Still grasping top mark as Wood, Wade sparkle
In the strange and unexpected position of wanting to avoid a sweep by the lastplace Pirates on Sunday, the Giants turned to triedandtrue stopper Alex Wood and an increasingly important part of the offense, LaMonte Wade Jr.
Wade hit two of the Giants’ four solo homers at Oracle Park and Wood worked 51⁄3 innings, struck out eight and allowed just one run to help San Francisco claim a 61 victory over the NL Central’s worst team. Even after dropping the first two games to Pittsburgh, the Giants hold the best record in the majors, at 6237, and lead the NL West by two games over the Dodgers.
The Giants are 90 when Wood starts after a team loss, and he’s 80 with a 2.30 ERA in those outings.
“Alex takes a great deal of pride in putting the team on his back when we’ve lost a couple of games straight, and I think he feels a sense of responsibility,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “He prepares so well, and I think he was very ready for this opportunity and stepped up in a big way for us.”
“I’ve been around a while, I know what it means to stop that skid and start a new winning streak,” Wood said. “But a lot of it is our team, you know. That’s our mantra this year; we’re a resilient team, we’ve got a lot of good players, we grind ABs, we go out there and compete from start to finish.”
Wade’s multihomer game was the first of his career and gave him five HRs in his past 10 games. His eight gamewinning RBIs are second on the team behind Brandon Crawford’s nine.
“He doesn’t take a single pitch off,” Wood said of Wade. “He’s locked in from the start of the game to the very finish, and I think he likes those moments. I don’t know if he’d admit it, but in those moments he wants to be a dude, and he’s proven to be one.”
Jay Jackson comes in for a lot of the credit Sunday, too. He took over from Wood with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth and got Kevin Newman to bounce into a double play.
“He’s coming into these games with a head of steam,”
Kapler said. “He believes in his ability to execute that slider, and he’s totally fearless with it . ... In this case, it was a perfectly executed groundball double play from a very confident pitcher.”
“I’m just trying to come in throwing strikes and get out of there as soon as possible,” Jackson said. “Woody had a great ballgame and I want to make sure that we have the lead and get him out of that situation.”
Jackson, who has bounced around the majors and internationally most of his career, has made six appearances for the Giants and has yet to allow a hit or a run. “He exudes confidence, and he’s got the goods,” Wood said.
Wade had hits in each of his first three plate appearances, adding a double in the fifth, but he’s still lacking one thing: a hit off a lefthander. He had a shot against Chasen Shreve in the sixth but grounded out.
Wilmer Flores and Thairo Estrada also hit solo homers.
San Francisco’s 151 homers are most in the majors, with the Blue Jays second with 149.