De La Rosa leads D-backs in shutout of Giants
SAN FRANCISCO -- Rubby De La Rosa stymied the Giants over 5 2/3 innings and Welington Castillo collected an RBI groundout as Arizona played spoiler to San Francisco's chances at a playoff spot, securing a 2-0 win Friday night at AT&T Park.
De La Rosa cruised into the sixth before loading the bases without allowing a hit in the inning. He was pulled in favor of Andrew Chafin, who quelled the Giants' rally. De La Rosa surrendered just one hit on the night while walking four and striking out five.
"He spotted his fastball and I thought he used his sinker a lot more tonight," D-backs manager Chip Hale said. "He mixed his pitches. He threw a lot of sliders. He kept his composure out there."
Madison Bumgarner was his usual dominant self, but received little help from his offense. The left-hander followed up a near-perfect outing by hurling eight innings. He gave up five hits, three walks and two runs (one earned) to go along with seven strikeouts.
"We can't afford any losses," Bumgarner said. "All you can do is come back and try to get it tomorrow until it's over."
The reigning World Series Most Valuable Player threw a season-high 117 pitches, taking his first home loss since June 12. Bumgarner exhibited his competitive nature when he reluctantly issued an intentional free pass to Paul Goldschmidt in the eighth inning.
"I think his thought was I was going to walk him to go to the bullpen," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "He didn't want to leave that game."
• Is Goldschmidt #AwardWorthy? Vote now for Best Major Leaguer
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Miscue behind Madison: Goldschmidt ripped a Bumgarner slider down the left-field line in the sixth inning, and Alejandro De Aza appeared to have a bead on the ball. As De Aza raced to the line, he reached for the rolling ball, which slid underneath his glove and toward the outfield wall. The error allowed A.J. Pollock to score from first and permitted Goldschmidt, who scored on the ensuing play, to take third.
Video: ARI@SF: Pollock scores on De Aza's fielding error
Escape artist: De La Rosa ran into trouble in the sixth when with one out he hit Angel Pagan with a pitch and walked De Aza. One out later, he intentionally walked Buster Posey to load the bases, and Hale went to lefty Chafin to face Brandon Belt. Chafin got Belt to ground to second to end the Giants' biggest threat of the night.
Video: ARI@SF: Chafin retires Belt to strand bases loaded
"You can tell that last inning it started to get away from him," Hale said of De La Rosa. "And Chafin came in and bailed him out. It was beautiful."
Tomlinson turns two: After Goldschmidt walked to lead off the fourth, Castillo hit a bouncing ball to Matt Duffy, which the third baseman fielded and threw low to second. Kelby Tomlinson picked the ball out of the dirt, kept his foot on the bag, contorted his body and made a strong throw to first to turn the double play.
Video: ARI@SF: Duffy, Tomlinson combine for slick DP
High-flying robbery: Pollock robbed Jarrett Parker of a home run in the eighth inning. Parker led off the frame with a deep fly to left-center. Pollock sprinted over and timed his leap perfectly, reaching over the wall to snag the ball.
Video: Must C Catch: Pollock's great leap takes away homer
"I feel like I had a good jump on it, and you start to get close to the fence and I was comfortable because I took a pretty good route that I would at least have a chance at it," Pollock said. "Just trying to make a play." More >
QUOTABLE
"We're breathing, you know, it's an uphill climb. We know what happened tonight. You never know. We've talked about this before, but I don't think we can lose another game, though, to be honest." -- Bochy on the Giants' postseason chances after they fell 8 1/2 games behind the Dodgers in the National League West race.
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
Bumgarner became the second left-handed pitcher in Giants franchise history to pitch at least 200 innings in five seasons, joining Carl Hubbell, who had 10 seasons of five 200-plus innings thrown.
WHAT'S NEXT
D-backs: Patrick Corbin will get the start for the D-backs on Saturday afternoon in the second game of the three-game series. Corbin is 2-1 with a 1.85 ERA over his last four starts. This will be his first appearance at AT&T Park since Sept. 6, 2013.
Giants: San Francisco turns to right-hander Mike Leake, who earned his first win as a Giant in his last outing. Leake held the Padres to three runs on four hits in six innings in San Francisco's 10-3 win over San Diego last Sunday.
Watch every out-of-market regular-season game live on MLB.TV.