Hanson has 4 RBIs as Giants pile up 18 hits

ATLANTA -- The Giants' bats continued to heat up Saturday night in their 11-2 rout of the Braves at SunTrust Park. It was the third straight game in which San Francisco scored at least nine runs.
"They're seeing the ball well right now," manager Bruce Bochy said. "It's a good thing, and we've had our tough go with the offense. I just kept saying, 'Hey, we're going to come out of this.' It's good to have a lot of guys swinging the bats well."
Ty Blach was the beneficiary of the offensive outburst after going into Saturday's game with the second-lowest run support in the National League. The lefty didn't walk a batter through a season-high 7 2/3 innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on seven hits, pitching to contact with just two strikeouts.
"[The Braves] are an aggressive team, so I knew if I just made some quality pitches early in the count, I could try to get some really good contact and try to get the guys back in the dugout and keep the momentum on our side," Blach said.

The Giants banged out 18 hits -- 12 of them off Braves righty Brandon McCarthy, who lasted just 3 1/3 innings.
Alen Hanson homered, doubled and drove in a career-best four runs; Buster Posey went 3-for-5 with two RBIs; Andrew McCutchen went 3-for-4 with two runs; Brandon Crawford went 3-for-5 with two RBIs; and Gorkys Hernández went 4-for-5. Grégor Blanco, in the leadoff spot, was the only starting position player without a hit.

"We all knew we had the team to be able to put up runs," McCutchen said. "That's what our team's built around and we all are swinging the bat well, and I think we can consistently do this. And I'm not saying we're going to go out and score 11 runs every day, but I do think we have the team that we can put up the runs that we need to put up."

Reliever Reyes Moronta exited with back tightness after throwing eight straight balls to start the bottom of the ninth inning. Bochy said the right-hander is day-to-day.
"He tried to go out there, I wish he would have told us, but I guess it's been tight on him. When he warmed up, it tightened even more, but as you can see he wasn't even close," Bochy said.

SOUND SMART
Before scoring 29 runs in the last three games, the Giants had averaged just 3.6 runs per game. Their 11 runs on Saturday bests their previous season high of 10, against the Mariners on April 4.

YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
Evan Longoria picked up his 1,500th career hit in the third inning with an RBI double on a softly hit ball that got past a diving Nick Markakis in right field. The third baseman is the 42nd Giant to reach the milestone, the most of any franchise. McCutchen is not far behind with 1,490 hits.

HE SAID IT
"The Giants are a team that I think has a chance to go a long way this year. That's a really good lineup there. That's me saying it, because I just threw them batting practice. But that's a pretty good group one through nine." -- McCarthy
UP NEXT
The Giants will go for a series sweep on Sunday as lefty Andrew Suárez (0-1, 4.38 ERA) makes his third career start, while righty Michael Soroka (1-0, 1.50 ERA) gets his second career start for the Braves. First pitch is scheduled for 10:35 a.m. PT.