05/29/2008 2:30 AM ET Giants pound on D-backs Team amasses season-high run total vs. NL West leaders By Chris Haft / MLB.com PHOENIX -- Although Wednesday night's game at Chase Field wasn't officially part of the Giants' 50th anniversary celebration, they performed as if Mays, McCovey and Cepeda appeared in the batting order. Ray Durham, Bengie Molina and Fred Lewis fared quite nicely as facsimiles of the San Francisco Hall of Famers -- along with the rest of the Giants, who rolled to an 11-3 triumph over the Arizona Diamondbacks. The decision assured the Giants of a winning record on their three-city, nine-game trip. They're 5-3 entering Thursday's finale. The role reversal in this series continued as the third-place Giants, who amassed a season-high run total, subdued the National League West-leading D-backs for the second time in a row after losing nine of 11 games here since the beginning of the 2007 season. The Giants also sustained their offensive surge in May. They're batting .280 and averaging 4.7 runs per game this month, compared to corresponding figures of .245 and 3.2 in March/April. This improvement has been offset by the Giants' .235 overall average with runners in scoring position, which partially accounts for their 9-15 May record. But San Francisco has begun to emerge from these doldrums, hitting .295 with runners in scoring position in its last seven games. "We're getting our hits. It's just a matter of getting runs across the board," center fielder Aaron Rowand said. "I think you are seeing what we're capable of doing. It's just a matter of doing it consistently." Leading the charge against the D-backs was Durham, who has hit for average (.333 in his last 31 games) but little power, as his .382 slugging percentage entering the game demonstrated. This time, Durham drove the ball as impressively as he did two seasons ago, collecting four RBIs with a second-inning home run and a bases-loaded double in the sixth, which happened to be the second four-run inning in a row for the Giants. Durham's homer was his second of the season and his first in 111 at-bats since April 5 at Milwaukee. He explained his outburst by paraphrasing the adage of getting a good pitch to hit. "Earlier, when I was struggling, I was taking a lot of fastballs," said Durham, who's batting .289 overall. "Now that I'm swinging the bat halfway decent, or the way that I feel that I can, I'm swinging at those fastballs." Molina, the NL's reigning Player of the Week, went 3-for-4 with two RBIs while extending his hitting streak to 10 games. He's bating .590 (23-for-39) in that span. "When good hitters get in a zone, they're fun to watch," manager Bruce Bochy said. "Bengie's been in a zone for a while." "There's a couple of things he can work on," Durham deadpanned. Turning serious, Durham said of Molina, "He's amazing. I enjoy watching him hit." The Giants had much to enjoy against Arizona's Doug Davis (2-2), who made his second start since undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous thyroid, and four relievers. Complementing Durham and Molina, Emmanuel Burriss stroked a two-run single to conclude the fifth-inning uprising, Rowand stroked a pair of RBI singles and Lewis reached base four times and scored three runs. Every starting position player hit safely except for Randy Winn, who scored two runs. Luck clearly aided the Giants. A pair of infield singles abetted their big fifth, Davis' final inning. Starter Jonathan Sanchez (3-3) earned his first win since April 25, ending a streak of five fruitless outings, while blanking Arizona for five innings. But he needed two line-drive double plays to survive. "I thought they were base hits," admitted Sanchez, who departed after surrendering two runs in the sixth. But after watching the Giants drop six of their first seven games, then endure two losing streaks of five games or more during May, Bochy welcomed the good fortune. "The ball's got to bounce your way sometimes," Bochy said. Chris Haft is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs. --

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