Braves keep rallying, Garcia HR in 12th beats Giants

“Give credit to their bullpen, I guess”. One run during the last game in an offensive hitting park in Texas won’t get it done either!

Brandon Crawford hit two home runs, but it wasn’t enough as the Giants fell to the Braves in 12 innings on Monday.

The Braves sent the game into extra innings when catcher A.J. Pierzynski hit a two-run homer, his seventh, against San Francisco closer Santiago Casilla with two outs in the ninth inning. It was a bitter ending on a day when the club lost one of their best players for a spell, and then twice had a victory snatched away.

It was a great headline reduced to a footnote.

The Giants hit back-to-back solo homers in the second inning and took a 2-0 lead. Let’s hope this win can boost them as they get set for a series against the playoff hungry Giants that are dueling with my new home town team, the Dodgers, for a division title.

All of Garcia’s home runs have been go-ahead shots. Then after Belt lined a leadoff single in the fourth, Crawford teased Perez again with another opposite-field drive that barely escaped the reach of the Braves left fielder.

San Francisco Giants’ Buster Posey connects for a two-run homer during the third inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Monday, August 3, 2015, in Atlanta.

Crawford must like Southern cooking.

Peterson, who hit. 132 in his prior 11 games, went 7 for 17 with two triples against the Giants in May.

But Cain could not retire a batter after the fifth. The shortstop has put up terrific numbers this season, batting.266/.328/.492 with 18 home runs and 67 RBI. Nick Markakis singled home a fourth run in the inning to cut the deficit to two.

Peterson and Chris Johnson homered for the Braves and Pierzynski had four hits. This was the first walk-off home run for the 30-year old rookie.

But Strickland held the line after Johnson s homer and so did Sergio Romo, who struck out two in a scoreless eighth. He has been working to add a split-finger fastball to his repertoire.

It was the second time in the game that Duffy ended an inning with a do-or-die play with a runner on third base. The Giants played Sunday without All-Star 2B Joe Panik, who has missed three of the past five games with lower back stiffness.3. “I think tonight we kind of showed that”. San Francisco OF Angel Pagan (right knee soreness) was scratched from the lineup.