SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - In less than two months, Carlos Beltran has been through a cross-country move to switch teams and a hand and wrist injury that landed him on the disabled list.
That left little time to think about his latest milestone: home run No. 300.
Beltran connected twice to give him 300 for his career and Tim Lincecum ended a three-start winless stretch in the San Francisco Giants' 3-1 victory over the San Diego Padres on Wednesday that completed a rare sweep in this rivalry.
"It means a lot for me, actually. Thank God for that, being able to play this game for a long time," said Beltran, both knees wrapped in ice bags and his hand sore. "Three hundred, for a guy from Manati, Puerto Rico, a small town, it's good."
Beltran became the sixth Puerto Rican-born player to reach 300 home runs.
He homered in the first inning and again in the sixth with a splash hit into McCovey Cove to put the Giants ahead. It marked the slugger's 30th career multihomer game, third this year and first since joining San Francisco in a trade from the Mets on July 28.
"Beltran is one of the best players in the National League. And he's got that in him," Padres manager Bud Black said.
Lincecum (13-12) outdueled Mat Latos (7-14) for his first win since beating the Padres on Aug. 24.
The defending World Series champion Giants began the day trailing the first-place Diamondbacks by 8 1/2 games in the NL West. Arizona had a night game at Los Angeles.
San Francisco has its first four-game winning streak since July 9-15.
Lincecum allowed four hits and an unearned run in seven innings. He struck out six and walked two as the Giants wrapped up their first winning home series in the last eight sets since taking two of three against Milwaukee from July 22-24.
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