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The San Francisco Giants closed out their three-game series with the Don’t-Call-Us-Sacramento A’s on Sunday and winning the series was a breeze. A stiff wind blew in from left field at Sutter Health Park, but that didn’t stop Luis Arraez and Harrison Bader from hitting home runs out to right, the last one for a grand slam, in a 10-1 Giants win.
Adrian Houser (2-4) had his third straight strong outing, going six innings and only giving up a run when a wind-blown popup in shallow left field turned into a two-run double. He walked five, but induced three pop-ups and eight ground balls and two double plays in his six innings, and his only extra-base hit was the RBI “double” from Carlos Cortes.
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The game was tight for seven innings but the Giants broke through with a six-run 8th inning that took advantage of some bad defense from the A’s and a brutal outing for reliever Luis Medina. Zach Gelof committed his second error of the game to start the inning, then a walk to Arraez and a Casey Schmidt single loaded the bases for Rafael Devers, who brought home Bader with a single to center. Lawrence Butler dropped the ball taking it out of his glove and Arraez, who was stopping at third, came home to make it 4-1.
Willy Adames singled to re-load the bases, with Schmidt holding at third even as Tyler Soderstrom kicked the ball in left — he did wisely boot the ball forward. The 1-for-5 day lowered Adames’ batting average to .234, but he’s still up 25 points on this road trip and up 37 points since May 9.
The Adames single mercifully ended Medina’s afternoon (0 IP, 3H 5 R, 2 ER). Daniel Susac grounded to second on a drawn-in infield, and it was Jeff McNeil’s turn to bobble the ball, turning a potential double play into an RBI groundout. After an intentional walk to Matt Chapman, Jung Hoo Lee’s grounder to McNeil, a tougher play, went off his glove for an infield hit and a 6-1 lead.
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Then Bader took Suarez deep for a grand slam over the comically-low right field fence at Sutter Health, though it will always be Raley Field to me. If this was the Olympics, Bader’s shot wouldn’t qualify for a record since it was wind-aided, but it was worth four big runs in major league baseball.
It was a stunning change in the nature of the ballgame. Keaton Winn was warming up to protect a 3-1 lead, and then an inning later, the A’s were bringing in their right fielder to pitch the 9th — Cortes pitched a scoreless inning, yielding a walk and a Chapman double and never exceeding 85 MPH on the radar gun.
Bader has raised his average 38 points on the road trip and his slugging percentage by 155 points thanks to going deep three times in his last four games. He’s tied for third on the team with four homers despite having only 75 plate appearances.
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Arraez started the scoring with his second home run of the weekend, and also his second of the season. Maybe playing in a Triple-A ballpark unlocked his power potential? He went 3-for-4 with a walk and a double, scoring two runs and raising his slash line to .328/.370/.437.
Our own esteemed Bryan Murphy asked whether Arraez would homer this season and Arraez gave it a resounding yes. The next question is, can he hit one out in a normal-sized park not in a windstorm? The Giants will probably be happy with his ultra-contact approach and a few doubles, but if he can slug like Eric Haase, they might really have something!
The Giants tacked on their second run thanks to more sloppy play from a squad who is poised to be Las Vegas’ fifth-favorite team. Gelof’s first error let Adames reach first and starter Jeffrey Springs balked him to second on an illegal pickoff throw. Then Matt Chapman defied the gods of wind with a double into the left-field gap, his second RBI of the road trip and the first from actually hitting the ball (Chappie had a bases-loaded walk against the Dodgers).
Springs (3-4) probably deserved better on a day when he gave up five hits and two runs in six innings, only one of them earned. He only struck out three Giants, however, and the combination of unpredictable wind and awful A’s defense made this a tough day for pitching to contact.
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The Giants will have to succeed without a boost from Mother Nature when they finish the road trip in Arizona Monday-Wednesday. Robbie Ray takes on former teammate Zac Gallen Monday at Chase Field, likely with the roof shut. It’s a long 10-day road trip with no off days, but the Giants can’t feel too bad with a 4-3 record and their slumping veterans starting to hit again.
The key is to keep hitting, continue turning lots of double plays, and give offerings to Apollo and Helios, god of the Sun, rather than Aeolus, keeper of the winds. We hear Apollo likes wine and honey.
