Giants 13, Cardinals 8:
Pablo Sandoval homers and has five RBIs as the Giants score a season high in runs.
Some of Steven Duggar’s gear did not arrive at AT&T Park on Sunday, including his running shoes, so he borrowed a pair from Pablo Sandoval for batting practice. Duggar wears size 12. Sandoval is an 11½.
“I had to squeeze into them,” Duggar said as Sandoval laughed at the next locker.
It was a good day to be in any hitter’s shoes against the Cardinals. The Giants scored a season high in runs and won 13-8 to split the four-game series, a big exhale after they totaled 10 runs in their previous six games.
Though most of the spotlight naturally shone on Duggar’s 2-for-6 big-league debut, Sandoval, who is approaching the 10th anniversary of his debut next month, had the biggest day.
He hit a three-run homer off reliever John Brebbia in the fifth inning to put the Giants ahead to stay and added a two-run double in a five-run sixth that began with Duggar’s first bigleague hit, a double off Greg Holland. Sandoval got both big hits with two strikes after he sprained his left thumb while making the second of two nice diving stops at third base.
Although manager Bruce Bochy expressed concern, Sandoval said he was fine.
“It’s nothing bad,” Sandoval said. “I had to concentrate on not doing too much at the plate, and that helped me.”
Duggar’s day did not start well. He muffed two bunt attempts in his second at-bat, after Gorkys Hernandez’s leadoff double and a walk to Madison Bumgarner, then struck out looking.
“That stuck with me the whole game,” Duggar said. “I tried to flip the page. That’s my job as a leadoff hitter. Bum worked a great at-bat there. First and second, nobody out. I’ll definitely work on that.”
The Giants still scored three in the inning, one on an error by shortstop Paul DeJong on Buster Posey’s hard grounder.
Duggar flipped the page well enough to ignite a five-run rally.
“I’m excited to see Duggar here,” said Bumgarner, who did not have a good game (51⁄3 innings, four runs). Asked what was working for him, the Big Fella replied, “The offense.”
The Giants led 11-5 in the eighth when Bochy had Ray Black make his big-league debut. Black threw the first 100 mph pitches by a Giant since Hunter Strickland in 2016, but he walked his first two hitters, then allowed a one-out Matt Carpenter homer into the cove on a first-pitch, 99 mph fastball.
“I’m sure he was amped up pretty good,” Bochy said, “but you saw the stuff. It’s going to work.”