Giant fifth inning lifts San Fran

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO

Zach McAllister was in complete control for four innings on Saturday. Then everything fell apart.

McAllister struggled during San Francisco’s four-run fifth inning, and the Cleveland Indians lost 5-3 to the Giants.

“I thought I made some pretty good pitches and they went the opposite way,” McAllister said. “It happens. You have to deal with that and be able to execute the next pitch and I wasn’t able to do that.”

Michael Bourn, Nick Swisher and David Murphy had two hits apiece for Cleveland, which blew a 3-0 lead.

McAllister (3-1) retired 12 in a row before Michael Morse led off the fifth with a single to center. Morse advanced to third on Brandon Crawford’s one-out single and scored on Gregor Blanco’s pinch-hit single that came on a first-pitch fastball.

Angel Pagan had a sacrifice fly and Hunter Pence hit a two-out, two-run single to give the Giants a 4-3 lead.

“That one inning it just got contagious,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis had a chance to stop Pence’s big hit but the ball slid under his glove and into right field.

“It cost us pretty much the game,” said Kipnis, who drove in two runs. “Cost McAllister a good start, I could have bailed him out that inning. Just didn’t happen.”

McAllister left after Brandon Belt struck out to end the inning. He allowed five hits, struck out six and walked one after winning his previous three starts.

“I thought early on, his fastball had so much life to it and he was commanding it,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona said. “And then in the fifth he just didn’t quite command it as well. He wasn’t missing by a lot and he didn’t have a real good feel for his secondary pitches like he has the past couple starts.”

Buster Posey added a solo homer in the sixth as San Francisco earned its third consecutive win. Posey, who won the NL MVP award in 2012, went 1 for 3 and is batting .103 (4 for 39) over his last 13 games.

Giants starter Tim Lincecum lasted just 4 2-3 innings, but managed to lower his ERA to 5.96. He was charged with three runs, two earned, and nine hits.

“We did a really good job of making [Lincecum] work,” Francona said. “We just weren’t able to get that one more hit to tack on.”

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Giants 5, Indians 1: Michael Morse homered to back another stellar outing by Tim Hudson, and the Giants beat the Indians, 5-1.

Hunter Pence had two hits and two RBIs while Brandon Crawford also knocked in a run to help the Giants win in their first interleague game of the season after going just 6-14 against the American League in 2013.

Michael Bourn tripled and scored Cleveland’s only run. Jason Kipnis and Nick Swisher added two hits apiece for the Indians.

Carlos Carrasco (0-3) allowed four runs over six innings.