San Francisco Giants

Lance Berkman splashed his major league-leading 15th home run into McCovey Cove, breaking a ninth-inning tie and helping the Houston Astros rally past the San Francisco Giants 8-7 last night. Houston came back from a 6-0 deficit to take three of four from the Giants, its first series win at San Francisco since a three-game sweep in September 2001. More »

Matt Cain provided his own insurance run and limited Lance Berkman to only a base hit. Cain hit a solo home run and earned his first victory in three starts, and the San Francisco Giants snapped the Houston Astros' four-game winning streak 4-2 on Tuesday night. It was the fourth career homer and second this season for Cain (2-3). More »

For Barry Zito, a no-decision became a positive thing _ a sign of progress. Lance Berkman is too much for any pitcher to handle right now. Hunter Pence hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the seventh, Berkman had a tying two-run homer off Zito and the surging Houston Astros beat the San Francisco Giants 7-3 on Monday night for their fourth straight victory. More »

Steve Holm entered the game as a defensive replacement at catcher, then delivered the biggest hit of the day. Holm hit a go-ahead, two-run drive in the seventh inning for his first major league home run after replacing Bengie Molina, and the San Francisco Giants held on for a 4-3 victory in the rubber game against the Philadelphia Phillies today. More »

Tim Lincecum threw strikes all day, and San Francisco's entire offense clicked in Omar Vizquel's season debut. Randy Winn hit his first home run of the year, while Aaron Rowand connected against his former club for the second time in just more than a week and the Giants ended a season-worst five-game skid with an 8-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies today. More »

Adam LaRoche hit a go-ahead single in a three-run seventh inning, and the Pittsburgh Pirates rallied to beat the San Francisco Giants 5-4 for a three-game sweep. Pittsburgh has won 13 of its last 15 games against San Francisco and swept three-game series from the Giants in three straight seasons, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. More »

Xavier Nady hit a two-run homer to spoil Barry Zito's mostly effective return to the Giants rotation and Pittsburgh's Phil Dumatrait pitched 5 2-3 scoreless innings for his first career win, leading the Pirates to a 3-1 victory Wednesday night. Zito's pitching line of five innings, three hits, two runs, two walks and five strikeouts was easily his best of the season. More »

Nate McLouth, dropped a spot in Pittsburgh's order to get more opportunities to produce runs, homered twice while driving in three runs and Zach Duke won for the first time in nearly a year as the Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants 12-6 on Tuesday night. Duke (1-2) was winless in six starts this season and 12 games since June 12. More »

Pat Burrell had two doubles and two RBIs to lead the Philadelphia Phillies past the San Francisco Giants 6-5 today for manager Charlie Manuel's 500th career victory. Shane Victorino had two hits and Carlos Ruiz homered for the Phillies. Philadelphia won in the bottom of the ninth when Geoff Jenkins hit a sharp grounder toward second base, allowing Ryan Howard. More »

Bengie Molina singled in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning to lift the San Francisco Giants to a 3-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies last night. Chase Utley hit his major league-leading 13th homer and Geoff Jenkins had a solo shot for the Phillies. Fred Lewis had a solo homer for the Giants, who already are 7 1/2 games behind Arizona in the NL West. More »

Pat Burrell hit a two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning, lifting the Philadelphia Phillies over the San Francisco Giants 6-5 last night. Aaron Rowand gave the Giants a one-run lead with a solo shot leading off the top of the inning, but the Phillies rallied against Brian Wilson (0-1). The Phillies have won nine of their last 12. More »

Jose Castillo ended a 450 at-bat homerless drought with a tiebreaking shot to lead off the seventh inning and Fred Lewis preserved the lead with a diving catch in the eighth that sent the San Francisco Giants to a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday. Castillo's homer to left field off Ryan Speier (0-1) was his first since Aug. 14, 2006, for Pittsburgh against Milwaukee. More »

Tim Lincecum's first loss of the year came via a debated balk call that pushed home the go-ahead run. Chris Iannetta, who replaced the injured Troy Tulowitzki in the first, scored on that seventh-inning balk by Lincecum that led the Colorado Rockies past the San Francisco Giants 3-2 on Tuesday night. More »

Matt Cain got an early lead and his teammates held it, helping San Francisco's hard-luck pitcher to his first win of 2008 with a 4-0 victory over the slumping Colorado Rockies on Monday night. Giants manager Bruce Bochy moved past former San Francisco skipper Felipe Alou for most victories by a foreign-born manager in major league history with 1,034. More »

Barry Zito was demoted to the bullpen Monday by the San Francisco Giants, who hope the former ace can correct his problems by working in relief. Zito, who only 16 months ago signed a $126 million, seven-year contract with the Giants to lead their rotation, was informed of the move in a meeting with manager Bruce Bochy. More »

Edinson Volquez struck out a career-high 10 in seven innings, Brandon Phillips homered twice and the Cincinnati Reds roughed up Barry Zito in a 10-1 win over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday. Volquez (4-0) allowed one run and five hits to win his third consecutive start, and Ryan Freel's two-run single keyed a six-run first inning for Cincinnati. More »

Jonathan Sanchez dominated the Cincinnati Reds in Dusty Baker's Bay Area return. Sanchez pitched into the ninth and matched his career high with 10 strikeouts, outdueling Reds ace Aaron Harang and keeping Ken Griffey Jr. at 597 career home runs in the San Francisco Giants' 3-1 victory Friday night. Sanchez retired 16 straight during one stretch and won his second straight start. More »

The San Diego Padres are struggling so badly that they allowed only four hits to the San Francisco Giants, and still lost. Rich Aurilia homered off Chris Young in the seventh inning to keep Tim Lincecum perfect this season and give San Francisco a 1-0 win last night in another low-scoring game at Petco Park. The Padres have lost eight of nine. More »

Trevor Hoffman blew another save and the San Francisco Giants went on to beat the slumping San Diego Padres 3-2 in 13 innings last night. Rookie Emmanuel Burriss doubled leading off the 13th and scored the go-ahead run for the Giants. The rally came four innings after Hoffman couldn't hold the lead for what would have been Greg Maddux's 350th career victory. More »

Brandon Webb hit a two-run double and improved to 5-0 as the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated San Francisco 5-4 on Tuesday night. Webb, off to the best start of his career, beat San Francisco's Barry Zito (0-5) for the second time in six days. Webb's five victories match the total of the Giants' rotation. More »