MLB roundup: Giants get Game 3 despite quiet bats

CINCINNATI (AP) — Hardly able to get a hit, the San Francisco Giants used a misplayed grounder to prolong their NL playoff series.

Third baseman Scott Rolen’s two-out error in the 10th inning gave the Giants the go-ahead run Tuesday in a 2-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds, who couldn’t shake 17 years of home postseason futility.

The Giants avoided a sweep in Game 3, cutting their division series deficit to 2-1.

Rolen, an eight-time Gold Glove winner, couldn’t come up with Joaquin Arias’ short-hop grounder, bobbled it and threw late to first.

“I’ve gone through the play many times in my mind between then and now, and I think I would play it the same way,” Rolen said. “It hit my glove. I just couldn’t get it to stick.”

The Giants managed only three hits against Homer Bailey and Reds relievers, but got two of them in the 10th — along with a passed ball by catcher Ryan Hanigan — to pull it out. San Francisco won despite striking out 16 times.

“We kept scratching and clawing down two games to none,” said Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt. “That’s the way it is in the playoffs.”

Cincinnati finished with four hits, but just one after the first inning.

Left-hander Barry Zito will pitch Game 4 on Wednesday for the Giants, who have won the last 11 times he started. The Reds have to decide whether to try ace Johnny Cueto, forced out of the opener in San Francisco on Saturday with spasms in his back and side.

Manager Dusty Baker said after the game that they hadn’t decided whether to let Cueto try it, bring back Mat Latos on short rest again, or replace Cueto with Mike Leake, who wasn’t on the division series roster.

Defense, pitching help A’s blank Tigers

OAKLAND (AP) — These Oakland Athletics never count themselves out — down and doubted is their dogma.

Brett Anderson outdueled fellow postseason first-timer Anibal Sanchez and the upstart A’s were stellar on defense all over the diamond, avoiding another playoff sweep by Detroit by beating the Tigers, 2-0, on Tuesday in their AL division series.

The A’s cut their deficit in the best-of-five matchup to 2-1.

Coco Crisp saved a likely home run by Prince Fielder with a leaping catch at the top of the center-field wall in the second — and the A’s will play another day in this improbable season full of remarkable rallies.

Yoenis Cespedes hit an RBI single in the first inning and Seth Smith homered later. That was plenty on a night Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera, Fielder and the Tigers’ high-priced offense were shut down by the low-budget A’s.

Tigers 16-game winner Max Scherzer will try to close out the series in Game 4 Wednesday night against A’s rookie A.J. Griffin. Detroit swept the A’s in the 2006 AL championship series.

Fielder was the biggest victim of Oakland’s spot-on defense, robbed three times. First by Crisp, Oakland’s most experienced player whose Game 2 blunder on Cabrera’s fly allowed two runs to score in a 5-4 loss Sunday in Detroit.

Crisp let out a big “Whoo!” after raising his arm to signal he’d made the grab. A’s shortstop Stephen Drew made a tough play running to his left to stop Fielder’s grounder in the fourth and then threw to first while still off balance and in motion.

Then, in the seventh, Cespedes cut over to make a diving catch on Fielder’s liner to left field.

That delighted the yellow towel-waving sellout crowd of 37,090 in this blue-collar city.