Panda’s homer isn’t S.F.’s only game-changer
PHOENIX — Not 24 hours after Pablo Sandoval hit a home run to continue his remarkable run of pinch-hitting, he stepped into the box with two outs in the 10th inning Sunday. Brandon Crawford, standing next to Evan Longoria in the dugout, said, “C’mon, Pablo. When’s the last time you hit a pinch homer for us?”
“I was just joking around,” Crawford said. “That’s how hot he is.”
Facing a two-strike pitch from Yoshihisa Hirano, Sandoval got a fastball up and just off the plate and lined it into the left-field bleachers. His seventh homer of the season stood for a 3-2 victory over the Diamondbacks.
The Giants completed a nice road-series win against the second-place team in the National League West after they were buried in the opener 7-0.
The All-Star Game is nearly two months away, and Sandoval will not be on the ballot. But if someone were forced to pick the Giants’ All-Star right now, it would be a toss-up between Sandoval and their closer.
Will Smith struck out three tough hitters — Ketel Marte, Eduardo Escobar and David Peralta — to secure his 13th save in 13 tries, and Sandoval is making the extremely difficult job of pinch-hitting look easy.
He leads the majors with nine pinch-hits, only one a single. He has six doubles to go with the two drives here that made him the first member of the Giants to hit pinch homers in consecutive games since Armando Rios, against the Dodgers in 1998.
“It’s amazing. It really is, what he’s doing, and with two strikes,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “That’s how good he’s been, and it happened again today. It’s incredible what he’s done off the bench.”
Which leads to Crawford, who did not enter the game until the eighth inning.
Sandoval would have been scrubbing his back in the shower of a losing clubhouse and instead of hitting a go-ahead HR had Crawford not saved the game moments earlier.
With two outs and runners on the corners in the ninth, and Sam Dyson pitching, Adam Jones shot a groundball to the hole that looked for all the world like a walk-off single.
Crawford laid out to his backhand side, gloved the ball and threw a short-hop to first that Brandon Belt — also a late-inning entry — deftly picked.
“The guy comes off the bench and makes that play,” Sandoval said. “He was the key to the game.”
The Giants had a confusing weekend in the desert.
In the series opener, they looked as bad as they had in any of their 25 losses, only to reach 20 wins with some inspired baseball.
On Sunday, Drew Pomeranz came off the injured list and pitched to an ugly 2-2 draw with Robbie Ray. In their 82⁄3 combined innings, they threw 183 pitches and walked nine, with Pomeranz also hitting a batter.
Both bullpens were stout, though. Trevor Gott, Mark Melancon, Tony Watson, Dyson and Smith combined to allow one hit in 51⁄3 innings. The Giants had no hits beyond the third inning until Sandoval’s home run.
Sandoval said he guessed right on Hirano’s fastball after studying his pitch sequences on video and figuring the righthander would not throw a two-strike splitter because Sandoval did not bite at one in the dirt earlier in the encounter.
That’s the technical side. Then there’s the heart side.
The Panda is making the most of his second baseball life with the Giants after several years of hardship, injury and even anger.
“You never give up,” Sandoval said. “Never give up on your dreams. When you get the opportunity, you have to take advantage of it. Trust the people around you and work as hard as you can.”
In this instance, he meant trusting his wife and four children, saying he is motivated to show his kids the value of perseverance.
Whatever is driving Sandoval, the Giants are grateful he is fulfilling his desires while wearing their uniform. Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: hschulman@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hankschulman