Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
PHILADELPHIA — It was as if all of the frustrations of a recent lull at the plate, of a team showing signs of slipping, of a group that watched much of its bullpen walk out the door earlier in the day, were released with four batters.
The Giants could not get into another extra-inning marathon without the traded Sam Dyson, Mark Melancon, Drew Pomeranz and Ray Black. They needed Jeff Samardzija to do what he does – eat innings like others eat breakfast – and the bats to, at long last, wake up.
Samardzija was on his game. And in the sixth, four Giants trotted to the plate, and three hit home runs to take a game back from the Phillies, winning 5-1 in front of 31,313 fans at breezy Citizens Bank Park on Wednesday. The rubber game will come Thursday afternoon before the Giants visit Coors Field on Friday.
Farhan Zaidi showed faith in the team earlier in the day, holding onto Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith. For one game, the team thanked him by moving two games back of the second NL wild card.
For five innings, it looked as if the Giants offense was still processing the transactions, threatening just once — unsuccessfully, in the third — against Vince Velasquez, who entered with a 4.46 ERA. A team that scored 13 runs in its previous five games needed a jump-start.
Then the sixth inning came, and after an afternoon that had more firecrackers than fireworks, the Giants (55-53) launched the heavy-duty stuff.
First it was Buster Posey, whose 380-foot two-run shot knocked Velasquez out of the game. Then it was Pablo Sandoval, who’s been swinging better from the right side, who slugged his second homer in a week from that side of the plate, this one off lefty Adam Morgan.
After Brandon Crawford’s measly single, Kevin Pillar made it three homers in four at-bats, the Giants turning a 0-0 game into a 5-0 exhale.
It was more than enough for Samardzija, who was sterling on a day he needed to be. With a bullpen absent many weapons, the Giants needed length, and he gave six innings. With a team that had lost three of five, it needed effectiveness, and he didn’t allow a run while surrendering just three hits.
In Samardzija’s past two starts, he’s given up one run in 12 innings. There was a time a mini run like this would begin whispers of whether the Giants could flip him. Not anymore.
Without Dyson, the Giants unveiled their new late-game look, Tony Watson taking the baton from Samardzija and giving it to Reyes Moronta, who handed off to Smith. It worked, with only Watson allowing a run, and now they will hope Zaidi’s moves will perform just as well.
“We got who we got,” Smith said before the game. “Let’s do this thing.”
The Giants — the ones who, for the most part, will remain Giants — have begun doing this thing.
