Giants’ power (192 win) and pitching (21) lead DH sweep.
S.F. remains on a high in ballpark that often knocks team down a peg
DENVER — The bubble machine bubbled. The smoke machine smoked. Speakers blared and laughter surrounded the tables hosting card games. Not once, but twice.
A bystander who had not seen Twitter all day might have been surprised to learn that all this folderol unfolded in the visiting clubhouse at Coors Field after the Giants began the day by placing their home run leader on the injured list.
The Giants still have a losing record, but you wouldn’t know that by watching their demeanor or play in winning 10 of their past 12 games, and Monday was their best day yet.
On a career day for Brandon Crawford, they swept a daynight doubleheader, crushing the Rockies 192 in the opener and edging Colorado 21 in the nightcap. That’s two wins in one day at a park where they had lost 19 of their previous 22 games.
The Giants sent Colorado, the league and their own front office a message: We can win either way, but most important, we can win.
“I like it. You can feel the momentum,” Dereck Rodriguez said after he helicoptered into Denver in the midst of this successful run and held the Rockies to one run in five innings in the night game.
“You can sense it. We’ve got a team that’s winning. I wasn’t here the two weeks we went on a roll, but now I feel like I’ve been here the whole time.”
Monday’s common denominator was Crawford, who hit three homers and had nine
RBIs over the two games, doing most of his damage in the opener.
Then, in his 18th inning of the day and night, he made a diving stop to rob Nolan Arenado of a single that would have put runners on the corners with one out in the ninth as Will Smith was protecting a onerun lead.
Smith got two groundballs to earn his 24th save in the second of two weirdly different games.
“Go figure,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “That’s a long day for the guys. Some tired guys went out on that field, but it was a great day for us.”
Crawford hit two homers in the opener and joined Orlando Cepeda and Willie Mays as the only San Francisco Giants to collect eight RBIs in a game.
His homer in the nightcap produced his ninth run driven in, third most by a Giant in a doubleheader since the RBI became an official stat in 1920, and two off the franchise record.
Crawford’s homer in the night game, off Chi Chi Gonzalez in the fourth inning, proved the winning run. Crawford hit it after right after Stephen Vogt had homered.
Even without Evan Longoria, who went on the injured list with a foot injury, the Giants think they can score as many runs as it takes any day.
“Everybody’s fighting to get to the bat rack,” Vogt said. “Hopefully, we can keep it rolling.”
The Giants had 21 hits in the opener. Bochy had Alex Dickerson, Crawford and Mike Yastrzemski bat in that order, four through six, and they had a game.
They combined for 12 hits in 17 atbats with three doubles, three homers, 10 runs and 12 RBIs. They did most of their damage in a fiverun first
“You score 19 runs, as a pitcher, all you have to do is kick the ball at the plate for five innings and get a win.” Jeff Samardzija, the winning pitcher in the Giants’ 192 win in the opener
inning and a sevenrun third. Crawford had five hits, Yastrzemski four.
The Giants torched German Marquez for 11 runs in 22⁄3 innings. The same guy who threw a onehit shutout at Oracle Park in April became the first pitcher since the Phillies’ Al Jurisch in 1947 to surrender 11 earned runs to the Giants in one game. Pitching was a story, too. The Giants held the Rockies to three runs in 18 innings, two off Jeff Samardzija in the first game on solo home runs and a third off Rodriguez that scored only when Austin Slater misplayed a liner in right field. The bullpen gave up nothing in 61⁄3 innings.
Samardzija struck out a seasonhigh nine. Even he would admit he had the easier of the two starts. As he said, “You score 19 runs, as a pitcher, all you have to do is kick the ball at the plate for five innings and get a win.”
Rodriguez had to bear down more, and he did. His biggest issue was dad Ivan’s clothing choice to attend the game behind the plate.
“He had a purple shirt on, in Denver. What’s up with that?” Rodriguez said.
Vogt caught Rodriguez and seemed impressed.
“He came in focused from the first pitch,” Vogt said. “Every pitch I called he executed all night. He gave us a chance to win with two runs in this park. That's hard to do.”