Longoria and McCutchen supply the offense as the Giants split the series, 3-2

With a win today, the Giants won their first road trip of the season. In fact, that was the first winning road trip in over a year.

The Giants won today with their two big offseason acquisitions. It feels like the first time that Andrew McCutchen and Evan Longoria have been good in the same game. It was nice to see what could have been before the Giants ship McCutchen off to the Mariners for the other-other Seager brother: Todd.

After he went 5-for-5 last night, Andrew McCutchen reached base in his first three at-bats. It took until the seventh inning for the Diamondbacks to get him out for the first time since Friday. By reaching base eight times in a row, McCutchen raised his on-base percentage by 10 points over the last two days.

Without Steven Duggar in the lineup, McCutchen needed backup to produce any sort of offense, and Evan Longoria stepped up. Longoria drove in the Giants’ first run with an opposite field ground ball against the shift. In the fifth inning, he doubled off the left field wall to lead off the inning. He later scored when Nick Hundley doubled singled him home.

The big hit of the game came in the eighth inning. Archie Bradley, who seems like a solid dude, did the Giants a solid by leaving a fastball at the belt, and Longoria crushed it over the centerfield wall. It was a pretty home run, high and majestic, with a backdrop of disappointed Diamondbacks fans. But the most aesthetically pleasing aspect of the dinger was the sound.

That one sounded like a dinger. The only reason I had any doubts about it in the split-second between the crack of the bat and Duane Kuiper’s “HIGH DRIVE” call off the bat was that it was hit to straight away center and Chase Field has that big weird wall out there.

It was a very funny goof by Tony Watson and Sam Dyson to collectively load the bases in the bottom of the inning after the Giants finally took the lead. Watson really played his part masterfully, giving up a leadoff single to Daniel Descalso because all late-inning comebacks begin with a leadoff hit by Daniel Descalso. Watson followed it up with a ball hit into the gap that looked like it was going to score Descalso. Watson must have known all along that Gorkys Hernández would track it down. He struck out Eduardo Escobar to alleviate our tension for a bit before walking Paul Goldschmidt just to spike it back up again.

That’s when Dyson came in, and he really knows how to heighten and explore a comedy vein because the first thing he did was hit Steven Souza Jr. with a pitch to load the bases. All the Diamondbacks needed at that point was a single to go ahead. But Dyson mercifully put an end to the goof by getting Ketel Marte to fly out harmlessly to left.

I thought for sure the Diamondbacks were going to go ahead right there. Boy, Tony and Sam really got me good! Those rascals.

Derek Holland did what Chris Stratton and Andrew Suárez could not: get through the first inning without giving up five runs. To lead off the game, he struck out David Peralta with a nasty curveball. Even after walking Eduardo Escobar, he induced a ground ball double play off the bat of Paul Goldschmidt, Destroyer of Worlds.

After watching Stratton and Suárez muddle through the first inning the last two days, it felt like watching a master at work. It was as if Juan Marichal had force projected himself into the body of this man whose Instagram handle is a fart joke.

He did not make it through the second, however, because Souza batted in the second, and he is an unstoppable killing machine. Holland hung a curve to Souza, and Souza did unspeakable things to it.

In an abbreviated season, Souza has been just about replacement according to Fangraphs, but last year, he hit 30 dingers and was worth nearly four wins. One would figure that Souza would put things together eventually. It just stinks that it came against the Giants. This is Ian Desmond and Paul Goldschmidt all over again.

Holland gave up another run in the fourth, but other than that, he was his solid, dependable self. Bruce Bochy took him out just after two times through the order. Bochy allowed him to face Peralta and Escobar a third time but replaced Holland with Reyes Moronta to face Paul Goldschmidt. He probably could have finished out the inning—Holland had only thrown 86 pitches—but having the right-handed Moronta to face Goldschmidt and Souza was the right call. I’d much rather have Moronta in than have Holland pitch to Goldschmidt or Souza a third time.

Ray Black hasn’t given up a hit in nearly a month. Since giving up a three-run homer to Matt Carpenter, Black has thrown 10 ¹⁄₃ no-hit innings. That passes Sergio Romo on the Giants list of consecutive no-hit innings thrown by a reliever. Yusmeiro Petit threw 15 ¹⁄₃ no-hit innings in 2014

The man deserves a Buster Hug, dang it. How many no-hit innings does a reliever have to throw before he gets his teammates to hop up and down around him and slap his butt? I suppose if you adjust for the reliever not having to face his opponents a second or third time, a reliever would have to throw more than a game’s worth.

When Petit finished his streak, no one jumped around him and slapped his butt and those were perfect innings. I’m going to say Black needs 18 innings, or two games worth, before the dugout is required to run out and mob Black. Make it happen, Giants.