New look, but same good results
Wearing their new cream and orange sorbet “City Connect” colors, complete with nonsensical “G” on the front, the Giants turned in a triedandtrue old method for success Friday at Oracle Park.
As per their norm this season, the Giants had a late addition to the lineup produce bigtime, with Darin Ruf getting a rare start against a righthander and singling in the team’s first run and mashing a monster solo homer that was the winning blow in a 53 victory over the Nationals. And AllStar shortstop Brandon Crawford turned in Gold Glovecaliber play after play to preserve the team’s lead and improve the Giants’ majorleaguebest record to 5532.
In the sixth, Crawford divedup the middle for a grounder by Tres Barrera and launched a glove flip at Donovan Solano to start a double play. In the seventh, with men at second and third and one out, Crawford snared Trea Turner’s sharp grounder to his left, turned and threw home to nail Gerardo Parra. It was the second time the Giants threw out Parra by a wide margin; with three runs in already in for the Nationals in the fourth, Parra tried to score from second on starter Paolo Espino’s single to center and Steven Duggar’s throw arrived when he was still a good six steps from the plate.
In the eighth, with the bases loaded and one out, Parra hit a slow bouncer to second, and Crawford took a great feed from Solano for the first out and, having to hurry, absolutely lasered the throw to first for the second.
Logan Webb came off the injured list after missing six weeks with a right shoulder strain, and though it was just a threeinning outing, as planned, Webb turned in some strong work. He struck out the side in the first, around an error by Solano, and he allowed only one hit and didn’t walk a man, throwing strikes with all his pitches throughout his outing.
Things weren’t quite so smooth for the next pitcher, lefty José Álvarez, who gave up a leadoff single to Juan Soto in the fourth, then walked Josh Bell on four pitches, all at the bottom of the zone, a pitch that umpire David Rackley wasn’t calling a strike all evening. With one out, Barrera, who’d entered the game as an injury replacement for catcher Yan Gomes, cracked his first career extrabase hit, a triple that sent in both runners.
Álvarez departed in favor of John Brebbia, and while he was getting checked by umpire Dan Bellino for foreign substances, Álvarez shouted at Rackley, expressing his ire over the strike zone, and was ejected. Parra then doubled to send in Barrera.
The Giants had a few other offensive standouts, like Ruf, fillins for everyday players. Curt Casali, the primary catcher with Buster Posey out,had three hits, including a tworun homer, in the second and Wilmer Flores, holding down third while Evan Longoria is out with a shoulder injury, added a solo shot in the seventh.
Casali is nightandday offensively since coming off the IL after getting some rest for his sore left wrist: He’s 16 for his past 40 overall, including 13for29 with three homers in 10 games at Oracle Park. He was batting .104 with no homers and four RBIs before he went on the IL, and he has lifted his average to .215.