Battle of the Bay ends a draw
Blach blasts three-run homer while allowing just two runs in Giants win
SAN FRANCISCO » It took 56 home games before the Giants received a three-run home run at AT&T Park this season — just one more token wedged into a jammed up and broken season.
But how could the home dugout not laugh and smile and pump pairs of excited fists as they watched pitcher Ty Blach round the bases Thursday night?
That’s right. A starting pitcher ended their three-run homer outage, and he wasn’t even named Madison Bumgarner. Blach hit a 416-foot shot to dead center that landed on the netting above the vegetable garden, and it was just one swing amid a fruitful night as the Giants beat the A’s 11-2 to split their four-game interleague rivalry series.
“I didn’t think he had that in him!” bellowed Bumgarner from his corner of the clubhouse, only too happy to let Blach swing the
rotation’s biggest stick for one night.
Fresh blood circulated on the bases. Jarrett Parker played for the first time since fracturing his collarbone April 15 and sent doubles to the wall in each of his first two at-bats, Ryder Jones began to settle in as the new third baseman and No. 2 hitter with a pair of hits — giving him a career total of three — and Brandon Belt added his 18th home run to match a career high.
The Giants led 7- 0 after two innings, and there is nothing that Blach does better than fill up the strike zone. He held the A’s to two runs in eight innings to receive the victory.
That last part wasn’t lost on Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who sees a poised rookie that had completed seven innings in his three previous starts before coming within three outs of a complete game.
There’s little doubt that Blach is carving out a place in next year’s rotation.
“It was the Ty Blach show tonight,” Bochy said. “He’s been one of the silver linings we’ve seen this year.” And the homer? “Yeah, I mean … he smoked it, didn’t he?” Bochy said. “I think he stunned us all.”
Blach supplied just the fourth three-run homer by a Giant all season when he went deep in the fifth. Brandon Crawford (at Colorado), Austin Slater (at Atlanta) and Hunter Pence (at Oakland) hit theirs on the road.
It was the first threerun homer hit by a Giants pitcher since Matt Cain went deep last season — and Blach’s first shot since the Colorado native was in high school. This time, he didn’t even have the benefit of high altitude.
“I knew I had it in there someplace,” Blach said. “I just hadn’t found it for awhile. It was good to do it when it mattered.”
Sounds like a good slogan for when these Giants try to bounce back in 2018.
It made for a happier vibe than prior to the game, when the Giants trudged onto the field for the team photo. Some of them found a way to smile. Bochy was among them.
But upon meeting with reporters, Bochy’s smile vanished. He heaved an audible sigh.
“It stinks, letting guys go,” Bochy said.
In addition to Conor Gillaspie, the hero of last October’s NL Wild Card Game, Bochy had to deliver bad news to two other veterans. He said Cain would be out of the rotation and would serve as a long reliever for the remainder of the season. And he acknowledged that his chat with Denard Span on Monday involved telling the career center fielder to brace for a move to left field.
The move with Span might not take place in earnest until spring training, Bochy said. The move with Cain is more immediate. Right-hander Chris Stratton will start in place of Cain on Saturday against the Arizona Diamondbacks and the plan calls for him to remain in the rotation for the rest of the season.
“This is the tough thing about going through a year like this,” Bochy said of managing a 42- 68 club. “It comes with the territory, (making) changes.”
Bochy delivered some of his bad news after Wednesday night’s loss to the A’s, telling Gillaspie that he would be designated for assignment. Gillaspie, 30, batted .163 in 44 games while battling back stiffness. His defense at third base had slipped as well. He couldn’t throw out 38- year- old Chase Utley on a roller at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, which started a ninthinning rally that ultimately cost the Giants a win.
But Gillaspie still has something to offer a contending club, and Bochy hoped he would catch on somewhere.
Gillaspie hit a pair of late-inning home runs in recent days, including one with two outs in the ninth on July 21 that forced extra innings against the Padres. It was the kind of lateinning magic he displayed so often in late September and in the postseason last year.
But baseball games are won because of production, not memories. The reminder was just as brusque for Gillaspie as it was for Ishikawa in 2015.
“It’s always difficult,” Bochy said. “As you know, he did a lot for us last year, especially down the stretch. … A club can pick him up. If not, I hope he’s in Sacramento.”
With Gillaspie gone and Jae-gyun Hwang also optined to Sacramento, the way is clear for Jones at third base. Bochy said he planned to play Jones every day, but some of his starts also might come in the outfield where he has played both corners.
Jones, 23, hit .375 with three home runs in 11 games since the Giants activated him from the disabled list and returned him to Sacramento.
“He’s swinging the bat better,” Bochy said. “He’s driving the ball. With where we’re at, this is a perfect time for him.”
Perhaps the most significant future development involves Span, who couldn’t make a play in the A’s tworun first inning Wednesday night and statistically ranks as the least effective center fielder in baseball.
Span is signed for one more season (with $13 million owed to him, including the buyout on an option for 2019), and if he is still here, Bochy left no doubt that his future would be in left field.
“We had a discussion,” Bochy said. “It’s hard to do during the season. … More than likely, it happens next year. I can’t tell you what will happen in the offseason. But we have talked about it.”
Span might have a fire under him, because he made two catches for Blach that involved long runs.