San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Old guard helps S.F. stay atop division
GIANTS 7, PADRES 1
Before Saturday’s game, Johnny Cueto laughingly said some of the young outfielders’ new mustaches make them “look old, like me.”
Maybe, on this Giants’ club, that’s not a bad idea: It’s the old guys leading the charge as the team has jumped to the top of the league.
Brandon Crawford, who hit a threerun homer in San Francisco’s 71 victory over the Padres; Evan Longoria, who is batting .279 and played a wicked third base Saturday; Brandon Belt, who smacked a solo homer in the fifth; and most of all, Buster Posey, who leads the team with a .397 average and eight homers.
The Giants improved their leaguebest record to 2013, and their lead in the NL West is 21⁄2 games over the Padres and 3 over the Dodgers, who played a late game against the Angels.
“We’ve got a pretty good ballclub and we’re here to stay,” said Belt, who described Crawford as “at the top of his game” and Posey as “looking like his 2012 self — maybe better.”
Crawford’s homer was his seventh; he hasn’t hit more than 14 in a season since 2015, when
he hit 21. Belt also has seven; both are on pace for 30plus and Posey is on pace for 40, but of course given their ages — all are 33 or older — there is the possibility that their production will decline over the long season. Already, each has had issues with muscle strains or tightness.
One scout who’s seen the Giants often this season said, “I don’t think the Giants play them into the ground, and during the lulls they get days off to become fresh again. That’s a talented crew, especially motivated and rested. They’re reminding us who they are.”
Crawford said he simplified his swing, giving him a more direct path to the ball. “Whatever’s thrown, I feel like I have a chance to hit it and I'm able to just look over the middle and react to pinches right now, I don't feel like I have to cheat anything,” he said.
Kevin Gausman came off the injured list but he didn’t miss a start while dealing with the aftereffects of the second COVID19 virus, and he was terrific against the Padres, allowing three hits, a walk and one run in six innings. Over his past four starts, Gausman has allowed only three runs, and in three starts against the Padres, he has given up three earned runs in 19 innings and struck out 18.
The strike zone was generous, and San Diego manager Jayce Tingler was ejected after Manny Machado took issue with a called strike three that was low but in the zone. The Padres were seething about a poor strike three call on HaSeong Kim that ended Friday night’s game.
Outfielders Mike Yastrzemski and Austin Slater are sporting “CHiPs”style mustaches and calling it Mustache May, a nod to hot streaks they went on at TripleA Sacramento two years ago after growing facial hair. Yastrzemski said Saturday that it’s just for the month, but he hopes to convince other players to join. It’s working for Slater: He homered Friday, and Saturday he added a pinchhit RBI single in the sixth and a tworun homer in the eighth.
The previous night, manager Gabe Kapler was asked to rate the mustaches and he said on the 2080 scouting scale, Slater was about a 65 — and he’d give Yastrzemski an 80, except for his soul patch.
Yastrzemski took mock exception, saying with a grin, “My feelings are a little hurt. Everybody's got to have a little personal flair. Kap is a player's manager, and he likes us to be ourselves — to be docked for having my own take on it hurts a little bit.”
Cueto, who goes one step further with a beard, too, got a kick out of it, saying, with Erwin Higueros interpreting, “They look a little silly . ... Maybe I’ll just go ahead and let my mustache grow also.”
Cueto, the elder statesman of the staff at 35, will come off the injured list Sunday after missing four starts with a lat strain.