past Friday ... The Giants won their sixth straight home opener and are 12-3 in such games at AT&T Park ... Pagan has hit safely in all eight games this season ... Trumbo, who had homered in four straight coming in, went 0-for-4.