Giants rookie Blach outduels Kershaw to maintain wild-card lead

[yuiyoshida]

The Giants have played 161 games in their Jekyll and Hyde season, and it was not enough to settle the overriding question from Opening Day: Can the Giants make another even-year appearance in the postseason with an eye on another World Series title?
The Giants will need 162 games, or even 163, to settle the question. But they maintained the upper hand Saturday thanks to Angel Pagan and a 25-year-old rookie left-hander with a steel spine.

Asked to go toe to toe against Clayton Kershaw with the season all but on the line, Ty Blach did better. He pitched eight shutout innings and held Los Angeles to three singles in a 3-0 Giants victory at AT&T Park that ensured their season will not end Sunday.
In his first big-league win, Blach became the first Giant to throw at least eight shutout innings within his first four career games since Mike Remlinger in 1991. That game was in June, not October.

The Giants maintained their one-game lead over St. the Cardinals for the second wild card with one to play.

Blach has thrown 11 shtuout innings against the Dodgers this year and mesmerized them Sunday, getting ovation after ovation from a crowd that was especially tickled when he caught Yasiel Puig looking for the fifth his six strikeouts.

Blach also had two singles off Kershaw, a feat in itself, and concluded the most important day of his baseball life by striking out pinch-hitter Kiké Hernandez to end the eighth inning. Blach pumped his fist and hopped off the mound after his 99th and final pitch.

http://www.sfgate.com/giants/article/Giants-rookie-Blach-outduels-Kershaw-to-maintain-9525392.php