The Oracle Park crowd stood up for Pavin Smith’s at-bat. How many of the over 20,000 fans knew history was on the line, who knows? When rookie Camilo Doval struck out Smith with an 88 mph slider, they clapped and slapped hands.
With the strikeout, the 2021 Giants have now won more games than any preceding team since the franchise moved to San Francisco.
Doval earned his second career save in as many nights. Buster Posey reached base on all four plate appearances, Kris Bryant drove in the difference-making run with a seventh-inning sacrifice fly, and Alex Wood dealt six scoreless innings — something he hadn’t done since 2018 — in the 1-0 win over the Diamondbacks.
Despite the unparalleled winning, the Giants (104-54) are still trying to hold off the Dodgers, who have won the NL West each of the past eight seasons. At the time of publication, the dodgers trailed the Padres 6-5 in the top of the seventh.
With four games left, the Giants are two wins shy of 106, the overall franchise record. But even that could result in a Game 163 tiebreaker, with Los Angeles surging in SF’s wake.
The historic year comes after four consecutive losing seasons. No team has ever won more than 104 games the season after going below .500. The 1946 Boston Red Sox are the only team to reach 104 directly after a losing season, and their best players Ted Williams and Johnny Pesky returned from serving in World War II.
The 1992 Giants went 72-90. Then they signed Barry Bonds and immediately became a 103-win team in 1993.
But this 2021 club doesn’t have a war or a Barry Bonds to explain the inexplicable turnaround. They signed a bunch of quality arms, got Buster Posey back after a year off, and are enjoying career seasons from veterans and unproven contributors alike.
Against the Diamondbacks, one of those veteran free agent acquisitions, Alex Wood shut out Arizona in his third start back from COVID-19. He struck out six in six scoreless, walk-less innings. Whenever Arizona threatened, Wood either induced a double play or pitched around the bottom of Arizona’s order to get to Merrill Kelly, the starter opposite him whom he struck out twice.
Wood pitched three innings in his first start back after his bout with COVID. His next turn, he went four. In total since rejoining the Giants, Wood has pitched 13 innings, allowing two earned runs and walking none while striking out 17. Wednesday’s performance was his sharpest since his seven-inning, one-run win over St. Louis on July 7.
He hadn’t pitched at least six scoreless innings since Aug. 28, 2018, when he dealt seven scoreless with five strikeouts and two walks for the Dodgers.
But the Giants didn’t provide Wood with any run support during his six innings. Evan Longoria stranded two baserunners in the first with an inning-ending groundout. LaMonte Wade Jr. left two runners in scoring position in the second. Mike Yastrzemski struck out looking with the bases loaded in the third.
In total, the Giants left 11 on base, and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. One of those six, though, was a Steven Duggar home run in the bottom of the eighth that left fielder Daulton Varsho robbed.
With barrels hard to come by, SF turned to small ball to generate an edge. In the seventh, Tommy La Stella pinch hit for the pitcher spot, slashing a single into shallow right field. Then manager Gabe Kapler pinch ran Steven Duggar for him. Duggar stole second, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt, then scored easily on a sacrifice fly to shallow right field. The speedy outfielder might be the only Giant who could score without hesitation on a ball flipped just 276 feet from home plate.
The lone run was only enough because of Wood’s start, as well as strong appearances from Dominic Leone and Jarlin García before the electrifying Doval (two strikeouts).
Wood’s next turn in the rotation would be Oct. 4 — a potential Game 163 tiebreaker game against the Dodgers. But if the Giants keep winning, that won’t be necessary.
