Home runs boost Giants to win against Cardinals
SAN FRANCISCO » All of a sudden, the Giants are back on a winning streak. It happened in a flash — er, a splash.
The Giants used a pair of home runs — including a tiebreaking shot into McCovey Cove from Mike Yastrzemski — to back up a solid spot start from Jakob Junis and win their second straight game over the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3, enough to earn a split in the four-game series with a team expected to contend for the NL Central title.
Following a five-game losing skid during which the Giants scored 10 total runs, they have responded with 17 runs — and two wins — the past two days. Their fourth and final run Sunday came in the sixth inning off the bat of Yastrzemski, who drove in two, and splashed down beyond the right field wall to give the Giants the decisive lead.
“It sort of seems like the last couple of days, we’ve been more like ourselves,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “We’re a team that sees pitches, goes deep into
counts and we’re selectively aggressive. Sometimes that leads to walks and sometimes it can and should lead to damage.”
The Giants drew seven walks Sunday — four issued by erratic St. Louis starter Dakota Hudson — after taking eight the previous game. But on Sunday, they went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. It was the long ball that proved crucial.
“We’re really committed to not giving any at-bats away,” said Yastrzemski, who drove in his other run with a sacrifice fly for the Giants’ third run of the third inning. “It’s a choice to have that mentality.”
Of the home run, which notably for the left-handed hitting Yastrzemski came against hardthrowing left-hander Genesis Cabrera, he said, “I knew he was probably going to challenge me at some point. I was really just focused on taking a good swing and hitting the ball hard. Wherever it was going to go, it was going to go.”
And where it went was the water of McCovey Cove for Yastrzemski’s fifth career splash hit, increasing the counter on the right field wall to 93. LaMonte Wade Jr. provided the Giants’ first home run Sunday with a 436-foot shot to center field in the second inning that tied the game at 2-2.
Juan Yepez’s two-run home run in the second inning amounted to St. Louis’ only damage off Junis and were the first runs he has allowed all season, snapping an 11-inning scoreless streak.
“His slider’s nasty,” Kapler said. “Right now we’re not seeing Jake as a spot starter. We see him as a member of our rotation.”
Making his first start with the Giants after two effective appearances of long relief, Junis limited the Cardinals to two runs on three hits and struck out five over five innings.
Junis, a free-agent acquisition this offseason who previously pitched two five-inning outings of relief without allowing a run, has a 1.20 ERA in 15 innings, the lowest mark of anybody on staff with at least 10 innings.
“I’ve had a decent start to the season,” Junis said. “Hopefully I get some consistent action and we can keep it rolling.”
St. Louis plated its third run in the sixth off reliever Dominic Leone, briefly tying the game at 3-3, after Luis González misplayed a fly ball in left field that turned into a ground-rule double, allowing Yepez to reach third, then score on a groundball out the next play.
But Yastrzemski responded in the bottom half of the inning with a splash hit that would prove decisive.
With seven hits and seven walks, the Giants put runners in scoring position with fewer than two outs four times but failed to score in any inning that didn’t feature a home run. Until Joc Pederson
whiffed in the Giants’ final at-bat of the game, they were on their way to becoming the first MLB team since 2017 to finish a game without striking out once.
“The at-bat quality was excellent up and down the lineup,” Kapler said. “Obviously Yaz and LaMonte Wade had the big hits, but there was plenty of grindy at-bats around them, supporting them.”
All but one of the Giants’ runs came on the long ball.
Wade’s two-run shot in the second inning tied the score at 2-2 and was his first home run of the season after spending the first 25 games on the injured list (left knee). Aided by the blustery conditions, Wade’s ball traveled 436 feet, the secondlongest home run by a Giants player this season, but leaving the bat at 107 mph, it needed no help leaving the yard.
Yastrzemski’s go-ahead homer splashed into the water of McCovey Cove, his second home run this season and fifth career splash hit, increasing the counter in right field to 93 by Giants players. On their way to leading MLB in home runs last season, the Giants also splashed
down more times than any other year since Oracle Park opened.
It’s no coincidence that as their offense has awakened, with 17 runs in their final two games against the Cardinals, it has come on the strength of the long ball, with two more Sunday following a trio of dingers on Saturday.
“When Yaz’s swing is on point … he can elevate the ball to the pull side with the best of them,” Kapler said, calling Yastrzemski’s at-bats so far this season “very close to being Yaz circa 2020.”
“Nice to see LaMonte elevate today, as well,”
Kapler continued. “A huge boost to our offense and a huge boost to our dugout. … Some combination of walks and home runs usually leads to success for us.”
Up next, the Giants play host to the team that features MLB’s home run leader, with C.J. Cron and the Colorado Rockies arriving for a three-game series that starts Monday. It will also mark the return of Kris Bryant, who departed in free agency and has gotten off to a cold start this season.
San Francisco will have its marquee free-agent acquisition, Carlos Rodón (3-1, 1.55), on the hill.