John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports
New Jersey’s own Anthony DeSclafani likes to warm up to Frank Sinatra, the light baritone voice soothing his mind rather than more traditional fire-up music.
If Oracle Park’s speakers were turned over to the Giants righty for his start Monday, “The Best is Yet to Come” would have been the logical choice.
After the Giants’ offense carried the club to relevance in 2020 and beefed up in the offseason, only to limp rather than sprint out of the gates this season, those gates became opened floodgates in a thrashing of the poor Rockies, 12-0, in front of 4,129 chilly fans. In an apparent tribute to now former general manager Jeff Bridich, the Rockies, too, stepped aside in embarrassment.
Every one of the Giants’ 22 games played this year had been decided by four or fewer runs, forcing Gabe Kapler to rely heavily (and a bit controversially) on Jake McGee and Tyler Rogers, forcing fans and club to sweat out each game, forcing regulars to play a lot of innings early, many of whom have been dealing with aches and pains of varying degrees of seriousness. And so the Giants (15-8), in grabbing their seventh win in nine games as they closed in on the first-place Dodgers, enjoyed every ounce of the first two innings.
Eighteen batters in orange and black went up to the plate, the first time they sent at least nine to the plate in consecutive innings since a Wrigley Field game on April 11, 2013. It included nine runs on eight hits with four walks. There was not a home run early but a relentless barrage of hits sprayed all over Oracle Park. The rout was on, and a Giants offense that had been sleeping jolted awake.
Mauricio Dubon had two RBIs in his first 19 games this year. He had four RBIs, including a three-run double, in four innings.
Evan Longoria, in his first start since Thursday because of a tight hamstring, apparently wanted to ensure he did not have to remain in the game long. Kapler had signaled he did not think the third baseman would finish the game, and after a single and double and three RBIs in the first two innings, he was replaced by Jason Vosler.
Both of Longoria’s hits came off lefty Austin Gomber, who was charged with nine runs in 1 2/3 innings. His double to left registered as 113.2 mph off the bat, the hardest-hit ball by a Giants player this year. He is now 10-for-18 with two doubles, four home runs and eight walks against southpaws, mind-boggling numbers in a mind-boggling game.
After 2020 saw the offensive comebacks of Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford, 2021 is beginning about the comeback of Buster Posey, who is making an early bid for Comeback Player of the Year. He finished with four hits for the first time since Aug. 10, 2018, including a sixth-inning blast to dead center field for his fifth of the year.
"Adioooos pelota!!!" ???
Buster Bomb pushes the lead over the Rockies to 12 ? pic.twitter.com/UfOBm7LKto
— KNBR (@KNBR) April 27, 2021
He had five home runs in the entire 2018 season, in which he played 105 games. His five dingers in April is the most he has had in a month since May 2017, when he had six. He had not swatted a home run at Oracle Park since Sept. 24, 2019, and on the other side of a pandemic, on the other side of outfield walls that have crawled in, seemingly past his hip surgery, he dropped the bat and slowly trotted around the bases as if he knew it was gone all along.
Oh, and he caught a shutout for the first time this year, trying to steal some headlines from zeroes-master Curt Casali.
DeSclafani was far better than he needed to be in sparing the entire Giants bullpen, which welcomed the rest. He pitched his second career shutout, his other coming Aug. 27, 2016, when he was a young, upstart Reds starter.
He allowed just three hits and a walk while striking out nine and needed just 100 pitches to put the Rockies to bed.
Of course, he could have afforded to be more human, considering the way the Giants’ batted balls were Flying to the Moon.