The Giants woke up after their Thursday off day with a 0.1% chance at reaching the playoffs.
They’d matched their season-high with seven straight losses and had dropped 11 of their past 13. The team didn’t have this contingency in mind when they thought they were two hot weeks away from playoff contention at the trade deadline.
But San Francisco opened September like a new team, one that scored early and often, showed patience and power and fight.
The Giants’ dominant 13-1 win over the Phillies won’t do much to change their postseason chances. Still, it opens up a month of September in which players up and down the roster can prove themselves — in the eyes of the Giants (62-68) and the industry.
“In a season like this year where we’ve lost more games than we wanted to lose, and there have been a lot of guys who have had injury riddled seasons and just down years in general, it’s important to remember that you’re playing for something,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said pregame.
Friday, a combination of the Giants’ mainstays and Philadelphia’s ineptitude let the game get out of hand quickly.
Mike Yastrzemski and Evan Longoria doubled in the first inning. Joc Pederson added an RBI single to the wall and San Francisco took a 4-0 lead off starter Kyle Gibson after one.
Pederson added a three-run blast into McCovey Cove the next inning. The 415-foot bomb was the franchise’s 97th Splash Hit and Pederson’s second of the week.
The All-Star extended his hit streak to seven games — four in which he’s recorded multiple hits. Pederson hit .357 with a 1.036 OPS in August. Farhan Zaidi said he’s interested in re-signing Pederson and has already begun discussions with the outfielder; his current hot streak is why.
“Joc’s electric,” starter Alex Cobb said postgame. “In and out of the clubhouse on the field. He’s a winner, too. I mean, I read that stat the other day — this will be his first time not on a division winner? That’s unbelievable. And you see that. You see that type of personality. Whatever he does, he wins at.”
After Pederson’s homer, Philadelphia unraveled in the third. Thairo Estrada got hit by a pitch then went first-to-third on an errant pickoff attempt. Four more walks, including three with the bases loaded, allowed SF to tack on four more runs and build an 11-0 lead. Another in the fifth made it 12-0.
San Francisco’s offensive output through five innings matched their total from this week’s three-game sweep by the Padres.
All the while, the Giants played clean defense behind Cobb (7 IP, 0R, 3H, 7K, 1BB). They turned a shifted double play with Longoria sliding over the bag for the transfer. Estrada also made a Derek Jeter-esque jump throw up the middle.
LaMonte Wade Jr., Yastrzemski, and Pederson each recorded multiple hits as SF scored 13 on 11 knocks and 10 walks.
The veterans engineered a blowout, allowing the young September call-ups — David Villar and newbie Lewis Brinson — a pressure-free start to their tryout months.
Andrew Knapp, a stopgap catcher as Joey Bart recovers on the 7-day concussion IL, drove in two runs and walked twice against his former team. Kapler lauded his secondary leads at first base in his postgame session.
Brinson, a former top prospect, flared a single into center in his first Giants at-bat and then manned center field.
Villar replaced Brandon Crawford and moved Estrada to shortstop, but went 0-for-1. The power he’s shown for the River Cats this year has still yet to surface with San Francisco.
The win serves as a reminder that the Giants are still playing for something, even if that thing is no longer realistically the postseason. And it’s probably more fun to compete when everything goes your way.
“We’ve talked a lot about how important September is, just to be especially focused,” Kapler said postgame. “That there’s a lot to play for. And you could tell that the players were especially motivated to come out and perform today.”