© Darren Yamashita | 2021 Aug 21
OAKLAND — The long ball has been the San Francisco Giants’ friend all year, but possibly never as much as it was on Saturday.
With two cracks of the bat in the seventh inning, the Giants turned what looked like a helpless loss into a nailbiter. And with another in the top of the ninth, they may have saved their NL West division lead — at least for now.
Oakland closer Lou Trivino entered the game in the top of the ninth with a 5-4 lead. He hadn’t blown a save since May 31.
But after striking out Buster Posey, Trivino walked Brandon Belt to put the tying run on first. Giants manager Gabe Kapler pinch hit LaMonte Wade Jr. for Darin Ruf to get a lefty in the box against Trivino. Wade Jr. took Trivino deep down the right field line for SF’s fourth bomb of the afternoon and its first lead after trailing for three hours and 19 minutes.
Baseball’s best pinch hitting team, and the second-best home run-hitting team, did it again.
The Giants didn’t make it easy on themselves. They had to overcome several mental mistakes to complete their three-run comeback. But home runs are a great equalizer, and they saved San Francisco (79-44) from what could’ve been a back-breaking third consecutive loss.
Though manager Gabe Kapler said pregame that this game didn’t feel different or bigger than any other, San Francisco showed the necessary urgency to climb all the way back and steal the second game of the Bay Bridge Series, 6-5.
San Francisco was trekking sluggishly uphill from the start. After the top of the order went 1-2-3 against Sean Manaea, third baseman Wilmer Flores tugged a throw down the first baseline. His error allowed A’s leadoff man Mark Canha to turn a groundout into a safe place on third base.
One pitch later, Starling Marte drilled a double into left-center to score Canha and continue his explosive play. He also led the front end of a double steal in the first inning, which set up Seth Brown’s two-RBI single. Catcher Curt Casali’s throw to third wasn’t even close, and his next throw down to second — this time to try to catch Brown’s theft — spilled into center field.
But the Giants got two runs back moments later when Kris Bryant blasted his 22nd home run of the year over Mark Canha’s outstretched glove in left. His fourth homer in a Giants uniform also scored Darin Ruf.
Bryant had been swinging a strong bat, but his barrels have found gloves recently. When asked about Bryant before Saturday’s game, Kapler said there’s not much to say to the former MVP and Rookie of the Year, especially because he’s still getting to know Bryant personally.
“I’ve stopped short of the ‘stay right there’ commentary,” Kapler said. “Just don’t know Kris well enough to know if those sort of things will motivate him. But really, if you can put a bug in somebody’s ears, don’t change a damn thing. Stay with your focus, stay with your approach at the plate. It’s the same way I feel when a hitter takes two balls off the plate that get called strikes and the at-bat ends poorly. It’s just like, don’t change, because over the course of time you’re going to walk a lot and you’re going to get pitches because you’re ahead in counts.”
Still, the Giants also hardly cleaned up the mental mistakes from the first inning. In the fourth, with men on second and third, Gausman (3.2 IP, 2 ER, 6H, 5K) walked Canha on a low 3-2 pitch to load the bases. He then put another one in the dirt that Curt Casali couldn’t handle, allowing Sean Murphy to score from third.
Later, after Darin Ruf and Brandon Belt’s back-to-back bombs turned what would’ve been a hopeless defeat into a nailbiter, the Giants blew another scoring opportunity. With no outs and runners on first and second in the top of the eighth, Casali tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt. He instead popped it up back to A’s reliever Jake Diekman.
Not how Kapler drew it up.
Then, to add to the implosion, San Francisco dialed up a double steal, which Diekman sniffed out. Brandon Crawford could only get a few steps down the baseline before Diekman stepped off the rubber and picked him off.
Wade Jr.’s ninth-inning smash made none of that matter.
In the end, it was just one of 162, and one of SF’s now 77 wins in 2021. But division and wild card races can also come down to one of 162, and this one could make a difference.