© Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants’ hit parade is the party that refuses to end. Since June 30, the Giants seem to have forgotten that they are, you know, the Giants; the team that can’t hit very well. But in a four-game span capped off by Wednesday night’s series sweep of the San Diego Padres in a 7-5 win, the Giants continued the reinvigoration of a dead season in an almost supernaturally odd comeback.
Balls dropped in places they should not have, at times they should not have, and players stepped up to cash in those oddities for runs. It was a game which, in the first inning, and the first inning alone, had the appearance of a pitchers’ duel. Shaun Anderson and the Padres’ Craig Quantril looked dominant in their first innings, and yet both were shepherded to their respective dugouts before either could secure more than one out in the fifth inning.
Anderson was tagged for two runs, then one run, then a Fernando Tatis Jr. solo home run in the second-through-fourth innings, respectively, while Quantril was bombarded by a back-to-back salute in the form of a two-run Evan Longoria home run, and solo home run by Alex Dickerson (check out those home runs here). He was probably pulled too early, but was only ever on the hook for a loss for a half-inning.
If you take all that in, you can skip right to the bottom of the sixth inning, when this game got all sorts of bizarre. Here’s how it started (don’t be afraid to watch a couple hundred times, although it won’t make any more sense than the first dozen times):
I can't stop watching this everyone-thought-time-was-called-but-time-was-not-called hit by pitch pic.twitter.com/fvMPKabbo5
— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) July 4, 2019
Kevin Pillar thought he called time. So did Luis Perdomo. The only person who didn’t think time was called was home plate umpire Jeff Nelson. All of a sudden, Pillar was standing on first base as the ball skipped into his foot from a pitch that we can estimate probably went about 55 mph (no velocity was clocked). Then Joe Panik flew out. OK, back to normal, right? The Giants surely ended the inning with the next batter and that weird play lived on only in some eagle-eyed fans memories, right?
No. Donovan Solano (5-for-16 this series with 3 RBI) hit a one-run double and the game was suddenly tied at 4. Then, Pablo Sandoval, the pinch-hitting king stepped up. Now the rally’s on, right? Yes, but not in a way anyone on this planet would have predicted. Sandoval didn’t rip a ball down the line to double Solano home. He popped the ball up. No, really, he popped it up. Can of corn, straight on to center field. Only, Wil Myers could not see the ball.
Wil Myers’ reaction as the ball gets lost in the lights and the #SFGiants take the lead: “Oh my god.” pic.twitter.com/7hnNlztLL1
— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) July 4, 2019
If you read his lips, his reaction is surely identical to everyone else watching this game: “Oh my god,” he mouthed.
Sandoval multiplied the weirdness of Pillar’s hit-by-pitch to spur the unlikeliest of rallies, as a red-hot Brandon Belt (3-for-4, 1 BB, 1 RBI on Wednesday) followed Sandoval with a gap RBI double (which exploited right fielder Franmil Reyes’ not-so-blinding speed), and a pinch-hitting Austin Slater (5-9, 4 RBIs, 1 HR in this series) topped off the rally with an RBI single to deep right, leaving the line at 7-4.
A solo home run from Hunter Renfroe, who has a whopping 25 on the season, and exemplifies everything gone right (or wrong, depending on your perspective) with baseball’s home run surge, cut the score to 7-5, but was ultimately meaningless in the outcome as Tony Watson recovered to shut down the Padres in the rest of the eighth inning and All-Star closer Will Smith secured his 22nd save on his 22nd attempt this season in the ninth. It ties Smith for the 5th-highest save number in baseball, and keeps him as the only closer to have a 100 percent save percentage.
With Wednesday’s win, here’s what the past four games have looked like for the Giants. An important note: Brandon Crawford has not started in any of these games:
Sunday: Giants win 10-4 over Arizona Diamondbacks, 13 hits, Pillar drives in 5 runs
Monday: 13-2 win over Padres, 14 hits, Slater homers, 2 RBI, Pillar homers, 3 RBI, Longoria homers, has 2 RBI, Solano 2-for-6
Tuesday: 10-4 win over Padres, 17 hits, Longoria homers twice, 5 RBI, Slater 2 RBI, Pillar 4-for-5, 1 RBI, Solano 3-for-6, 1 RBI
Wednesday: 7-5 win over Padres, 11 hits, Longoria homers again, has 2 RBI, Belt 3-for-4 with 1 RBI, Slater 1-for-1 with 1 RBI, Dickerson hits solo homer, Solano 1-for-3 with rally-starting RBI