http://0rz.tw/S8v2Q Offense awakens as Giants trim West deficit By Chris Haft / MLB.com | 9/3/2011 2:43 AM ET SAN FRANCISCO -- Maybe the Giants relish the September stage. Playing their first game of the month Friday, they performed with urgency and efficiency rarely seen during their woeful August as Carlos Beltran homered during a 4-for-4 night and Cody Ross also homered to back Matt Cain's eight-inning effort in a critical 6-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. "That's the energy we needed to start off September," Cain said. "The guys came in alive. We kind of had a different energy and a different feel about each other." The Giants' ninth victory in 13 games this year against Arizona left them five games behind the National League West-leading D-backs. Though that's a daunting deficit, San Francisco surged from four games behind the San Diego Padres to three ahead of them during an 18-8 September last year. "The most important part about this is being able to win," said Beltran, who equaled his entire 16-game August output by homering and driving in three runs. "It doesn't matter if it's by six runs, by five runs, by one run. Winning is what we need to do right now." As Arizona's nine-game winning streak dissolved, the Giants finally triumphed after dropping 12 consecutive series openers. "I walked in here today and said, 'August is behind us,'" said Ross, who batted .170 for the month and ended it with an 0-for-15 skid. "We had a tough month team-wise. Personally, it was awful. But it's over and we have to move forward and we're playing the team that we're chasing. Everybody was upbeat." The contrast in the Giants between this game and their typical outing in August, when they finished 11-18 while scoring a Major League-low 78 runs, was stunning. After facing four batters, Cain (11-9) allowed a run and had runners on second and third with one out. But he skirted further trouble by striking out Paul Goldschmidt before coaxing Gerardo Parra's inning-ending fly ball with the bases loaded. "I think tonight demonstrates how poised he stays out there," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "He's all about trying to win the ballgame and keep us in the game." Thus inspired, San Francisco sustained a rare two-out rally to score three third-inning runs off left-hander Joe Saunders (9-12). Ross drew a two-out walk and scored on Jeff Keppinger's double off the top of the left-field wall. Then Beltran cleared the wall for his 17th homer of the season and second as a Giant. Beltran reveled in his biggest game since joining San Francisco, but not just from a personal standpoint. "This is fun, honestly," he said. "As a ballplayer, you want to be in a situation like this one where every game is meaningful, every game is worth something. You're fighting to be in a position where sometimes you're not going to have that opportunity with other teams." Said Ross, "It's not a shocker when he goes 4-for-4 and hits four balls on the nose. He's that type of player. He's so talented that he's capable of doing that. With that being said, everyone expects that from him. But we can't rely just on him. We have to get on base and give him chances to drive us in. Tonight was a perfect example." Indeed, after Arizona trimmed the difference to 3-2 in the fifth, the Giants reclaimed that run in their half of the inning as Cain beat out a grounder to shortstop, moved to third on Ross' double and scored on Beltran's single. Asked why he declined to walk Beltran with first base open, D-backs manager Kirk Gibson said, "I'm not going to get into my strategy. They beat us tonight and there's really nothing more you can say. Give them credit. We knew they had a lot of character. They outplayed us tonight. If you want to second-guess plays, that's fine; we didn't play good enough to beat them. We didn't pitch good enough to beat them. We had our opportunities, we had opportunities to cut them down and we weren't able to execute it. We've been pretty damn good. We won nine in a row, so it's one game. No problem." The Giants added two runs in the seventh as Cain walked and scored on Ross' homer off reliever Sam Demel. That didn't end Ross' contributions. He made a remarkable catch of Justin Upton's eighth-inning fly ball, diving headlong and sliding into foul territory as he made the grab. Ross obviously was bent on accomplishing his task, as were all of the Giants on this charged evening. "When you're playing a team that you're chasing," Ross said, "maybe there's a little more concentration, a little more focus." 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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