Giants sweep Diamondbacks; now lead wild-card race by 1.5 games

Buster Posey connects for his second hit of the game.

Travis Ishikawa‘s run-scoring single in the 10th inning Sunday boosted the red hot San Francisco Giants to a 3-2 win over Arizona and a four-game series sweep. The Giants, who have won 15 of their last 18 games, moved to 13 games over .500 for the first time this season and now lead the NL wild card race by one-and-a-half games.

Buster Posey went 4-for-5 with an RBI to extend his hitting streak to 18 games, the second-longest in Giants history for a rookie. Posey, who is batting .371 since being recalled from Triple-A Fresno on May 29, surpassed Orlando Cepeda’s 17-game streak set in his rookie year of 1958, the team’s first season in San Francisco.  Ishikawa finished 2-for-5 and is hitting .333. The Giants (56-43) have collected 122 hits in July, tops in the league.

Willie McCovey holds the all-time Giants rookie record with a 22-game hitting streak in 1959.

Sergio Romo (3-3) pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up the win, while Brian Wilson earned his 29th save in the 10th.

With the game tied at two in the top of the eighth inning, Giants manager Bruce Bochy elected to send starter Tim Lincecum (who had already thrown 98 pitches) to the plate with two outs and runners at first and third (rather than use a pinch hitter). Lincecum promptly struck out to end the rally.

That decision almost proved costly as Lincecum found himself in a serious jam in the bottom half of the eighth inning. But the two-time Cy Young winner managed to escape a two-on, no-out situation.

The Giants dodged another bullet in the ninth inning when Romo escaped a two-on, one-out situation, striking out the last two batters he faced.

After a 6-1 road trip, San Francisco heads home on Monday (where they are 28-18 this season) for seven games, starting with four against the Florida Marlins (49-49).