James Loney Punked the Giants Tuesday

On Tuesday, the Giants were able to topple the Dodgers 2-1 behind a surprising home run by Brett Pill off of Clayton Kershaw and a strong performance by Ryan Vogelsong.

As Pill noted to CSNBayArea.com's Andrew Baggarly, the Giants just needed one "clean" game to really establish some momentum. They did that in the field, but they weren't entirely perfect on the basepaths.

Would-be third baseman fill-in Joaquin Arias was the primary culprit for the problem, as he didn't hustle down to first on a routine pop-up to Dodgers first baseman James Loney.

As a result, Loney got real crafty and allowed the pop-up to drop and proceeded to tag Pill (who was on first) and nail Arias at first for a double play.

Baggs pointed out that Arias pretty clearly wasn't running hard and that Bruce Bochy said he'd likely "have a talk" with him. That sort of thing can't happen in a close game against your biggest rival. But it was a smooth move by Loney nonetheless.

“It was a smart play on Loney’s part,” Bochy said. “You just can’t drop your guard. Arias is a guy who plays all-out. But by the time he got it going, it was too late.”

Fortunately, it didn't end up costing the Giants a game, so it actually serves as a nice little lesson about always running to first base, even when you barely hit the ball.

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