Just 24 hours ago, it seemed to be so over. Now, a new day, two games later, the Giants might be so back. At the risk of summing up a critical two win stretch as true Gen Z-er, it does feel at least a bit like the Giants are back to their winning ways as they fly west from Atlanta back to San Francisco.
The long, very long, wait is over, Giants fans. Justin Verlander at long last has his first win as a San Francisco Giant. A nasty combination of poor run support, poor bullpen performance, and a fair share of poor performance on his own part, led to a ghastly 0-8 mark almost four months into the season. That all changed Wednesday, as the future hall of famer went five strong shutout innings, allowing just one hit and striking out three. The Giants paired a plethora of fifth and sixth inning runs with his nice start like a red wine with steak, leading to the first W for Verlander.
Verlander, reporters, and certainly teammates and coaches will surely be glad that that storyline can be put to rest.
After dropping the first game of the series for their sixth straight loss, the Giants were at an objective season low point. It’s amazing what a couple of wins can do for morale as the team heads home for three against the Mets and Pirates.
If a Rafael Devers outbreak is coming, Giants fans would welcome it like Andy Dufresne welcomed the rain outside the walls of Shawshank prison. Devers hit a pair of equally impressive home runs on Wednesday, but for vastly different reasons. First, he lofted a homer to right field off a pitch that wasn’t more than eight inches off the ground. Even more impressive, was the fact he golfed it out of Truist Park with one arm.
He blasted a more conventional bomb just an inning later, one that blew the game wide open for the Giants. In the span of about 40 minutes, he doubled his home run total with the Giants.
Here’s how both of Devers’ homers sounded on KNBR, narrated by Joe Ritzo.