D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports
Brandon Crawford can celebrate. Perhaps Buster Posey can exhale.
Two of the longest-tenured Giants, whose offensive declines have been sharp, showed signs of life Friday, finishing the first half of the season on a high and, in Crawford’s case, historical note.
The shortstop racked up three hits, including two doubles, the last of which represented his 1,000th as a Giant. He joins Willie McCovey, Barry Bonds, Will Clark and J.T. Snow as the only lefties to hit that mark in franchise’s San Francisco history, according to Elias.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Crawford said after the Giants’ 6-3 win over the Diamondbacks at Oracle Park, pushing their midpoint record to 35-46. “… It’s hard to put into words to be on a list like that. Especially growing up a Giants fan and kind of appreciating those names. That’s pretty cool.”
It was much-needed from Crawford, whose batting average was at .202 as recently as June 14. It’s up to .226 now, two solid weeks injecting life into his own swing and the Giants.
The credit for his resurgence depends on how superstitious you are.
“Started wearing my pants up,” Crawford joked — mostly — about his hiked-up pants that expose the long socks. “… I gotta try something new. I think Tyler Austin had his pants up and he had a double and a homer, so I’m like, I’m gonna try it.”
It’s worked. Or maybe it was something a little more tangible.
“I started doing a drill that I used to do and for some reason I just got away from it,” said the 32-year-old, who was 3-for-4 with a run scored. “Just working on my top hand and bottom hand individually and just kind of putting that together. It’s gotten my direction to go where I want it to go, back up the middle. Been getting a lot of hits to the opposite side recently.”
As has Posey, who slashed two singles and a double to right. The Giants leader had been lost at the plate recently, 2-of-28 in eight games entering Friday.
“It wasn’t a conscious effort to hit the ball the other way,” Posey said. “Just did some work with [assistant hitting coach] Rick Schu before, felt like I was just getting my lower half into better position. Just happened to go that way.”
His own 3-for-4 night with two RBIs hiked the batting average to .241. He spoke positively of the starting pitchers who’ve emerged for the Giants, Shaun Anderson and Tyler Beede in particular, explaining why the team’s second half can be better than its first.
Maybe his own comeback can be a reason, too.
“For the most part of this year, I haven’t felt great obviously,” Posey said. “… Hopefully we can build off of this.”