PHOENIX _ His helmet teetered on his head as he ran. His toe barely touched the front of home plate. His pregame meal might have sloshed a bit, too.
After Johnny Cueto completed his sprint to score from first base, he smiled between taking deep inhalations.
Now this was the kind of relief the Giants needed.
The Giants offense was relentless while chasing Arizona left-hander Patrick Corbin after four innings, and then they smacked around the Diamondbacks bullpen while taking an 8-4 victory at Chase Field.
The team that spent $62 million on Mark Melancon reminded itself that there's an even better way to win: without need of a save. Gorkys Hernandez, who played because of Denard Span's sore left hip, drove in four runs from the leadoff spot and Brandon Crawford carried over his star-spangled bat from the World Baseball Classic to contribute a double and homer as the Giants recovered from their late-inning debacle in Sunday's season-opening loss here.
Cueto contributed more than his right arm and a few shoulder dips from the mound to win his season debut. He also pulled back a bunt attempt and chopped a single to set up the Giants' first run in the second inning. And when he reached on an error in the fifth, he completed a 270-foot sprint to score on Hernandez's double into the left field corner.
All that activity on the bases would have wiped out almost any pitchers making their first start of the season, let alone one who reported to camp 17 days late because he was attending to his father, Domingo, who had suffered a stroke.
But Cueto gutted past a couple of mistake pitches to get through five innings, and what bullpen avoided in terms of leveraged outs was more than offset by the number they had to record.
They took over with a four-run lead and did not allow the Diamondbacks to play pinball in their lively ballpark. George Kontos had the most impressive appearance, using a four-pitch assortment to go through the heart of Arizona's lineup _ including lefty hitters David Peralta and Jake Lamb _ and strand an inherited runner in the seventh.
Kontos could become the dependable presence that the Giants lacked when they lost Will Smith to Tommy John surgery _ a durable pitcher with the stuff to handle a full setup inning regardless of matchups.
Nothing spells relief better than big innings and clutch hits. Although the Giants blew two save chances and three leads in their season-opening loss, there was little doubt that Bruce Bochy grumbled more about his team's 1-for-10 performance with runners in scoring position.
Those hits came easier Tuesday night. Hunter Pence and Joe Panik each had three hits, and a nice bit of gamesmanship helped the Giants score their first run. Cueto had sown bunt with two aboard in the second inning, but Arizona first baseman Paul Goldschmidt had charged aggressively on a fouled attempt. So Bochy had Cueto swing at the next pitch, and the butcher-boy gambit resulted in a single down the first base line that loaded the bases.
Hernandez followed with a one-out single to center that broke his bat, and Panik got such a smart read that the ball would drop that he ended up scoring right on the heels of Eduardo Nunez.
Panik had an all-around solid game. In addition to getting on base four times in the No. 8 spot, he also contributed two difficult defensive plays to help stem rallies.
The Giants forced Corbin from the game after throwing 87 pitches in four innings; over the first two games, Corbin and Zack Greinke were made to throw 179 pitches over nine innings.
This time, they took advantage of seeing the hindquarters of Arizona's bullpen. The Giants broke it open with a five-run fifth that started with Crawford's homer off reliever Randall Delagado and didn't end until Crawford grounded out. The inning included Hernandez's two-run double and Cueto's mad dash to the plate.
Cueto might have flagged a bit in the bottom of the fifth, when he surrendered a two-run home run to Lamb. But he won his fifth consecutive start at Chase Field and improved to 19-5 as he begins his second season with the Giants.
