Offense breaks out with homer barrage
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The power switched back on in Florida.
Thairo Estrada’s solo home run in the fourth inning off Tampa Bay Rays starter Ryan Pepiot ended the San Francisco Giants’ burdensome seven-game homer-less streak. But the Giants were up to more at the plate than streak-snapping in an 11-2 win on Saturday afternoon at Tropicana Field.
The Giants hit five home runs total.
LaMonte Wade Jr.’s tworun homer, his first of the year, set the stage for an offensive breakthrough. Estrada chipped in two blasts, including a two-run homer 403 feet into left field in the seventh inning off reliever Chris Devenski.
A few at-bats earlier, Jorge Soler hit his third home run of the year 446 feet into center field, a no-doubter so clearly out off the bat that Rays outfielder Jose Siri didn’t move an inch except to watch it sail far over his head. The Giants’ lead was large enough that Rays manager Kevin Cash tapped catcher Ben Rortvedt to pitch the eighth and ninth innings, where Matt Chapman hit the fifth (his third) home run of the afternoon.
The five home runs are the most the Giants have hit in a game since five against the San Diego Padres in Mexico City on April 29, 2023, where the air was so thin baseballs appeared to defy gravity. Following a loss on Friday in which the Giants went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position and could only scratch one manufactured run on the board, this power jolt was a release.
“The home run thing was kind of festering,” manager Bob Melvin said. “As you can see, we have a few guys that can hit the ball out of the ballpark.”
The Giants weren’t entirely reliant on the home run ball, also using the Rays’ troubling 4.13 walk-per-nine rate (6.17 from the bullpen) to their advantage. Devenski walked the bases loaded in the sixth inning and Mike Yastrzemski’s fourth hit of the season bounced past the infield playing in to score a pair. Then Patrick Bailey’s ground-rule double scored another to break the game open, making it 7-1.
The pair of home runs highlight what could be a resurgence for Estrada. After a rough first 13 games in which he batted .160 with 15 strikeouts, he was 5-for-8 through two games at Tampa Bay.
“I said before the season this is the year he could step up and be an All-Star, and I still think that,” Melvin said. “There’s a lot in there, as you can see. It’s power, it’s speed. Hitting the ball the other way. Plays good defense for us. It’s nice to get a really big game like that.”
Double-digit run support is an unfamiliar kind of cushion for starter Logan Webb, who received an average 3.68 runs in support-pernine last season.
“The boys were swinging it today,” Webb said.
He kept the lead nice and cushy by forcing a patient Rays lineup into uncomfortable counts, attacking the zone primarily with his sinker and generating a good number of groundballs off his changeup.
“Yesterday they were kind of being patient, so the game plan was to try to get ahead with the two-seam,” Webb said. “It worked. They started swinging more toward the end, but for the most part felt good about how my stuff was moving.”
Webb worked through some traffic once the Rays caught on and started swinging earlier in counts, but got a vote of confidence from the manager when he came to the mound with two outs and two on in the seventh inning and Nick Avila warming in the bullpen. Webb threw a few curse words out, frustrated that he couldn’t finish the inning. Melvin, instead, asked if Webb wanted to finish the inning.
“I said, ‘F-yeah, I want to. I’d love to stay in this game,’” Webb said. “He said, ‘All right, let’s do this’ and walked away. It’s awesome for him to show that confidence in me.”
Webb got the final out to finish his cleanest outing yet, giving up one run over seven innings with four strikeouts on 96 pitches. Webb has gone seven innings in each of his past two starts and given up a combined three runs.
“Kind of getting into the rhythm. I’m not making people miss the ball, but I don’t think that’s the way I pitch,” Webb said. “Strikeouts will come, but it’s nice to have an efficient inning and be able to go to seven.”