© Brad Penner | 2021 Aug 24
Six days ago, Tylor Megill walked into Oracle Park and silenced the Giants’ home run-happy lineup. He allowed one earned run in six innings, and would’ve been the story had LaMonte Wade Jr. not put San Francisco on top in the ninth with his stone-cold pinch-hit homer.
Tuesday in New York, it seemed clear the Giants had picked up a thing or two from Megill’s previous outing.
Not only did San Francisco time up Megill in Citi Field, they absolutely crushed the righty. The Giants hung seven runs on Megill, knocking him out before he could escape the fourth inning. And the first six for MLB’s best home run-hitting team came via the long ball.
Brandon Belt’s first inning bomb hit the Big Apple logo 431 feet into center. Mike Yastrzemski ripped a 451-foot shot — the sixth longest hit ball of the Giants season — in the second. LaMonte Wade Jr. and Belt went back-to-back in the fourth to add to the barrage.
San Francisco sent four into the seats in the first four innings and hit through the order in the fourth to take a commanding 7-0 lead. The game was over before the Mets’ best slugger, Pete Alonso, stepped in for the second time.
San Francisco and Toronto have been neck-and-neck for the league lead in homers all season. The Giants entered Tuesday night with 187, one more than the Blue Jays, and exited with 191. They scored all nine runs of the Bay Bridge Series via four-baggers, something they’ve only done twice since moving to San Francisco (1968 and 2018).
The home run rampage only continued in Citi Field to open up SF’s longest stretch without an off-day of the season. The 8-0 win, with six of the Giants (81-44) runs coming on homers, is quite the exclamation mark to lead it off.
As Kris Bryant got a regularly scheduled off day, and the Giants stacked their lineup with lefties to face Megill. The only right-handed hitters in SF’s order were Buster Posey — who exited in the fourth with right knee discomfort — and former Met Wilmer Flores.
Even SF’s outs were loud. Wade Jr. crushed Megill in his first two at-bats, but both resulted in deep flyouts to center. He connected just a little more on his third plate appearance.
Belt in particular made his mark. Tuesday became his second multi-HR game of the season. His second of the day gave him a career-high 19 on the year, in only 259 plate appearances to that point. Belt hasn’t hit well for average, but the power’s been there throughout the year; since returning from injured list, he has eight homers in 16 games.
Until Brandon Crawford’s two-out RBI single in the fourth, the Giants had scored 15 consecutive runs with home runs. Though they’re not overly reliant on the home runs — The Athletic’s Grant Brisbee pointed out SF has the best record in homerless games, too.
Opposite Megill, Sammy Long tossed arguably the best start of his career before he handed the game to SF’s rock-solid bullpen. The California State, Sacramento product fanned four Mets in 5.1 scoreless innings. He yielded just two singles and a double to Megill, the pitcher.
The rookie kept hitters off-balance with his sweeping curveball and offspeed pitches — so off-balance he made Javier Báez swing through the humid New York air before Long’s pitch even reached the batter’s box dirt.
Javier Báez was juuuuuuut a bit early on the Sammy Long changeup 🦥 pic.twitter.com/5gJh6sy3an
— KNBR (@KNBR) August 25, 2021
Long also collected his first MLB hit, depositing a second-inning single into left field. But he wasn’t responsible for the clobbering. That was on Belt, Yastrzemski, and Wade Jr..
