SAN FRANCISCO _ Matt Moore pitched 51/3 solid innings and Buster Posey drove in a pair of runs with a double and sacrifice fly as the Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-2, on Wednesday at AT&T Park.
The Giants, who begin a critical 11-game road trip against the Cubs at Wrigley Field Thursday, pulled within a game of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West pending the outcome of L.A.'s second game of a doubleheader at Colorado. The Dodgers lost the first game, 7-0.
Moore (9-10, 2-3 as a Giant), coming off a 133-pitch outing against the Dodgers in which he came within an out of a no-hitter, allowed five hits and a lone run and departed after 92 pitches when the Diamondbacks mounted a rally in the top of the sixth. Hunter Strickland quelled that rally with a pair of outs, and the Giants bullpen shut out Arizona the rest of the way, albeit not with some anxious moments.
San Francisco got a pair of runs in the first inning off starter Shelby Miller (2-10), the D-Backs expensive offseason acquisition who has languished through a horrible season and was making his return to the team after a stint in the minor leagues. Joe Panik beat out an infield single with one out in the first and scored on Posey's double into the left-center gap. Posey subsequently scored on Hunter Pence's single to right.
Moore sailed through five shutout innings, striking out seven in the process. In the sixth, however, A.J. Pollock singled and Paul Goldschmidt's smacked a deep fly to center that was hauled in on a spectacular backhand catch by Gorkys Hernandez. Pollock tagged up and went to second on the play, and Giants manager Bruce Bochy decided that Moore had done enough. Strickland came on and Pollock wound up scoring on Rickie Weeks' single, but the Giants reliever struck out Yasmany Tomas to end the threat.
The Giants added two insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh. Pinch-hitter Conor Gillaspie led off with a triple to right-center and Angel Pagan followed with a single. Pagan went to third on Joe Panik's single and scored on Posey's deep fly to right.
Sergio Romo loaded the bases in the top of the eighth on a double by Jean Segura and walks to Goldschmidt and Weeks, but with two out, Bochy brought in closer Santiago Casilla, who struck out Tomas to end the threat. Tomas struck out four times in the game.
Casilla surrendered a two-out homer to pinch-hitter Jake Lamb in the ninth, but subsequently converted his 29th save.
