IS GIANTS’ CRAWFORD AN MVP CANDIDATE?
SAN FRANCISCO — During his 11-year major league career, Brandon Crawford has delivered some of the most clutch hits and jaw-dropping defensive plays in the Giants’ San Francisco-era history.
Crawford’s heroics have made home crowds erupt and sent crowds on the road into stunned silence, but on Monday night at Oracle Park, the shortstop experienced something different. After pulling into third base with a RBI triple, his fourth hit of the game, in a 7-5 victory over the Mets, Crawford was greeted with “M-V-P” chants.
“It’s obviously nice to hear,” Crawford said. “It’s not something I’m ever thinking about while playing the game, but obviously we have the best fans in baseball and to hear stuff like that is a nice feeling.”
The 34-year-old shortstop may not be thinking about his chances of winning the National League MVP, but the thought has crossed the mind of his manager and several teammates. Two other players on the roster, Buster Posey and Kris Bryant, have won the award, and each believes Crawford is deserving.
“I mean, his offensive numbers are outstanding, his defense is probably still underrated and a guy that’s really hit in a lot of different parts in the lineup, he’s been clutch, you could definitely see that being a possibility,” Posey said.
Bryant, who has only played with Crawford for two weeks, echoed that sentiment.
“The guy has been doing it all year long,” Bryant said. “Those chants and that attention can’t happen to a better dude. I feel like I’m getting to know him and what he’s all about. A great family. He’s really proven a lot of people wrong and I just love stories like that. He works hard, he comes out here and keeps the group light and happy.”
Two years ago, Crawford finished the 2019 season with a .228 average and .654 OPS that made him one of the worst qualified hitters in the majors. With four hits on Monday, he pulled his season average above .300 for the first time this season while his OPS shot up to .918.
Crawford’s .306 average ranks sixth in the National League, his .918 OPS ranks eighth and his 4.8 bWAR is third behind only Max Muncy of the Dodgers and Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres. Crawford may not finish the season ahead of Muncy, Tatis or even Bryce Harper of the Phillies in several offensive categories, but his MVP case is helped by playing for a firstplace club that’s shocked the baseball world and by being the only candidate to rank in the top 10 defenders in the majors in Outs Above Average, a range-based fielding metric.
“In my time in baseball, I’ve seen a lot of great individual seasons with the different organizations I’ve been in,” Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said Friday. “The season that Craw has had this year, I’ve never seen a player have more of an impact on a team’s success than what he’s done.”
In the past several years, MVP voters have tended to look more closely at WAR, OPS+ and wRC+ to evaluate the résumés of position players. Crawford ranks among the top 10 players in the NL in each of those categories, and he can also make the argument his production has often come at the most critical junctures of games for the Giants.
In 100 plate appearances with runners in scoring position this season, Crawford is batting .383 with a .480 on-base percentage and 14 extra-base hits. Only Muncy, who is batting .404 with runners in scoring position, has better overall numbers in those situations.
“I think (Crawford) is definitely in the running,” starter Kevin Gausman said of Crawford’s MVP chances. “He’s in the conversation. What he’s done for the team, at the position he plays, playing as much as he plays, facing lefties, facing righties, what he’s done this year has really been remarkable. I’m glad he’s on our team and that we get to watch it every night.”
Crawford isn’t the only Giants player likely to land on MVP ballots as Posey should receive votes, but with a remarkable run during the second half of the season, he’s turned an All-Star-caliber year into something more. The Giants hold a 4.0-game lead in the National League West over a Dodgers team that’s still considered by many the favorite to win the pennant.
If Crawford keeps up his current pace and the Giants hold off Los Angeles to end the Dodgers’ eight-year run of finishing atop the division, it will be a stretch for voters to find a more deserving player with the kind of two-way impact Crawford has made this year to list atop their ballots.
La Stella, Longoria homer to clinch series win
SAN FRANCISCO — It’s far too soon to mention Logan Webb in the same breath as the greatest Giants homegrown pitching stars, but for a franchise that’s spent the last decade trying to draft and develop the team’s next ace, Webb sure is giving everyone a lot to dream about.
With 7 1/3 strong innings against the Mets on Tuesday, Webb continued to establish himself as an up-and-coming star as he led the Giants to a 32 series-clinching win.
It will take years of sustained excellence for Webb to begin drawing comparisons to Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and
Madison Bumgarner, but the Giants’ 2014 fourth-round draft pick has performed so well this summer that it’s increasingly easy for president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and manager Gabe Kapler to envision Webb pitching at the front of the rotation well into the future.
Webb’s 7 1/3 innings set a career high and he likely would have had a chance to finish Tuesday’s game had Mets first baseman Pete Alonso not ruined an otherwise spectacular performance with a two-run home run to pull New York within a run in the top of the eighth.
Fortunately for the 24-year-old Giants starter, a first-inning home run from Tommy La Stella and a seventh-inning solo shot from Evan Longoria gave Webb enough cushion to secure his seventh win of the season and help San Francisco to its 10th win in Webb’s last 11 starts.
Left-hander Tony Watson finished off the eighth inning behind Webb before Jarlín García started the ninth inning for a Giants club that wanted to avoid using top high-leverage arms Tyler Rogers and Jake McGee after each pitcher worked back-to-back days.
García allowed a leadoff single to Jeff McNeil that was misplayed by center fielder Austin Slater, but left fielder LaMonte Wade Jr. raced into the gap to back up Slater, cut the ball off and prevent McNeil from taking second base. After inducing a pair of ground-outs, García was replaced by right-hander Dominic Leone, who retired former Giant Kevin Pillar to pick up his first save this season and third of his career.
Wade opened the bottom of the first inning with a line-drive single to center field that snuck past the outstretched glove of shortstop Jonathan Villar. Had either of the Mets’ top two defensive infielders, Francisco Lindor or Javier Báez, been active and in the lineup on Tuesday, it’s possible the ball would have ended up in a glove, but instead Wade reached to set the table for La Stella.
After falling behind in the count 0-2 against Mets starter Marcus Stroman, La Stella laid off a pair of splitters, fouled off a cutter and then launched a 2-2 cutter thrown right over the heart of the plate out to deep right-center field. The Giants’ second baseman isn’t known for his power, but his 415-foot blast easily cleared the outfield wall and gave San Francisco an early 2-0 lead against one of the best starters in the National League.
La Stella’s home run may have suggested the Giants’ offense was ready to make another starting pitcher labor through an exhausting outing, but Stroman had other plans.
The Mets right-hander dazzled against the Giants, striking out nine hitters over his first six innings as he managed to get Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford and several other top San Francisco hitters off balance. Despite not throwing more than 98 pitches in any of his previous 24 starts this season, Stroman came back to the mound for the bottom of the seventh and was greeted by Longoria, who drilled the first pitch he saw into the left field bleachers.
Longoria became the ninth Giants player to reach 10 home runs this year, which matches the 1952, 1958, 1987 and 2000 teams for the most players to hit double digit homers in a single season.