S.F. awakes echoes of ’21 with five homers
MIAMI — Any day the San Francisco Giants can play to last year’s level is a good day. Friday was one of them, though there haven’t been as many as anticipated, and whenever one comes along, the Giants and their fans can party like it’s 2021.
A year ago, the Giants set a franchise record by hitting 241 home runs, second most in the majors, on their road to a teamrecord 107 wins.
The power pace — or win pace, for that matter — hasn’t been quite as brisk this season, so the Giants welcomed Friday’s homer hullabaloo during their 15-6 trouncing of the Miami Marlins.
The Giants pounded five home runs for the first time in 2022 and evened their record on the trip to 4-4 with two weekend games in South Florida to go. They were hoping for better than .500, considering the three-city competition, and Friday’s routwin makes a winning trip possible.
Mike Yastrzemski, Joc Pederson, Thairo Estrada and Jason Vosler hit the first four homers, all off Elieser Hernandez, and Brandon Crawford hit the last and grandest of them all, a bases-loaded shot in the seventh inning that put the Giants ahead 15-2. It was Crawford’s fifth grand slam and came a day after he felt too ill to play.
Hjelle role: With scheduled starter Alex Cobb scratched from his assignment with back and hamstring tightness, the Giants promoted 6-foot-11 Sean Hjelle from Triple-A Sacramento to be the bulk pitcher, and he pitched the second, third and fourth innings and was one out from completing a scoreless stint before coughing up a two-run double to Jon Berti.
This was the second MLB outing for Hjelle, a 2019 second-round pick, his first coming May 6 — a scoreless inning in relief.
“I learned I can do it,” Hjelle said. “It’s the big leagues. It could be nerve-racking, it could be scary for guys, whether it’s your first day or 10th or 11th year. I proved I could get outs in this league. Just trust that.”
John Brebbia was the opener and prepared for his first major-league start by playing Beethoven’s “Für Elise” in the clubhouse. He followed that with a scoreless first inning, retiring three of four batters.
Zack Littell (who got the win) and Jarlín García pitched multiple innings, and manager Gabe Kapler used five pitchers in all ... if you consider infielder Donovan Walton a pitcher.
Walton, who threw marshmallows the entire inning and gave up three runs, got the ninth-inning assignment because designated positionplayer-pitcher Luis Gonzalez had left the game after getting hit by a pitch. Gonzalez says he hopes to take tomorrow off and play Sunday.
Casali 5 K’s: Not everyone was ready to rake Friday. Catcher Curt Casali struck out every time he walked to the plate, five K’s in all, the seventh Giant in history with a full handful and first since Mike Tauchman last year. That was the game Tauchman avoided becoming the first Giant in history with six strikeouts by hitting a 13th-inning homer.
As it was, Casali was just the fourth hitter in history with five K’s in a game his team scored at least 15 runs. The others were Edwin Encarnación (2019), Jim Thome (2000) and Steve Whitaker (1970).