Anderson Pitching In for Arizona
Brian Anderson went 17 starts without a victory. Now he has won two in a row for the first time in more than a year.
The left-hander yielded two runs and four hits in seven innings in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ 6-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants Thursday to improve to 3-1 in his last four starts.
Anderson last won consecutive starts on May 17 and May 22 of last season, at Cincinnati and at home against San Francisco.
“He was fantastic today,” Arizona Manager Bob Brenly said. “He had tremendous control. He was working the corners well.
“Even when he was forced because of the count to throw the ball down the middle of the plate, he had enough movement and enough difference in speed to get some off-balance hits. That was just what we needed today.”
Don’t expect Anderson (4-7) to get carried away with success, though.
“I wouldn’t say I’m on a roll. I wouldn’t say that at all,” he said. “I think you get on a roll after a month, month and a half of pretty consistent outings.”
Anderson said adding a cutter and a “slurve” and dropping the slider from his limited arsenal of fastball-changeup over the last two outings has helped considerably.
“It’s not that I’m more confident in my abilities,” he said, “but more confident in that I feel that I have a couple of more weapons that I didn’t have before.”
Byung-Hyun Kim got three outs for his 22nd save in 25 opportunities, helping Arizona close within 1 1/2 games of the Dodgers in the NL West.
Junior Spivey, one of six Diamondback players selected by Brenly for Tuesday’s All-Star game in Milwaukee, extended his hitting streak to 18 games, the longest active streak in the majors. The second baseman drove in one run and scored another.
Steve Finley had two hits in three at-bats with an RBI and scored twice for the Diamondbacks in the opener of a four-game series.
Craig Counsell’s two-run single highlighted Arizona’s four-run third inning off Jason Schmidt (4-3). The bases-loaded hit just past shortstop Rich Aurilia gave Counsell a career-high 41 RBIs.