Aubrey Huff Breaks Out

In Game No. 117 of the Giants' season Tuesday night, Aubrey Huff may have sent a significant signal that he is ready to come out of his long hitting hibernation.

Huff, the Giants' offensive leader last season with 26 homers and 86 RBIs, finally flashed some of his 2010 form at AT&T Park with three hits, including a run-scoring double and a solo homer, to lead the Giants past the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-0.

"I'm starting to get my timing a little bit better now," said Huff, whose big night raised his average to .249, the highest it has been since April 19. "Hopefully, we'll run off these next two months, and nobody will remember the first four."

Huff wasn't the only hero on a night when the Giants needed a victory to remain in first place in the N.L. West. Madison Bumgarner tossed seven shutout innings and struck out 10, and light-hitting catcher Chris Stewart slammed his first career homer in his 140th major league at-bat, dating to 2006.

But the breakout performance of the Giants' veteran first baseman was surely the most welcome sight for manager Bruce Bochy, who has been exceedingly patient in waiting for Huff to find his stroke.

With Carlos Beltran missing a second straight game because of a hand injury, it couldn't have come at a better time.

"We have a lot of baseball left, and even if you're still having your struggles this late in the season, you can't give up," said Bochy. "You have to keep grinding, keep working,and he's doing that."

Except for his three-homer game in St. Louis on June 2, Huff has failed to serve as much of a power-hitting run producer. Even though he had shown signs of life by hitting .327 over his previous 17 games, he had just one homer and three RBIs during that span. Worse yet, he had just three hits in 21 previous at-bats with runners in scoring position coming into Tuesday's game and was hitting just .233 for the year in such situations.

That changed in the fourth inning of a scoreless game when, one out after Jeff Keppinger's double to center to lead off the inning, Huff slammed an opposite-field double to left-center that brought home the Giants' first run.

Huff struck again in the sixth, when he whacked a 1-1 pitch from Pittsburgh starter James McDonald (7-6) into the right-field arcade. It was his 11th homer, but just his third at AT&T Park this year.

So what has Huff figured out of late?

"Just laying off bad pitches, getting myself in hitter's counts and giving myself a chance," he said. "In the struggles I've had, especially when we're not scoring any runs at all and our pitchers are going out there every night giving everything you got, you're going up there and just trying to do too much."

In between Huff's RBI hits was Stewart's personal milestone blast, a well-struck missile to left field leading off the fifth. It touched off a big party in the dugout because most of the players knew how long the catcher had waited to get his first homer.

"Luckily I lifted weights this morning where that extra curl may have given me just enough to get it out," Stewart said. "I'd expect myself to be the happiest guy, but my teammates proved me wrong. There was a lot of excitement going, so it was fun to get back to the dugout and celebrate with everybody."

Those three runs of support were plenty for Bumgarner (7-11), who limited the Pirates to four hits and a walk over his seven innings. Bumgarner now has a 13-inning scoreless streaking from his past two starts.

Bochy said Bumgarner just keeps getting better as the season progresses.

"He's just getting smarter, and he'll continue to get wiser out there and pitch with more savvy," the manager said. "The thing about Madison is he's aggressive, and he's starting to use all four quadrants of the strike zone."


(insidebayarea.com)