Giants win again to stay atop NL West.
The Padres and Dodgers dominated offseason headlines and played the most compelling head-to-head matchups between any clubs in April, but in the early days of May, the Giants are still in first place in the National League West.
It’s far too early to talk about the standings, but
with a 7-1 win on Sunday in San Diego, the Giants are now 3-3 against the Padres this season and have proven they aren’t overmatched against one of the deepest rosters in the majors.
“I think there’s a mutual respect for the talent,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “I certainly think their team is incredibly talented, I think they’re a well-coached team and a well-prepared team, and I think the respect is returned and I appreciate that.”
After dropping the first two games of a three-game set at Petco Park, the Giants improved to 17-11 behind a strong performance from starter Kevin Gausman and an offense that finally broke out with help from an early three-run home run hit by Mike Tauchman.
“If you can stay away from those sweeps, especially against good teams, I think it can kill some of their momentum against you,” Gausman said. “It’s definitely good to get one out of here, and I thought we played some good baseball the past couple of days.”
With Mike Yastrzemski
(left oblique soreness) and Donovan Solano (moderate right calf strain) on the 10-day injured list, the Giants were without two of their best hitters, but Tauchman provided power in Yastrzemski’s place while infielder Tommy La Stella had a pair of hits including a RBI triple starting at second base, where Solano usually shares time with him.
“I hadn’t played two games in a row since like August of last year including spring training and then the more pitches you see, the more comfortable you can get in the batter’s box,” said Tauchman, who arrived in San Francisco this week after being traded from the Yankees.
The Giants felt La Stella was on the verge of breaking out of an extended slump, but he exited Sunday’s game in the fifth inning with a left hamstring strain after scoring on a RBI groundout from Wilmer Flores.
“(La Stella) just battles every AB is a quality AB and he sees so many pitches every at-bat,” Gausman said. “It would definitely be a blow (to lose him to the injured list), but those types of things happen and the next guy has to slot in and do his job.”
A Giants offense that failed to score more than three runs in any of their first five games at Petco Park this season put three runs on the scoreboard with one swing in the third inning on Sunday. Tauchman hadn’t homered since the 2019 season, but after being robbed of extra bases with a long flyball to right center field in the first inning by Jurickson Profar, Tauchman hit a 2-2 cutter to a part of the ballpark where Profar couldn’t reach it to give the Giants a 3-1 lead.
“When you watch him take batting practice you see the thunder,” Kapler said of Tauchman. “You see him get the ball in the air to the pull side. It’s not Alex Dickerson where balls are no-doubters all over the field, but he has plenty of power, he showed the power in ‘19 and through watching video, he showed the power in spring training.”
Gausman, who gave up a first inning home run to Fernando Tatis Jr., scored more runs than he allowed Sunday as the Giants right-hander was involved in each of the team’s rallies. In the third inning against Padres righty Joe Musgrove, Gausman laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance catcher Curt Casali to second and reached base after Musgrove bobbled the ball.
The righty then scored on Tauchman’s home run into the right field bleachers before he was able to help himself out once more. In the fifth inning, Gausman led off against Musgrove with a single down the left field line for his third hit in 66 career at-bats before he raced all the way around the bases to score on La Stella’s triple.
The Giants extended Gausman a one-year, $18.9 million qualifying offer last offseason with the belief his best days as a starter were still ahead of him and the 30-year-old righthander has given the club’s top decision-makers every indication they were correct.
In six starts this year, Gausman has completed at least six innings in each outing and struck out 40 hitters while posting a 2.04 ERA. He’s the only Giants starter who hasn’t had the chance to pad his numbers against a lowly Rockies team, either, as Gausman has missed Colorado twice already while facing San Diego in each of the Giants’ first two series against the Padres.
After logging a combined 13 innings and allowing just two earned runs against the Padres in two starts this year, Gausman’s next outing is also slated to take place against San Diego when the Giants host the NL West foe at Oracle Park next weekend.