SAN FRANCISCO -- One day after the Giants didn't score a run of support for Ryan Vogelsong for a fourth consecutive outing, Madison Bumgarner ensured he'd have ample offensive backing Sunday.
Bumgarner hit a grand slam in the sixth inning -- one inning after Buster Posey did the same -- as the Giants ended the first half of the season with an 8-4 blasting of the D-backs at AT&T Park.
 
Bumgarner, Posey hit grand slams, SF beats D-backs
 
The twin slams made Bumgarner and Posey the first pitcher-catcher duo in Major League history to each hit a grand slam in the same game. Bumgarner's bases-clearing shot was his second slam of the season. The last pitcher to accomplish that? The Braves' Tony Cloninger, who hit two in the same game against the Giants at Candlestick Park in 1966. Sunday marked just the third time that the Giants hit two grand slams in one game in the San Francisco era.
Through four innings, it appeared the Giants' bats were on their way to ending the first half in much the same fashion they'd fared for the last month: very quietly. Then Bumgarner roped a one-out double down the left-field line in the fifth. Hunter Pence was hit by a pitch and Gregor Blanco singled, loading the bases for Posey, who turned a 90 mph fastball into four runs in a hurry by sending a no-doubter into the left-field bleachers.
One inning later, his batterymate followed suit. Joaquin Arias led off the inning with a single. Ehire Adrianza reached on an error, and Brandon Crawford walked. Then Bumgarner scored each of them, on a 98 mph fastball, no less. Bumgarner leads all qualifying pitchers in average, home runs, RBIs and runs scored.
On the mound, Bumgarner's day was slightly less memorable. He was tagged for four earned runs on 10 hits in 6 1/3 innings. The D-backs received RBI base hits from Nick Evans and Martin Prado. Former Giant Cody Ross added a two-run home run for Arizona.
The Giants' eight runs were their most in a single game since defeating the Cardinals, 8-0, on June 1.
Ryan Hood / MLB.com
 

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