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Aurilia, Giants batter Athletics

Jun 30, 2008 - 1:19 AM By Ryan Leong PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- The San Francisco Giants batted around in the fourth and fifth innings en route to an 11-1 drubbing of the Oakland Athletics on Sunday afternoon.

Rich Aurilia had three hits, including a two run homer, with five RBI and Jonathan Sanchez pitched seven stellar innings for San Francisco.

Sanchez (8-4), who allowed only a run on four hits with six strikeouts, has quietly emerged as one of the better pitchers in the National League. He is in the top 10 for wins and tied for fifth in the league with 102 strikeouts.

"I've been feeling good," Sanchez said. "I have three more starts before the (All-Star) break and hope to continue what I've been doing. I've been getting with my command. I'm just trying to concentrate every time out, every inning. I'm just getting better every time out."

"He's probably unknown for now because he's young and this is probably his first full year of starting pitching," Giants catcher Bengie Molina said. "I think he's going to be known. I'll tell you what, he's going to be known and people are going to be realizing who he is. Hopefully he just stays within himself and doesn't try to do too much and we can keep this thing going."

Oakland's Joe Blanton (4-11) was shelled for eight hits and seven runs in just four innings. The 11 losses are tied with his former teammate, San Francisco's Barry Zito, for the major league lead. Blanton has received run support of two runs or fewer in nine of his 18 starts this year and sports a 2.35 ERA in his losses.

"It's kind of hard for it not to be frustrating," Blanton said. "It's just another standard day for me when I go out and pitch and I feel like I was throwing the ball well and basically your numbers look like crap at the end of the day. That's basically the way my year has been."

The two team's front offices have not been friendly toward one another. At the end of the second inning, the A's played a video on the scoreboard of the final out in their 1989 World Series-clinching win against the Giants. Perhaps the video inspired the Giants players to take out their aggressions on the Athletics.

"Who cares, if that makes themselves feel good about themselves that's fine," Aurilia said. "We don't care. We just want to win games. We just come out and play and just want to win. They can put whatever they want on the board, it doesn't really matter."

Blanton retired the first 10 batters of the game, but in the fourth inning the Giants batted around. With one out, Ray Durham lined a double to the gap in right-center, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on a double to right by Molina. Aaron Rowand followed with a two-bagger to left, easily scoring the slow- footed Molina for a 2-1 lead.

John Bowker legged out an infield single to short and Aurilia singled to right center to plate Rowand. After a brief visit from pitching coach Curt Young, Jose Castillo singled to right - the fifth consecutive hit of the frame - to score for a 4-1 cushion.

In the fifth, the Giants again sent nine men to the plate. After a triple by Fred Lewis, an RBI double by Durham and a walk to Randy Winn, Blanton's day was over. Reliever Andrew Brown did not fare much better, allowing both inherited runners to score and giving up two more runs.

"Nobody's sitting back waiting for home runs, we're trying to string together hits and move runners over in situations and score guys from third with less than two outs, get two-out RBIs, stuff like that," Rowand said. "That's how we're going to score runs, playing in the ballpark that we do with the guys that we have. We're not a huge home run hitting team so we're going to have to produce runs that way."

With the bases loaded, Bowker hit a two-run double and Aurilia capped the scoring with a two-run single. Aurilia added a two-run homer to left in the seventh to tie his career high with five RBI in one game.

"I was lucky enough to get up with guys on base a couple of times with guys in scoring position." Aurilia said. "I think the key for us as a team was that one inning (in the fourth) we had five two-out hits in a row. Once you do that you want to build off that and keep putting runs on the board."

The Athletics scored their only run in the second on a prodigious home run to right-center by Jack Cust.

"Every series is big. Playing a team across the town you want to do well, the fans come out," Cust said. "It was frustrating the last two games but you've got to give those guys credit, they pitched really well."

Although the Giants won two of three against the A's, Oakland has won nine of 12 against San Francisco over the last two years in the Bay Bridge Series.

"Anytime a club comes in your park and takes the series and you get swept sure you want to get back," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "(The A's) played well. It was a tough game last night and we won a squeaker there but to come back and take the series after losing the first one, that's big."