Austin Slater hasn’t played much for the Giants this season. But when he has, he’s made a difference.
In Friday’s series opener with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Slater went 3-for-4 and plated both runs the Giants scored. It turned out that was all Andrew Suarez needed, and the Giants beat the D-Backs by a score of 2 to 1.
Slater got the scoring started in the second when he doubled down the right-field line to drive in Buster Posey, who had doubled to lead off the inning. Then in the seventh, with the score 1-1, Slater laced a double to the right-center field gap to throw Brandon Crawford all the way from first.
The Diamondbacks’ run came in the sixth, when Jake Lamb’s sacrifice fly scored Ketel Marte, who had doubled to lead off the inning and advanced to third on a Chris Owings infield single.
Both starting pitchers held their opposing offenses at bay. D-Backs starter Patrick Corbin was effective through six innings, utilizing devastating breaking pitches to hold the Giants to four hits and just one run. But Suarez went toe-to-toe with Corbin and also turned in six innings of one-run ball, albeit with three more hits allowed. Both pitchers had five strikeouts on the night.
Reyes Moronta, Tony Watson, and Will Smith each contributed one inning of shutout relief to get Suarez his third win of the season and improve his season record to 3-4. Smith was particularly dominant as the closer in the ninth, retiring the D-Backs in order on just 10 pitches to earn his first save as a Giant and just the second of his major league career.
With the win, the Giants move to 4.5 games back of the D-Backs in the NL West.