Sandoval, Parker add spark in win
SAN FRANCISCO >> Manager Bruce Bochy hopes Pablo Sandoval can deliver some much-needed intangibles to his beleaguered Giants.
“We need a little presence here,” Bochy said before Saturday’s 5-4,10-inning win over Arizona, explaining why the club promoted its one-time star from Triple-A Sacramento earlier in the day.
“We need a guy to hopefully help spark us and bring some energy. Pablo’s always done that. This club could use a little shot in the arm.”
The AT&T crowd had to wait until the seventh inning to get the Panda effect, but his leadoff double to left-center field woke up the joint — and his teammates.
Sandoval scored moments later on a double to right by Jarrett Parker before Hunter Pence delivered the most welcome blast of the night.
His two-run shot over the left-field fence was his first home run at AT&T all season and brought the Giants within a run in a game they once trailed 4-0.
“Pablo’s double did a nice job of waking up the club and getting us going,” Bochy said. “We looked dead in the water. He smoked it.”
Sandoval was on the bench when the Giants threatened again in the eighth. Bochy pinch-hit Buster Posey in Sandoval’s place, and his ground-ball double play scored Kelby Tomlinson to tie the game.
The Giants won it in the 10th when Parker beat out a slow bouncer to deep second base, scoring Denard Span.
Sandoval had no problem with Bochy’s decision to lift him in favor of Posey, one of the NL’s top hitters. But he was pleased by his seventh-inning contribution. “Something had to start it,” he said. “I come here every day to win games.”
The hero of the Giants’ 2012 World Series sweep, Sandoval got a standing ovation from a segment of the crowd before his first at-bat, along with a few boos. A very few fans wore Panda hats, popular here before Sandoval left after the 2014 season for a five-year, $90 million contract with the Boston Red Sox.
Sandoval arrived on a day when the Giants placed Brandon Belt on the seven-day disabled list with a concussion and waived longtime reliever George Kontos.
Released by Boston last month after a dismal 21/2-year stint, Sandoval grounded out his first two at-bats and allowed the Diamondbacks’ third run to score with a fifth-inning throwing error.
Sandoval was asleep in his hotel room in Omaha, Nebraska, when the phone rang at 1 a.m. with news the Giants were promoting him from the River Cats after batting .207 in 12 minor-league games.
“I started crying,” said Sandoval, who wore his familiar No. 48, played third base and batted cleanup. “It’s emotional. You sit down and think about all the things you’ve been through and to get an opportunity come back is exciting.”
Bochy said the Giants want Sandoval to keep things simple.
“That’s the beauty of Pablo Sandoval, what made him so special. He saw the ball and swung. It wasn’t always a strike, but he had that ability to expand the strike zone.”
• Giants rookie righthander Chris Stratton, making just his second career start, gave up two first-inning runs and allowed doubles to three of the first seven hitters he faced. Stratton pitched five innings, surrendering three runs (two earned) and matching four strikeouts with four walks.
• Kontos, the final member of the Giants bullpen from their World Series championship team of 2014, said he felt “shock” when informed Saturday morning he had been put on waivers and picked up by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“Yeah, it did come as a surprise, actually,” said Kontos, who spent six seasons with the Giants. “It was a little bit of shock at that moment. It felt like six years of memories piled up on my shoulder real quick.”
Bochy said Kontos was a casualty of the Giants’ poor season. “You look at our situation, there’s some young players who are going to get the chance to show what they can do,” he said. “This goes with the territory of our struggles.”
Kontos, 32, appeared in exactly 300 games for the Giants, all in relief. He was 15-14 with a 3.05 earned run average, mostly as a set-up man.
• The Giants honored their 1997 team that went worst-to-first, winning the NL West title. Seventeen former players and coaches were on hand, including Barry Bonds, who earned some of the loudest cheers.