Bryant enjoys two round trips
Kris Bryant of the Giants is congratulated by teammates after hitting a two-run home run against the New York Mets in the fifth inning Monday night at Oracle Park. Bryant went deep again in the seventh inning. San Francisco held on for a 7-5 victory. The Giants now have a four-game lead over the Dodgers in the National League West.
Brandon Crawford earned his third trip to an All-Star Game this season. After the fourth hit in his 4-for-4 performance in a 7-5 win over the Mets on Monday night, the Oracle Park fans chanted an honor that the Giants’ shortstop figures to be considered a strong candidate to win: MVP.
Crawford hit three singles and an RBI triple, raising his season average to .306. And get this: Since July 1, Crawford is 47-for-110 (.427).
Kris Bryant shared the offensive spotlight with Crawford. Bryant hit two of the Giants’ three homers. That gives the former Cubs utilityman 21 for the season, three with the Giants.
Bryant’s two-run shot in the fifth put the Giants up 4-3. It was still 4-3 when Brandon Belt led off the seventh with a pinch-hit homer off Trevor May, Belt’s 16th home run of the season. Bryant drove the next pitch over the wall in left to up the Giants’ lead to 6-3.
Crawford’s two-out triple made it 7-3. Jonathan Villar’s two-run homer off Tyler Rogers in the eighth cut the margin to 7-5, but Jake McGee worked a three-up, three-down ninth for his 26th save.
Kevin Gausman (12-5) took a 2-0 lead into the fifth. He racked up seven strikeouts in the first four innings, but the fifth would be his final inning.
Brandon Nimmo opened the fifth with an infield single. After Gausman walked Michael Conforto, Pete Alonso smoked a drive into Triples Alley that, sure enough, turned into a gametying triple.
Dominic Smith’s ensuing sacrifice fly put New York on top 3-2.
Gausman finished five innings with those seven strikeouts and two walks. The right-hander made the All-Star team as he worked at least six innings in his 18 starts before the break. Since the break, Gausman has lasted six innings only once in six starts.
He still earned a win for the third consecutive start. That’s because after Alex Dickerson’s pinch-hit double with one out in the bottom of the fifth, Bryant took reliever Miguel Castro deep to center.
Bryant’s 20th homer of the season, and second with the Giants, gave San Francisco a 4-3 advantage.
The Mets lost 14-4 to the Dodgers on Sunday night as L.A. completed a three-game sweep. The Mets then took a cross-country flight and got into San Francisco in the wee hours of the morning before Monday’s opener of a three-game series at Oracle.
Rich Hill, the 41-year-old left-hander whom the Mets acquired last month from Tampa Bay, has enjoyed more than his share of success against the Giants. Hill came into Monday with an 8-2 record and 2.23 ERA in 17 career starts against San Francisco.
Buster Posey hasn’t had much trouble with Hill, though. With one out in the fourth, the Giants’ catcher jolted Hill for a double to left-center. That made Posey 11-for-22 lifetime against Hill.
Darin Ruf brought home Posey with a single to left, the second of five consecutive hits for the Giants. However, after a replay, Ruf was called out returning to first.
Singles by Evan Longoria, Crawford and former Mets infielder Wilmer Flores gave the Giants a second run and ended Hill’s evening.
New York is four games into a stretch of 13 in which it will face only the Giants and Dodgers. Entering play Monday, S.F. (76-42) and L.A. (72-46) owned the top two records in the majors.