Elusive 2-out RBIs are key to S.F.’s win
Brandon Belt swung his mightiest, made solid contact and sent a ball into the China Basin night, only to watch it die at the warning track in center field.
It was the first inning of the Giants’ homestand, and it was easy to imagine it would be one of those nights in which the bats would succumb to the marine layer and the opposing team, which came to San Francisco with a six-game win streak.
But the Giants succeeded in an area Monday night that they’ve mostly failed in this season — hitting with two outs and runners in scoring position — and it proved the difference in their 10-7 victory over the Reds.
The Giants entered with a .191 average in those situations, the lowest in the National League, and
the vibe suddenly changed while much of Monday’s crowd still was settling into AT&T Park.
“It’s always nice to score a bunch of runs,” Buster Posey said, “and it’s always nice to get on the board first.”
Belt’s long fly ball was the second out and came with two aboard — Andrew McCutchen doubled, and Posey walked — and instead of continuing the trend of two-out woes, the Giants kept rallying.
Evan Longoria sharply singled to center for his teamleading 22nd RBI, and Brandon Crawford lashed a two-run double to left. The next inning, McCutchen hit another double, this one with two outs to score Gregor Blanco, so two-out hits accounted for the Giants’ first four runs.
“It’s an area we need to improve on, and tonight you saw the difference when that happens,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “Those are things that win ballgames for you, two-out hits, clutch hitting.
“Really, throughout our lineup, we have professional hitters who know how to drive in a run. They have a nose for an RBI. That’s going to get better. I’m not just going on tonight, but I think you’ll see the rest of the season, we’ll get better there.”
Good situational hitting remained the theme the rest of the night as the Giants scored twice more in the third and three times in the sixth. Belt hit a solo homer in the eighth through the marine layer.
Seven of the Giants’ 14 hits were doubles, and McCutchen collected his 1,500th career hit in the same season that Longoria, another former face of a franchise who was traded to San Francisco in the offseason, reached the 1,500 club.
“We’ve been somewhat streaky this year,” Posey said. “I would like to think we are a lineup that’s going to hopefully wear on a staff as we go along and come up with some big hits along the way.”
Posey said McCutchen, like Longoria, is “just somebody else you have to game-plan for and worry about, another person for the opposing pitcher and catcher to bear down on.”
McCutchen, the former Pirate who received ovations throughout the Giants’ series in Pittsburgh, said it wasn’t a big deal not to get No. 1,500 there.
“I don’t want to stop at 1,500. It’s another hit,” he said. “Hopefully I keep going and get 1,500 more.”
Chris Stratton was handed a 6-1 lead through three innings and barely stuck around long enough to get the win. He gave up Tucker Barnhart’s two-run homer in the fourth and another homer to Scott Schebler leading off the sixth.
John Shea is The San Francisco Chronicle’s national baseball writer. Email: jshea@sfchronicle .com Twitter: @JohnSheaHey