Madison Bumgarner smashes his fifth homer of the season

The Red Sox are 5-2 under bench coach Torey Lovullo, who took over last week when manager John Farrell announced that he is being treated for cancer. He’s the first Giant to hit five home runs since Hal Schumaker hit six in 1934 for the New York Giants. It was his fifth homer of the season in 59 plate appearances – a pretty good stretch for anyone, let alone a pitcher.

“I’m sure he wanted to make a good first impression”, Giants manager Bruce Bochy said, “and he did more than that”. “He was throwing the ball well”. He also said Ramirez “isn’t going to be an everyday guy just because he isn’t an everyday guy anymore”, and he suggested the 17-year veteran will need some rest. It also gave the team 19 home runs in their past 14 games.

Santiago Casilla finished the job in the ninth despite walking Neil Walker to lead off the inning.

While Nori Aoki is returning to the lineup tonight, the Giants are still without Hunter Pence, Joe Panik and Angel Pagan. He walked one and struck out six.

David Hernandez (1-3) pitched a flawless seventh to get the win. Heston is nearing 150 innings pitched and he’s never thrown more than 173. The left-hander yielded six runs and 11 hits to San Francisco.

The Giants are coming into this game after allowing two walks during their last outing.

Brandon Crawford, whose grand slam broke that game open, brings a career-high 13-game hitting streak into the opener.

The Pirates offense is starting to step up on a more consistent basis, something that they had not been accustomed to in the early portion of this 2015 season. Kang led off with a single on a 1-1 pitch.

Desmond Jennings got two hits for Tampa Bay and drove in the lone run with a single in the fourth off Collin McHugh (13-7).

Jake Peavy is 5-2 with a 2.52 ERA in eight career starts against Pittsburgh and will be facing them for the first time since April of 2009 while still playing for San Diego. With two out, pinch-hitter Ehire Adrianza was additionally hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Minnesota rookie Tyler Duffey held Baltimore scoreless into the eighth inning as the Twins routed the Orioles 15-2 at a soggy Camden Yards. The Giants have scored five runs in their last three games and three or less runs in seven of their last 10 games. Action begins at 7:05 p.m. ET on Thursday, August 20 and can be seen on CSBy, RTPT and MLBN. His curveball was strike three on seven of his eight strikeouts.

The extra-base hits further shaped the late-season identity of the team with the best slugging percentage in the National League since the All-Star break.

The Pirates have won each of Morton’s past five starts, and he’s posted a. 247 opponents’ batting average and 2.93 ERA over that span. Until that inning, the White Sox were 1 for 21 in the series with runners in scoring position.