Sandoval homers in win

The Giants were playing, Ryan Vogelsong brought his No. 32 jersey to the mound and Pablo Sandoval hit a home run right-handed.

Sunday at AT&T Park? No, Aug. 6, 2014, in Milwaukee.

In one of those screwy coincidences that arises every so often, Sandoval hit a righthanded homer Sunday as part of a three-RBI day in the Giants’ 7-2 victory against Arizona, which began after Vogelsong joined the Giants on the field for his retirement ceremony.

Sandoval’s sixth-inning homer off Jorge De La Rosa was his first from the right side — indeed, his first righthanded extra-base hit — since he homered off Tom Gorzelanny in a game at Miller Park that Vogelsong won.

“It’s special when a pitcher retires and you played with him and he gave a lot of effort on the mound for you,” Sandoval said. “It was a great moment for him to end like that and a great win.”

The Giants ended a fourgame losing streak and avoided a sweep with a great display of situational hitting. Sandoval’s homer was their only RBI hit. They scored the other six runs on three sacrifice flies (Sandoval, Brandon Crawford, Kelby Tomlinson), a bases-loaded walk (Austin Slater) and two fielder’s choices (Sandoval, Jarrett Parker).

“It’s been a while since we had a game like that,” manager Bruce Bochy said.

The metaphor was inescapable when Vogelsong walked off the mound after his ceremony and Chris Stratton replaced him for the game, a nexus of the Giants’ remarkable recent past and what they hope is a better future — with Stratton.

The rookie held Arizona to J.D. Martinez’s 40th homer, with a man aboard, and earned his third win. He has a 2.17 ERA over his past six games, and an admirer.

“Vogy’s a great guy,” Stratton said. “He had an awesome career. He came up to me after the game and told me he was proud of me, the way I’ve progressed. Hopefully, I can have the same kind of career he did.” Smith throws: Reliever Will Smith threw a baseball for the first time since he underwent Tommy John surgery at the end of spring training.

He threw 10 times from about 30 feet and 15 more from about 40-45 feet, and the balls were zinging out of his left hand.

“I was trying to back off,” Smith said. “Your arm just feels good after six months off when it’s surgically repaired.”

This was a big day for the 2018 team, which will need Smith to fortify the back end of the bullpen.