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Sandoval, Giants down Tigers

Sep 6, 2014 - 6:17 AM Detroit, MI (SportsNetwork.com) - Pablo Sandoval smacked a solo homer and finished with two RBI as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Detroit Tigers, 8-2, in the opener of a three-game set.

Gregor Blanco was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI, while Brandon Crawford went 3-for-3 with an RBI for the Giants, who had dropped two of their last three games on the heels of a six-game winning streak.

Jake Peavy (4-4) allowed two unearned runs on six hits over six innings to notch the win.

Rick Porcello (15-10) surrendered six runs -- five earned -- on 10 hits and a walk over three frames for Detroit, which is two games behind AL Central- leading Kansas City. The Tigers also fell a half-game behind Seattle for the AL's second wild-card spot.

"It was a combination of some good pitches that got hit and some bad pitches that got hit, and they capitalized on all of them," Porcello said.

There was a 2-hour and 42-minute rain delay following the third inning.

The Giants raced out to a 7-0 lead after plating a run in the first, three in the second, two in the third and another in the fourth.

"With a nice lead going into the fourth inning, that's the last thing you want to see, is it get called and have to play it again," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

Angel Pagan led off the first with a single, advanced to second on a Porcello throwing error and later scored on Sandoval's base hit through the hole on the left side.

Blanco began the second with a triple before Travis Ishikawa brought him home with a single. Adam Duvall then singled and Crawford advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt. Ishikawa crossed the plate on Pagan's groundout and Duvall scored on Joe Panik's base hit to give San Francisco a 4-0 advantage.

Buster Posey and Hunter Pence sandwiched singles around a Sandoval lineout to start the third. Posey scored on Blanco's double to right. Ishikawa was intentionally walked to load the bases, but Pence was thrown out at the plate by Nick Castellanos on Duvall's bouncer to third. Ishikawa came home on Crawford's base hit.

After the delay, Panik scored when Castellanos was unable to handle Pence's roller to third in the fourth.

Detroit got on the board in the fifth, but San Francisco pushed across another run in the sixth.

Rajai Davis' RBI groundout and Ian Kinsler's run-scoring single cut the gap to 7-2 in the fifth, but Sandoval's two-out blast in the sixth made it 8-2.

Game Notes

Peavy is 4-1 over his last five starts. He had thrown at least seven frames in four straight outings ... San Francisco was 5-for-14 with runners in scoring position, while Detroit finished 1-for-7.