Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Down 1-0 in the sixth a year ago felt like another of those nights.
Down 1-0 in the sixth this year feels like another of these nights.
The Giants’ offense does not go quietly, easily or without seeing plenty of pitches. A lot of outs are hard-hit, a lot of strikeouts come on pitches they can’t exploit. They await for ones they can attack, and when they see them, they have made them count.
Facing one of the game’s best pitchers in Zac Gallen, they did nothing though five innings then exploded in the sixth, turning a one-run deficit into a comfortable lead in a 4-2 win over the Diamondbacks at Oracle Park on Monday, the Giants’ (21-21) third straight win and the first time they are .500 since Aug. 2, when they were 5-5.
If the season ended today, the Giants would be in the playoffs. True to that, they are playing like a club that expects to go to the postseason.
In his first 23 major league starts, Gallen had not been charged with four or more runs once. His 24th start, against the Giants, ended the streak.
The Giants mounted their first rally in the sixth, when Pablo Sandoval walked and Joey Bart singled him to second without an out. Mauricio Dubon got down 0-2, then laid off four straight away pitches — a roar went up from the Giants’ dugout — to load the bases. Mike Yastrzemski’s second single of the night tied it, Darin Ruf’s two-run, bullet single to center put them ahead, and Brandon Belt’s bases-loaded walk provided more cushion. There are not wasted at-bats in the lineup — the bottom of the order set up the top for success — and they’re clicking at the right time, just 18 games to go.
That made Kevin Gausman’s Labor Day a happy one, and one in which he did not labor. He said he wanted to remain a Giant at the trade deadline and is showing why the Giants wanted to keep him, too.
Gausman was excellent through six innings and 100 pitches, allowing just a third-inning run on a bases-loaded groundout. He surrendered just two hits and walked three while striking out nine, his stuff literally unhittable for much of the night. He induced 20 swings and misses, the most by a Giants pitcher this year, and his splitter was at its best.
Kevin Gausman, Filthy 85mph Splitter. ? pic.twitter.com/SJK8ahLUoe
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 8, 2020
He threw 51 and the Diamondbacks only put four in play — all outs. Arizona swung at 27 of them and whiffed more than half the time (14). The hardest contact they made off the pitch was recorded at 77.5 mph off the bat. His stuff kept the Giants in the game, and until the sixth, Gallen had faced the minimum, Yastrzemski’s leadoff single the Giants’ only hit.
After he exited, a Giants bullpen that has gotten better seemingly every day again was mostly shutdown. Wandy Peralta took the seventh without issue. Sam Selman should have gotten out of the eighth cleanly, but Donovan Solano pulled a Luis Castillo, dropping a pop-up that should have ended the inning and instead put runners on second and third. Sam Coonrod came in and got Wyatt Mathisen to fly out to end the threat.
Coonrod (second save) allowed a ninth-inning homer to David Peralta, but that was the only hit charged to the bullpen on a day Arizona finished with three.
When an offense clicks, starting pitching clicks and relief pitching clicks, a team can expect to hit the postseason.
In the fourth, Alex Dickerson fouled a ball off his right knee and went straight down. He hobbled for a few minutes and talked with trainer Dave Groeschner before the two walked off the field. Darin Ruf replaced him, and there was no immediate update on Dickerson.