SAN FRANCISCO _ As Buster Posey crossed the plate Friday night with his first home run in almost two months, his teammates huddled in the far end of the dugout, and not for warmth. When Posey reached the dugout steps, there was no one to greet him.
Ah, the old silent treatment. It's a tireless baseball gag. It's less amusing when it describes the state of the San Francisco Giants offense over most of this desultory second half.
But perhaps the silence is sweetly breaking, both for the Giants and the beating heart of their lineup. Posey broke a streak of 184 at-bats without a home run, by far the longest of his career, and Bruce Bochy's gang of Johnny Come Latelys peppered their way to an 8-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at AT&T Park Friday night.
The Giants (79-68) remained four back of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West and a game ahead of the New York Mets atop the wild card standings. But they nudged further ahead of the Cardinals, who now trail the Giants by three games and show scant signs of being able to ride a hot streak over the season's final two weeks.
Matt Moore survived a fit of wildness to get through the fifth inning and the Giants, continued to be better late than never. Bochy set a 5 o'clock call time for the second consecutive day, and the offense responded with another raft of runs while sending 12 men to the plate in a six-run third inning.
Posey went 3 for 4 with four RBIs, and has seven hits in nine at-bats in two games against the Cardinals to boost his average from .285 to .294.
It must be mentioned, though, that the Cardinals continue to play their own way out of contention. Catcher Yadier Molina's high throw to second base on a sacrifice bunt opened the door, and the Giants rushed through with six unearned runs in the third.
Moore (4-4) has alternated wobbly, command-challenged starts with brilliant ones over his brief tenure as a Giant, and Friday night's start easily could have ended with another postgame session of furrowed brow and bitten lip.
Moore allowed 10 baserunners in his five innings, and one of his three walks forced home a run. Another free pass came to start the fourth inning _ immediately after the Giants handed him a 6-0 lead.
But Moore barely held together while stranding seven runners and limiting the Cardinals to two runs. Following a rare mound visit from Bochy in the fifth, Moore got Jhonny Peralta to fly out to strand the bases loaded.
Moore threw 93 pitches and his next assignment will come Wednesday at Dodger Stadium _ the same venue where he finished an out away from a no-hitter August 25.
At the outset, it did not appear that Moore would benefit from a big lead. The Giants stuck to their late-arriving plan and canceled batting practice _ they weren't changing after collecting 12 hits and six runs Thursday night � but the first two innings did not portend another breakout.
Six Giants batters into the game, Cardinals rookie Luke Weaver owned four strikeouts and a double-play grounder.
But No.8 hitter Denard Span returned to his catalytic, leadoff-hitting ways when he drew a one-out walk in the third. Moore followed with a sacrifice bunt in front of the plate and Molina, an eight-time Gold Glove winner who probably should cede his spot to Posey this season, made a damaging throw that sailed into center field.
Angel Pagan walked to load the bases and the Giants followed by getting opposite results from some loud and soft contact.
Joe Panik hammered a 390-foot sacrifice fly that would've been a grand slam in most ballparks, and was hit deep enough for all three runners to advance. Then Posey followed with a jam-shot single that fell in shallow right field to drive in a pair of runs.
Hunter Pence singled, Brandon Belt ripped a two-run double and Brandon Crawford capped the rally with an RBI single. The Giants won their second replay challenge of the game to reverse the out call on Belt at the plate.
The feast lasted into the fourth inning, and for Posey, it ended a career-long famine. He tagged a first-pitch fastball from left-handed reliever Jaime Garcia that landed four rows deep in the left field bleachers _ his 12th home run of the season, and his first since July 16.
Posey descended into a dugout of feigned disinterest before his teammates dropped the ruse and mobbed him. And then, to prove his sense of humor was almost as sharp as his self awareness, Posey found the red light on a dugout camera, smiled into the lens and gave a thumbs-up.
The lopsided score allowed Bochy to rest a few regulars in the ninth inning, and also find a low-leverage spot to reintroduce erstwhile closer Santiago Casilla. The struggling right-hander struck out two in a scoreless eighth.
