Promise displayed by S.F. in victory
Giants withstand late HR to upend improved Padres
Ever since an Opening Night flop, the Giants’ bullpen has aimed to get back on track, and Wednesday at San Diego was a prime spot to do so, with a late onerun lead over one of the division favorites.
Manager Gabe Kapler had sidearming Tyler Rogers replace Kevin Gausman to start the eighth, a reasonable choice in a close game because Rogers seldom allows homers. You know where this is going, right? Rogers allowed a gametying home run by Giants nemesis Wil Myers.
Unlike on Opening Night, however, San Francisco took advantage of the runner placed at second base to start the 10th, with Austin Slater sending Alex Dickerson to third with a flyball and Donovan Solano sending in Slater with another for a 32 win.
“This was a big game for us,” outfielder Darin Ruf said. “To (beat) teams like the Padres, division teams that we want to compete with and know we can compete with, we need to win these close ones.”
Wandy Peralta then pitched a whale of an inning for his first career save. With Jurickson Profar stationed at
second to start the inning, Peralta got HaSeong Kim to ground to first (Peralta taking the throw and outracing Kim to the bag), then got a huge strikeout of Jorge Mateo and finally retired Tucupita Marcano on a flyball to end the game.
“What stood out to me most was how composed he was,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “I thought it was a really nice showing for him.”
The Giants — who have scored a grand total of seven runs over the past four games — got help with the first two Wednesday. That came in the form of Mateo, the former A’s prospect, who jumped at the wall in center for Ruf ’s secondinning drive. The ball hit the bottom of Mateo’s glove before clanging off it and over the wall for a tworun homer.
“It was one of those inbetween ones where I know I hit it good but needed probably a little help from the elements and the carry of the ball and things like that,” Ruf said.
The catchprobability on the ball Ruff crushed, according to Statcast’s Mike Petriello, was over 90% because Mateo was right there, timed his jump well and the ball did not appear as if it were heading out if not for the help supplied by Mateo.
The Giants are among the league leaders in homers, tied for third with 11, but they’re not doing much damage otherwise: They’re batting .201 with a .268 onbase percentage, both in the bottom third of the league.
“There are some guys who are off to some slower starts and there’s no disputing that, but through six games, you’re gonna have a series of atbats that either don’t go your way or your timing and rhythm is off,” Kapler said. “... I think the best thing that we can do for hitters in those situations is demonstrate that we never lose faith and confidence in very small sample sizes.”
Ruf ’s expected to hit homers off lefties, even one as decorated as Blake Snell, but he added an unexpected element to his game, too: He stole a base, just the third of his career.
At first glance, one might think that also would come with a higher degree of difficulty against a lefthander. But after reaching on an error by Manny Machado in the fourth, Ruf took off when Snell was in the middle of his big leg kick and made it safely.
Snell then walked Curt Casali, giving the Giants two on with two out, and Padres manager Jayce Tingler came out to let Snell know he wanted the No. 8 hitter, Mauricio Dubón, walked ahead of the pitcher. Snell, a lifelong American Leaguer, hasn’t had to walk many bottom of theorder hitters intentionally in his day, thus the quick chat, but the strategy was sound: Gausman struck out.
That was the last time the Giants had a man in scoring position via their own endeavors; their next runner at second was placed there in extra innings.
Ruf ’s homer came with Evan Longoria at second after a double, the first hit of the game. Longoria reached base three times, with two hits and a walk, and he’s batting .318.
Mateo atoned somewhat for his earlier gaffe in the fifth, when, with two outs and Profar at second after a single and a wild pitch by Gausman, Mateo knocked an RBI single up the middle.