San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Slumping Crawford takes a star turn
Some days it can be Gorkys Hernandez and Brandon Belt, other days Alen Hanson and Pablo Sandoval. On Saturday it was mostly Brandon Crawford.
The 2018 Giants have not been an offensive force. Usually their production comes from one or two players who get hot. If their pitchers do a decent enough job, they can shake hands as they did after they beat the Padres 5-3 at AT&T Park. One wonders how high the Giants’ ceiling could be if they got consistent offense from, say, three or four players over an extended stretch.
Maybe then they could break the bonds of .500, where they reside again after improving to 4-2 on their 10-game homestand.
Their big hits Saturday came from a player who was riding an 0-for-10 slide when he went
home Monday for the birth of his fourth child, then added an 0-for-8 run when he returned from paternity leave Thursday night.
He broke out of the 0-for-18 in a big way on a warm, strange afternoon in which the Giants didn’t learn Jordan Lyles would not start for San Diego until the game had begun.
Crawford ended his hitless streak and tied a 1-0 game in the fourth inning with an RBI triple off the bricks in right against Matt Strahm, who started instead. Crawford untied it in the sixth with a two-run double off right-handed sidewinder Adam Cimber.
Crawford’s third extra-base hit, an eighth-inning double, led to a run on a sacrifice fly by just-promoted Austin Slater. Crawford had sensed some hits coming.
“I did feel I was seeing the ball well, even if it didn’t look like it,” he said. “The timing might have been off a little bit. It was just a matter of getting some balls up, finding holes and hitting them to spots where they couldn’t catch them.”
Crawford contributed a difficult defensive play in a big spot, too, after Manuel Margot’s leadoff single in the fifth against Andrew Suarez.
With one out, Margot attempted to steal second. Nick Hundley, who is having a rough go with his throwing, fired one wide right. Crawford had to race past second base just to catch the ball and prevent it from going into the outfield, but he did more than that.
With his momentum still carrying him toward first base, Crawford dropped a tag on Margot for the out. A.J. Ellis then singled, but Suarez struck out pinch-hitter Matt Szczur to end the inning.
Crawford’s contributions on both sides are not surprising to longtime Giants. Nor is his work ethic, which Andrew McCutchen chose to highlight when asked what he has learned about Crawford the teammate. “Watching him work on his craft is pretty special,” McCutchen said.
The Giants won despite a lineup that was geared toward the righty Lyles but had to face the lefty Strahm when Lyles was scratched with forearm tightness.
Hanson would have been on the bench had the Giants known they were facing a left-hander, but the Giants were fortunate to have him. He started the goahead rally with a speed-fueled infield hit. Belt then singled ahead of Crawford’s two-run double.
Online conspiracy theories abounded that Padres manager Andy Green pulled a fast one on the Giants by switching a lefty for a righty with no notice. Manager Bruce Bochy chose to take Green at his word that the decision came after Lyles warmed up and felt the tightness.
“The lineup card was in,” Bochy said. “You don’t want to challenge someone’s integrity. Way back in baseball (the switcheroo) was done quite a bit. They said he got hurt warming up. There’s nothing you could do.”