Rodón takes down the Padres
Pitcher punctuates case for spot on All-Star team
SAN DIEGO >> Stuck in a skid that has jeopardized their season, the Giants at times over the past few weeks have been hard to watch. All year, though, Carlos Rodón's starts have made for can't-miss baseball.
In a 3-1 win Saturday against the San Diego Padres, Rodón turned in possibly his best performance yet, retiring 22 of the final 23 hitters he faced on his way to a complete game.
Wilmer Flores broke a 1-1 tie in the eighth with a two-run homer to left that gave Rodón all the padding he needed to secure the Giants' first win in three games this series and only their second in the past 10 games.
The Giants risked falling below .500 for the first time since the very early days of last season, but they will live at least another two days without a losing record.
“Last time (Rodón) said we needed to play with more fire. It's great when the guy who says that comes out and provides the fire,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “He just started to dominate.”
Rodón was countered by an equal in San Diego's Yu Darvish, providing the second pitchers' duel in three games this series, after Logan Webb and Joe Musgrove went pitch-for-pitch Thursday night.
On Saturday, that meant the team that reached the other's bullpen first had the upper hand.
And Flores proved that hypothesis to be true, launching a tiebreaking two-run shot off San Diego reliever Luis Garcia over the left-field wall. In a reprise of the Giants' winning strategy from last year, Flores' blast followed a base on balls to Joc Pederson.
In his first game back from a 15-game stint on the injured list, Luis González helped the Giants
score their only run off Darvish, drawing a walk in the second inning that put Brandon Belt in position to score on a sac fly from Brandon Crawford. He also ripped a double down the right-field line to lead off the fourth but was left stranded on third base.
A day after Pederson was named an All-Star starter, Rodón cemented his case to join him next week in Los Angeles.
In his first complete game since tossing a no-hitter last season, Rodón retired 21 straight batters until issuing a two-out walk to Luke Voit in the ninth.
He struck out 12 for his fourth double-digit strikeout game this season. In an especially filthy and efficient display, he made it through nine innings — allowing one run on three hits — on 111 pitches, while inducing whiffs on 24 of those offerings, a season-high.
The Padres didn't record a hit after the second inning, when they plated their lone run on a hopper that Belt mishandled at first base after Rodón loaded the bases.
Rodón is scheduled to make one more start before the All-Star break — for now that lines up to come Thursday against Milwaukee — but this is the résumé he'll be judged on when the remaining All-Stars will be announced Sunday.
Here is where he ranks in a few select categories among NL starting pitchers: ERA: 2.70 (8th); K/9: 11.09 (3rd); and swings & misses: 203 (3rd).
• Belt left the game in the eighth inning with an apparent leg injury, after legging out an infield single. He was replaced by Thairo Estrada. Belt has dealt with knee issues this season.
• Amid a stretch of bad baseball that entering Saturday left them at .500, the Giants made their most significant roster tweak of the season with the hope of injecting some life into the club.
Struggling reliever Jake McGee, the team leader in saves last season, was designated for assignment before their third of four games against the Padres, while outfielder González was activated from the injured list after appearing in only three rehab games.
McGee, 35, had a 7.17 ERA in 21 appearances this season. After starting the season with a concerning drop in velocity, he regained it following a stint on the injured list but was still struggling to miss bats.
“It's not for a lack of work or effort or preparation or trying, but we've just seen a ton of contact and some hard contact at that,” Kapler said. “Clearly the velocity has come back and been fairly consistent over his most recent outings . ... I don't think we were able to find the best location with his fastball . ... Beyond that, what we saw last year and what the entire league saw in 2020 was a lot of whiff. A lot of empty swings. Over the course of the last, well, since he's been back off the IL, while the velocity's been back, we haven't seen that.”
The Giants gave McGee a one-year, $2.5 million contract for this season after he played an important role in the majors' best bullpen by ERA last season. He appeared in 62 games with a 2.72 ERA and recorded 31 saves.
He'll now go on waivers, where it's likely a team will claim him or trade for him to bet on his track record while paying him the major-league minimum. San Francisco will be on the hook for the remainder of his salary for this season.
“This organization feels grateful for the work that Jake did for us last year,” Kapler said. “One of the messages that (pitching coach Andrew Bailey) and I sent was thank you for how you contributed and how you contributed to the culture around here. He's been a great teammate. It's not going to surprise any of us to see him go on to future success. Nothing but respect for Jake McGee.”
McGee, however, had appeared in only two games since June 24 and had been passed over for late-inning situations in favor of other lefties such as Sam Long and Jarlín Garcia.
• In additional roster moves, right-handed reliever Zack Littell was placed on the 15-day injured list with a left oblique strain and righthander Yunior Marte was recalled from Triple-A.