Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
There was no Mike Yastrzemski (thumb), Brandon Belt (oblique) or Tommy La Stella (hamstring). There was no Logan Webb (shoulder), either, all on a lengthy injured list that seems to grow by the inning.
And yet, without maybe their top three lefty hitters, the Giants were all right. Even with only a de facto starting pitcher, the Giants found relief.
Four other lefty hitters — Steven Duggar, Alex Dickerson, Jason Vosler and LaMonte Wade Jr. — provided home runs and the Giants scraped by using six pitchers on a chilly Friday night on which the ball flew out anyway, the Giants rolling to an 8-5 win over the Cubs at Oracle Park in front of 11,524.
Their eighth win in 10 games brings the majors-best Giants (36-21) a season-high 15 games over .500, and they held off the Padres (who would be a game back if they held on Friday night) and Dodgers (1.5 back).
The NL West is fairly ridiculous, and yet these Cubs just traveled west after sweeping the Padres in Chicago. The Giants have taken the first two games of the series from Chicago and have sent a message throughout the league that this two-month-plus surge is for real.
The biggest catalyst behind a long-shot hope evolving into a legitimate contender is the play of the Other Guys, backups of backups of backups. Virtually all 26 players on the active roster can be used on a night; virtually any bench bat is a threat.
Vosler’s fourth-inning home run off righty Keegan Thompson represented his first pinch-hit shot of his career and the seventh for the 2021 Giants, edging past Pablo Sandoval’s Braves for first in the majors. Vosler, who had been a 2014 draft pick of the Cubs before he was flipped to San Diego before the 2019 campaign, has been catching up with Cubs players before games, and he got a chance to show them what they are missing.
Giants go back to back. These guys are on ???
pic.twitter.com/UjRgCCYlCi— KNBR (@KNBR) June 5, 2021
His blast preceded Wade’s, two lefty depth pick-ups going back to back. Wade, who also has played an excellent first base without Belt and picked an errant throw from Evan Longoria in the second, has posted an .899 OPS and would be having a much louder season if it were not for Duggar’s breakout.
Duggar’s two-run shot was part of a six-run second and was his fourth blast of the short season — matching a career high. A few batters later, Dickerson, who’s struggled for much of the season, knocked a three-run dinger to right in a frame in which the Giants made Jake Arrieta throw 42 pitches. The Giants’ bullpen game was scheduled; the Cubs’ was not.
An Alex Dickerson blast, a Dave Flemming call, what more do you need?? pic.twitter.com/RKGrPI5gXk
— KNBR (@KNBR) June 5, 2021
After a discouraging beginning from Scott Kazmir, he and the Giants’ bullpen bounced back. Three pitches into the game the Giants were in a hole, Willson Contreras and Kris Bryant attacking early in the count. Bryant smashed a home run to left that made for a rude greeting to the 37-year-old Kazmir, but he settled down and took down two innings before the bullpen carousel started spinning.
Kazmir took down two innings and was replaced by Dominic Leone, whose mistake became a two-run, opposite-field dinger to Joc Pederson in the fourth that cut the Giants’ lead to two. Vosler and Wade would balloon the edge in the bottom of the inning.
Zack Littell’s big mistake was throwing a few feet over Donovan Solano’s head on what would have been a double-play ball. It put runners on the corners without an out, and while one run scored on a ground out, he didn’t bend otherwise.
Conner Menez got into accidental trouble in the fifth, when Sergio Alcantara hit a two-out, sinking liner to left field, and Dickerson went for the shoestring catch — only for the ball to bounce past him. Alcantara wound up on third, but Menez induced a ground out from Eric Sogard to escape the trouble. The bearded lefty pitched two excellent innings that included a beauty of a curveball to get Kris Bryant swinging in the seventh.
Jake McGee and Tyler Rogers finished it off without incident.
There are reasons for concern — a glance at the injury list should make eyes bulge. And yet, a glance at the standings inspires wonder — how are the Giants doing this?
It’s the Other Guys, and they haven’t shown a sign of letting up.