The Giants held a makeshift Home Run Derby on the Petco Park field during batting practice before Saturday’s tilt against the Padres.
Not Joc Pederson, the All-Star starter and potential real Derby participant, not Brandon Belt, not Darin Ruf, but Austin Slater won the game.
There’s a common myth that playing Home Run Derby can ruin swings. But the Giants haven’t had much to ruin recently — they’d averaged 2.9 runs and have smacked just four homers in nine July games, eight of which were losses.
The Derby didn’t immediately pay off, as Yu Darvish matched Carlos Rodón through seven innings. But Darvish exited earlier, Rodón tossed his first complete game since his no-hitter last April, and Wilmer Flores blasted a two-run shot to left field to give the Giants a lead.
With Flores’ blast and a masterpiece from Rodón (9 IP, 3H, 1R, 2BB, 12K), the Giants (42-41) collected their second win of July. Rodón dealt just the 16th complete game of the season in MLB. For a team whose energy has been questioned recently, Saturday showed what good mojo can look like.
Both Rodón and Darvish got through five innings of one-run ball in 68 pitches. Their level of play looked adjacent to that of Logan Webb’s and Joe Musgrove’s from earlier this series.
Darvish’s gem was an atonement for his earlier dud against the Giants, when he lasted just 1.2 innings — the shortest start of his career. That came on April 12, when the Giants had no need for vibe-injecting pregame fun.
Darvish finished his seventh inning by bringing Austin Wynns to a knee with a slider in the dirt. It was his sixth strikeout and 101st pitch. The only time the Giants threatened Darvish was in the second inning when they loaded the bases with no outs, but SF only came away with one run.
Rodón was even more dominant. Whereas Darvish deployed a six-pitch arsenal, Rodón featured his typical fastball-slider combination. The Padres couldn’t handle either.
The Giants’ lefty retired 22 straight Padres. He needed 10 or fewer pitches to get through the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Everyone in Petco Park knew the heater was coming in upstairs and the slider in the basement. It didn’t matter.
While seemingly no Giants have been able to get Manny Machado out, Rodón struck him out thrice. As he usually does, Rodón picked up steam as the game progressed. His 98-mph fastball sat down Brent Rooker.
Rodón outlasting Darvish proved monumental. When the Giants got to San Diego’s bullpen in the eighth, they immediately capitalized.
Flores turned on a Luis García slider and sent it into the left field bleacher. His go-ahead homer skied at a 38-degree launch angle. With it, Flores joined Joc Pederson as the only Giants with at least 10 homers in 2022.
Earlier, Flores made a spectacular play ranging to his right and throwing off his back foot to continue Rodón’s unhittable streak. Rodón clapped his gloves and pointed at the second baseman with a grin after the out. Flores earned even more of an attaboy with his eighth-inning blast.
Pitching with a lead, Rodón retired the side in the eighth and earned his 10th strikeout with a nasty slider. He earned his fourth double-digit strikeout game of the season and 16th of his career. He registered a season-high 27 whiffs.
After Rodón re-emerged from the dugout for the ninth inning at 99 pitches, he only continued to shove. His 109th pitch walked Luke Voigt and brought up Jorge Alfaro as the tying run. But Alfaro, who has three walk-off hits this season, was no match. Rodón leapt off the mound after his 112th offering struck out Alfaro and ended the game.
Flores gave the Giants an edge, and Rodón ensured it would stick.
