SAN FRANCISCO _ All Gorkys Hernandez could do was turn slightly, bend at the waist and put his hands on his knees as the ball sailed well into the left-field seats.
He didn't even bother running to the wall. Mark Canha, too, knew the ball was long gone the second it left his bat.
The Oakland Athletics' pinch-hitter flipped his bat to the ground, turned to face his own dugout and galloped down the first-base line while jawing with his teammates after his two-run bomb in the seventh inning put the A's ahead, 4-3, erasing a San Francisco Giants lead with often-reliable reliever Tony Watson on the hill.
His long ball held up for the remainder of the game, and the Giants couldn't muster any late fireworks as they did the night before. The Athletics (54-42) took Game 2 of the Bay Bridge series over the Giants (50-47), 4-3, and the hosts failed to keep up with the winning efforts of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies on Saturday.
Jeff Samardzija only lasted four innings to start the game, throwing almost as many balls (26) as strikes (29). He struck out only one, and failed to induce a groundout. His two earned runs allowed and three hits surrendered don't look catastrophic on the surface, but you could tell something wasn't right as the right-hander struggled to find a rhythm. Derek Holland hit the bullpen mound with no outs in the third, then again with no outs in the fourth before taking over to begin the fifth.
Samardzija didn't last long enough to earn the win despite ceding the mound with the Giants up, 3-2, and he now owns nine straight starts in which he's allowed at least two earned runs. You have to go back to April 20 against the Angels, Samardzija's first outing of the season, to find the last time he allowed fewer than two runs (he threw five scoreless innings and allowed only two hits in a win).
Luckily for the Giants, Samardzija's counterpart pitched worse. Brett Anderson allowed three earned runs and eight hits in only 3 1/3, and the Giants benefitted from Khris Davis' lack of arm and ball-tracking prowess in left field. All three Giants runs came on hits to left, and two of those three � definitely one _ could've been prevented by most other left-fielders in the league.
With the Giants clinging to a 3-2 lead, Holland struck out five in two scoreless innings of one-hit ball. He, not Samardzija, certainly seems worthy of a chance in the starting rotation when the second half gets underway.
When Holland gave up the ball, the Giants gave up the lead. Watson had gone 18 innings in relief without allowing a run before surrendering a solo shot Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs. On Saturday night, he extended a less desirable streak _ two straight appearances allowing a home run. Canha obliterated a 3-2 sinker halfway up the left-field stands to give the visitors a one-run lead.
After Watson allowed two more A's to reach base and only recording one out, hard-throwing rookie Ray Black took the hill with Oakland threatening to blow the game wide open late as the Giants did the night before. Instead, Black struck out Davis and Matt Chapman, hitters four and five in the Athletics' order, capping off his rescue effort with an emphatic fist pump before walking to the dugout and shaking Bruce Bochy's hand.
A's setup man Lou Trivino escaped a similar jam in the seventh, with Buster Posey batting and Andrew McCutchen having just stole second with one out. Trivino struck Posey out swinging before intentionally walking Alen Hanson, then induced a Hernandez fly out to center before the Giants could break through again.
On Friday night, the seventh inning was the turning point for the Giants as Reyes Moronta escaped a bases-loaded, no-outs jam with a 2-1 lead before the Giants scored five times in the bottom half. A night later, it was the Athletics seizing control in the seventh courtesy of Canha's solo shot, to which the Giants had no response in the bottom half this time.
Mark Melancon threw a scoreless top of the eighth and Ty Blach a scoreless top of the ninth, leaving it to the Giants bats to produce more late heroics.
Despite McCutchen and Posey reaching base with two outs in the final frame, Brandon Crawford couldn't be the hero, striking out as the Bay Bridge series fell even at one.
_Brandon Belt was ejected in the fifth by third-base umpire Greg Gibson for arguing a strike three call, on which Belt thought he held up but Gibson disagreed. Pablo Sandoval, who wasn't in the starting lineup with Bochy giving the third baseman a rest day in favor of Chase d'Arnaud, took over at first base for the final four innings. Sandoval struck out looking in his first at-bat off the bench in the seventh and lining out to short in the ninth.
