Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants sure seem to be enjoying their brief vacation from the Dodgers.
Taking a quick two-game respite in Arizona, sandwiched between a three-game sweep by the Dodgers and a four-game series in Los Angeles that starts Thursday, the Giants licked their lips upon seeing pitching that wasn’t worthy of the World Series.
Kevin Gausman was brief but dominant, Giants veterans came through with a few big and loud hits, and the Giants trampled all over the poor Diamondbacks, 8-0, at Chase Field on Tuesday.
The Giants (29-19) snapped a three-game skid, but also have won six straight against teams that are not their blood rivals. Speaking of which, they are 1.5 games back of the Padres and one game back of the Dodgers, who both won earlier Tuesday, in the division.
Playing competitively against the Dodgers would help the chase for the division, for sure. But beating up on lesser clubs like Arizona — from whom they took eight of 10 games last year — would put them on an avenue that at least would include a wild-card hunt.
BCraw stays hot??
Clears the bases with a first inning, 3-run double pic.twitter.com/3eavQrftno
— KNBR (@KNBR) May 26, 2021
They wasted no time establishing their bona fides. They loaded the bases against Corbin Martin in the first and worked the young righty like they wanted to wear down Trevor Bauer, Walker Buehler and Julio Urias. On Martin’s 30th pitch of the first inning and pitch nine of the at-bat, Brandon Crawford got a four-seamer that ran down the middle and crushed it for a bases-clearing double and put the Giants ahead to stay.
Crawford (2-for-5) is 10-for-27 (.370) with runners in scoring position this year and consistently rises up when the Giants need him. His 32 RBIs lead the team by 11, with Evan Longoria and Brandon Belt at 21.
Also on the redemption tour is Longoria, who drilled a three-run bomb to center in the third that harkened back to his Tampa days. Its estimated distance was 444 feet, his longest since 2016 and deepest as a Giant. Gabe Kapler gave him a couple days off, and Longoria responded.
That…was hit far ?
— KNBR (@KNBR) May 26, 2021
He wasn’t done, with a free and easy swing in the seventh that just looked like him putting his bat on the ball, but it was smacked at 104.5 mph into left center for an RBI double. He finished the day 3-for-4 with a walk and four RBIs and appears to have woken after he slumbered for much of May. He still does the bulk of his damage against southpaws, so his teeing off on a few Arizona righties was welcomed news.
The Giants’ calling card has become new life from their veterans and new looks from their pitching fliers, who either struggled elsewhere or struggled with injury and then have found themselves with Kapler’s crew. Gausman has become a face of the pitching class, and he didn’t even need his best command to throw five shutout innings and lower his ERA to a microscopic 1.53. Among starters, he’s fourth best in baseball behind only Jacob deGrom, Brandon Woodruff and Lance Lynn.
He struggled to locate his splitter at times and could not consistently hit the top of the zone with his four-seamer. And yet, his stuff was still filthy enough to induce 21 swings and misses, his most since May 22, 2018, when he was with the Orioles.
He, like Crawford, is best when the pressure is on. He worked through traffic in each of his five frames and a runner reached scoring position in four of them. Yet, with runners on second or third, the Diamondbacks went 0-for-8 with six strikeouts against Gausman, against whom opponents now are hitting 1-for-37 with 20 strikeouts with runners in scoring position. Three Diamondbacks struck out on the splitter in the big spot, three with the four-seamer, and there are times when there’s wonder why Gausman throws a third pitch.
A night of veterans’ joy was dealt a blow in the ninth, when Belt swung, grimaced and left the game. The first baseman has been dealing with a side issue that has volleyed him in and out of the lineup for nearly two weeks, but the club has been trying to avoid an injured list stint. He went 0-for-3 with a walk, had a poor throw to second and consistently has looked overmatched by fastballs the past few days. He might need a break.
The Giants, too, could have used a break from the Dodgers. They’re maximizing it.