Chris Mezzavilla
A Giants offense that faced an opposing righty starter without Tommy La Stella, Mike Yastrzemski, Brandon Belt and Evan Longoria could use offense wherever it could get it.
A guy who had been 0-for-40 since Aug. 6, 2019? Sure!
Anthony DeSclafani broke through by connecting for his first hit in nearly two years — an opposite-field double driven over Kris Bryant’s head that knocked in a run — in the Giants’ 7-2 win over the Cubs on Thursday at Oracle Park.
DeSclafani knew it had been a while, even if he did not grasp the degree of “while.”
“0-for-40, is that what it was?” the Giants’ starter said over Zoom. “I wasn’t trying to count.”
He can begin counting again after the double off Zach Davies, which was no bloop, cracked off the bat at 99.2 mph. He got a fifth-pitch sinker from Davies, who does not run up radar guns, and it ran right over the plate.
DeSclafani is smart enough to not bust it out of the box on ground balls, and it would be understandable if onlookers deemed him slow. And yet, he blazed his way to second and slid in safely, popping up with a fist pump and looking over at a Giants dugout that had exploded. Yes, it was a double for a pitcher who is not much of a hitter; yes, it was entertaining theater. But it also tied the game at 2-2 in the fourth inning.
DeSclafani doubles off the wall to tie it up in the 4th
— KNBR (@KNBR) June 4, 2021
DeSclafani, though, is an athlete — like his shortstop behind him, who made a few flashy plays.
“He’s a big strong dude and he put the barrel on it, so I’m not surprised that he got it off the wall,” Brandon Crawford said after he homered and got on base three times in four plate appearances. “But that was a huge hit in that situation to tie the game.”
Gabe Kapler said DeSclafani was “pretty fired up” about his first hit as a Giant, and DeSclafani was excited to see it finally appear in the box score. He’s had made solid contact this season, but not one ball had fallen.
He was also pleased the double’s context: It helped make him and the Giants a winner.
After a very poor and a middling effort against the Dodgers in his past two starts, he bounced back with six strong innings in which he allowed two runs, both on a tee shot from Joc Pederson in the third.
He rebounded and struck out Pederson, who has hurt him plenty in his career, in a 10-pitch battle in the sixth.
“I was just trying to make him hit my pitch — just trying not to get beat with a fastball,” said DeSclafani, who threw three changeups, a sinker and a slider in his first five pitches of the at-bat to Pederson, then five straight sliders. “If I was going to get beat that at-bat, it was not going to be with a heater.”
Wilmer Flores, whose May hamstring strain cost him 10 days on the injured list, exited after five innings with a tight hamstring.
“[Flores] says it’s not nearly as bad as it was when went on the IL,” Kapler said of Flores, who had to extend himself on a triple. “But there was a lot of caution there.”
Kapler did not yet know who would start Friday’s game, which would have been Logan Webb had the righty not hit the IL on Thursday with a shoulder strain.