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Burrell homers again in Giants win

Jun 15, 2010 - 6:27 AM SAN FRANCISCO(AP) -- Pat Burrell spent a couple weeks at home after he was cut by Tampa Bay last month. He wasn't sure about his future, so he's definitely enjoying his time with the San Francisco Giants.

Burrell homered for the second time in four days, Freddy Sanchez drove in four runs and San Francisco beat the Baltimore Orioles 10-2 on Monday night.

"It's hard to have a better game than what we put together tonight," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "We just had quality at-bat after quality at-bat."

Burrell hit a leadoff drive in San Francisco's five-run second inning, giving the Giants a 2-1 lead. Burrell, who also homered in a 6-2 victory over Oakland on Friday night, signed a minor league deal with San Francisco on May 29 and is batting .407 since he was promoted on June 4.

"I just kept telling myself, 'You still have something to offer.' For whatever reason the timing was right and it worked," said Burrell, who grew up near San Francisco and graduated from Bellarmine Prep in San Jose. "Not many guys get that kind of a chance so I'm trying to enjoy every minute of it."

Also in the second, Pablo Sandoval and Andres Torres had RBI doubles, Sanchez singled in a run and Aubrey Huff added a sacrifice fly that made it 5-1.

Jonathan Sanchez pitched 7 2-3 innings for the Giants, allowing two runs and eight hits. He struck out five and walked one in his third victory in four outings after a 2-4 start.

Matt Wieters hit a solo homer for the Orioles, who have lost 18 of 21. Baltimore also fell to 1-6 in interleague play this season.

"If we keep giving up so many runs early it makes it hard to fight back," Orioles interim manager Juan Samuel said. "We tie it up and the guys are feeling good, then we give up five runs right away. That's not going to do it."

San Francisco has won four straight to move a season-high nine games over .500 and pull within a half-game of NL West-leading San Diego, which lost 6-3 to Toronto.

Jonathan Sanchez (5-5) lowered his ERA to 2.78. The left-hander, who threw the Giants' first no-hitter in nearly 35 years last July, has allowed eight earned runs over his last five starts.

Sanchez left after surrendering a leadoff single to Corey Patterson in the eighth and a two-out RBI double to Ty Wigginton. Sergio Romo and Jeremy Affeldt completed the eight-hitter.

Coming off a 2-7 homestand, the Orioles failed to put together back-to-back hits and only two runners reached third base.

Wieters connected on a 3-2 pitch from Sanchez in the second, tying it at 1. The second-year catcher had gone 102 at-bats without a homer, matching the longest drought of his career.

It was Baltimore's third homer in its last 10 games.

Chris Tillman (0-3) gave up six runs and six hits over two innings in his first career start against San Francisco.

The Giants took a 1-0 lead in the first when Torres led off with a triple and scored on Freddy Sanchez's sacrifice fly.

Torres also drew a bases-loaded walk in the eighth, one of two issued in the inning by Frank Mata.

NOTES: Orioles OF Felix Pie, on the DL with a strained left shoulder, will begin taking batting practice from coaches Tuesday and could rejoin the team before the end of the month. ... Bochy didn't rule out using Buster Posey at catcher when RHP Joe Martinez makes his 2010 debut on Tuesday. Posey, who has played first base in 15 of his 16 games since being called up from the minors, caught Martinez when the two played at Triple-A Fresno. ... Giants SS Edgar Renteria, on a minor league rehab assignment, will play when he returns to the big league club but not at the expense of INF Juan Uribe, who leads the team in RBIs and is tied with Huff for the lead in home runs. Uribe has started 39 games at shortstop this season. ... Baltimore SS Miguel Tejada's homerless streak is at 166 at-bats, the second-longest stretch of his career.