Killion: Giants have a core of veterans to thank for 1st playoff berth in 5 years.
GIANTS 6, PADRES 1
A day after the Giants clinched a playoff berth, Buster Posey hit a first-inning homer in a 6-1 win over the Padres on Tuesday. San Francisco’s winning streak reached nine games.
One of the reasons the Giants have been so successful in 2021 is they protect their assets, and that includes two of their most precious commodities: Buster Posey’s legs.
Regular rest has allowed Posey to remain fresh and strong in the second half, for the first time in years, and now that we’re into September, it’s clear the game plan has paid off.
Relying on his leg strength in his first two at-bats Tuesday night, Posey spirited the Giants to a 6-1 victory over San Diego, which extended their win streak to nine games, longest in 17 years.
Demonstrating a comfort level with both a power game and little ball, Posey crushed his 18th home run and legged out an infield hit, leading to another run.
Anthony DeSclafani pitched 62⁄3 innings, his longest start since the Fourth of July, and gave up one run on three hits, an encouraging sign for a team relying on a three-man rotation and lots of bullpenning.
The offense poured it on, as it has throughout the streak, and big hits came from Tommy La Stella (singled home Steven Duggar in the fourth), Darin Ruf (doubled home Brandon Belt in the seventh) and Belt (doubled home Thairo Estrada in the eighth).
The Giants have scored a whopping 77 runs during the streak while scoring at least six runs in nine straight games for the first time in San Francisco franchise history. Before this stretch, the last time the Giants won nine in a row was in 2004 when the streak reached 10.
Posey seems to be exactly where he needs to be with the playoffs less than three weeks away. He sat out Monday’s series opener and did nothing but celebrate the Giants’ playoff clincher.
Which is perfectly fine, because he reported to work Tuesday re-energized with rested legs. Apparently, the Champagne merriment didn’t wear him out.
In the first inning, Posey channeled his inner Pablo Sandoval and swung at a Jake Arrieta pitch so far out of the strike zone that even the Panda might have let it go. It was 1.37 feet from the middle of the plate, according to Statcast, and Posey turned on it and sent it over the wall in leftcenter, 390 feet away.
No Giants right-handed batter ever homered on a pitch that inside since these things began getting tracked in 2008, and only one Giants left-handed hitter ever homered on such a pitch. Yes, it was Sandoval.
Posey’s next at-bat, he smoked a one-hopper off the heel of Arrieta’s glove, and the ball rolled behind the mound. Base hit. Posey scurried to third on LaMonte Wade Jr.’s single and scored when Arrieta threw the ball away at first base on a pickoff attempt.
The only run off DeSclafani came when Jurickson Profar scored on a grounder to second base, a play on which Posey made a smart decision. La Stella’s throw wouldn’t have caught Profar, so Posey stepped in front of the plate to catch the ball quickly enough to throw Trent Grisham out at first.
As a bonus, DeSclafani made the play of the game, retiring Manny Machado with both athleticism and creativity. The right-hander reached around his back to knock down a sharp comebacker, losing his glove in the process, and hurried behind the mound to pick up the ball and make a perfect throw to first.
DeSclafani threw 88 pitches and departed with a man on first and two outs in the seventh, and lefty Tony Watson struck out Profar to end the inning.
Tyler Rogers pitched a perfect eighth inning, fooling Fernando Tatis Jr., who swung through a 72 mph slider for the final out. Rookie Camilo Doval retired all three of his batters in the ninth, two of them on strikeouts.