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Giants double up Mets

Jul 11, 2011 - 6:04 AM San Francisco, CA (Sports Network) - Nate Schierholtz went 4-for-4, Pablo Sandoval extended his hitting streak to 21 games and Matt Cain tossed six scoreless innings to help the Giants beat the Mets, 4-2, in the rubber match of a three-game series.

Sandoval doubled in the third inning to extend the streak. It's the longest by a Giant since Buster Posey hit safely in 21 straight last season. Jack Clark holds the San Francisco era record for longest hit streak with 26 games from June 30-July 25, 1978. The franchise record is 33 games, held by George Davis in 1893.

Schierholtz drove in a run and scored a run for the Giants, who head into the All-Star break with victories in four of their last five games.

Cain (8-5) gave up five hits for San Francisco, which sits in first place in the NL West with a 52-40 record. He struck out four and walked three. Since Cain started Sunday, he will be replaced by Braves closer Craig Kimbrel for Tuesday's All-Star Game.

"It's going to be a tough race," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "It's going to go deep in the season here."

Nick Evans hit a solo homer for New York, which has lost three of four to drop to 46-45 on the season. Justin Turner went 4-for-5 with an RBI.

Mike Pelfrey (5-8) allowed two runs on eight hits over six innings. He struck out five and walked two in the loss.

"We came in here and faced three guys [Ryan Vogelsong, Tim Lincecum and Cain] that are going to the All-Star Game, so we didn't have an easy task in front of us. You've got to kind of keep it in perspective," Pelfrey said.

The Mets had a great chance to score in the third, loading the bases with two outs. Daniel Murphy lined out to second to end the threat.

San Francisco made New York pay with a two-run bottom of the third. Andres Torres led off with a double and scored on Sandoval's one-out double off the wall in left-center field. Schierholtz followed with an RBI single for a 2-0 lead.

The Giants added two more runs in the seventh. Mike Fontenot led off with a single off Jon Niese. Schierholtz hit a one-out double to put men on second and third. D.J. Carrasco came in from the bullpen and allowed Miguel Tejada to hit an RBI single. Aaron Rowand did the same to make it 4-0.

The Mets got on the board in the eighth. With two outs, pinch-hitter Evans hit a solo homer to left off Jeremy Affeldt.

New York made things a bit interesting in the ninth. Brian Wilson gave up a one-out double to pinch-hitter Willie Harris, who scored on Turner's two-out ground-rule double. Carlos Beltran struck out swinging to give Wilson 26 saves on the season.

Game Notes

San Francisco took two of three at New York in early May...Giants outfielder Cody Ross (hamstring) missed the game...Pelfrey fell to 2-2 in six career games vs. the Giants...Cain improved to 5-3 lifetime against the Mets...New York went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10.