The San Francisco Giants’ outfield has missed a lot this season, but more than anything, the outfield has missed a power hitter, and it has missed strong defensive play.
On Sunday afternoon at AT&T Park, San Francisco clinched a series victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 6-3 win, in large part due to a player whose presence has clearly been missed this season.
A night after smashing a seventh-inning double to put the Giants on the board, and a 10th inning walkoff single to help San Francisco score its largest comeback victory of the season, Jarrett Parker was at it again.
In his first at-bat of the ballgame, Parker launched his first home run of the season, a two-run shot in the bottom of the second inning to right center field bleachers that are formally known as Barry Bonds territory.
Parker’s two-run home run marked his fourth extra base hit in a span of three games since returning from the 60-day disabled list, and provided the opening salvo for a Giants’ offense that received production from a few unlikely sources on Sunday.
After Parker’s home run lifted the Giants to a 2-1 lead, starter Jeff Samardzija led off the bottom of the third inning with a shot to dead center field that he thought was destined to clear the wall.
Samardzija was so certain that he’d clubbed his second home run of the season that he flipped his bat and began a home run trot. But Samardzija quickly realized he didn’t get all of it, as the ball slammed off the top of the center field wall and turned into a leadoff double for the Giants’ starting pitcher.
Though it took a few extra batters, Samardzija eventually scored, as right fielder Hunter Pence smacked a line drive into left field that brought home the pitcher and center fielder Gorkys Hernandez to put the Giants up 4-1.
The Diamondbacks narrowed the deficit to 4-2 on a Daniel Descalso single in the fourth, but in the fifth inning, Giants’ catcher Nick Hundley dribbled a single up the middle that scored a pair of runs to push his team’s lead back to 6-2.
With first baseman Brandon Belt on the seven-day concussion disabled list, the Giants inserted Hundley into the lineup as the catcher and shifted Buster Posey over to first base. With less stress on his legs, Posey stole two bases in the same game for the first time in his career, including one in the fifth that preceded Hundley’s two-run single.
While Parker set the tone for a nice day for the Giants’ offense, he also accomplished that feat with his glove –or more precisely, his arm– for the second straight day. After jacking a two-run home run in the second, Parker kept the Diamondbacks from shaving the deficit even further in the fourth inning with the best throw a Giants’ outfielder has made all season.
With one out and runners on first and third, Arizona shortstop Ketel Marte hit a throw to medium-deep left field that appeared destined to plate a run from third base on a sacrifice fly. Instead, Parker positioned his body in perfectly, and after corralling the ball on the fly, threw an absolute bullet to Hundley at the plate who swiped a tag on J.D. Martinez to end the inning.
For an outfield that entered the weekend with a Major League low eight outfield assists on the season, Parker’s defensive play against the Diamondbacks this weekend represented a significant improvement over the defensive play San Francisco’s outfielders have put forth for much of the year.
On Saturday evening, a sliding catch near the wall in foul territory and a 7-6-3 relay to home plate helped Parker complete an excellent all-around effort, and in the series finale, his home run and throw to the plate provided the Giants with the early momentum they needed to coast to a victory.
The performance by the Giants’ offense on Sunday allowed Samardzija to pick up a victory in his third consecutive outing. Over 6.1 innings of work, “Shark” allowed just five hits and three earned runs, although one of the runs that was charged to his ledger came in on an RBI groundout against reliever Josh Osich.
After starting the season 4-11 over his first 20 outings, Samardzija has now improved to 7-11, and on Sunday, he owed reliever Albert Suarez some of the credit as Suarez recorded a rare seven-out save to help the Giants clinch the series.
