Giants suddenly switched back on, in mix

PHOENIX — Hunter Pence concluded a torrid series with a two-run double in Sunday’s seventh inning that fattened San Francisco’s slender lead and backed Matt Moore’s 11-strikeout performance as the Giants completed a three-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 5-3 decision at Chase Field.

Trailing, 2-1, the Giants reversed matters by scoring twice in the sixth inning and adding another pair of runs in the seventh. Brandon Belt highlighted the sixth with a single that scored the tying run after Arizona starter Zack Greinke walked the bases loaded. One inning later, Pence delivered the hit that improved his series batting average to .727 (8-for-11).

Moore, who matched his personal best for strikeouts in a game, got the better of Greinke, who entered the game with a 9-1 career mark against the Giants.

“He was very good, his fastball. I kept hearing guys talk about it, had a lot of life today,” D-backs manager Chip Hale said of Moore. “It was jumping on them, and breaking ball and changeup were effective. I thought we did a good job getting the two runs off of him, and with your ace on the mound you feel pretty good about that, but it didn’t work out.”

• Moore fans career-high 11 in road trip finale

The outcome left San Francisco 1 1/2 games ahead of the Mets and two games ahead of the Cardinals in the National League Wild Card race. The Giants also trimmed their NL West deficit to three games behind first-place Los Angeles, which lost in Miami on Sunday.

The Giants will now return home, where they’ll play 13 of their final 20 games. Giants catcher Buster Posey said that sweeping the D-backs “gave us good momentum” as the ballclub approaches its stay at AT&T …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com