After tallying one hit in five innings, the Giants left the park twice in the sixth inning to break a scoreless stalemate and ignite their strongest scoring output in a week.
Thairo Estrada and Wilmer Flores — arguably the Giants’ two best hitters — socked nearly identical home runs to provide a cushion.
Estrada’s 10th homer of the year went 374 feet and cleared the fence over the yellow Chevron car in the left field corner. Flores, who missed the series opener with an ear infection, lifted his 16th of the season just over Estrada’s trajectory 373 feet from home plate.
Jakob Junis’ finesse and Sean Manaea’s power coalesced a Tampa Bay lineup that scored 10 runs on 18 hits in the opener. Junis and Manaea struck out 12 in a combined 7.1 innings, allowing just six base runners between the two of them.
The Giants’ seven runs are the most they’ve scored since they dropped eight on Aug. 7. To support Junis, Manaea, Tyler Rogers and Luke Jackson, San Francisco socked their pair of home runs and rookie Wade Meckler recorded his first two Major League hits.
When the 7-0 Giants win was still a scoreless struggle, skipper Gabe Kapler got ejected for arguing balls and strikes. He didn’t have much to stew over while watching the game from the batting cage monitor.
“I think tonight we swung the bat much better, and we had some good fortune,” Kapler said postgame. “That’s why we had some crooked numbers. Really good victory.”
Both teams went with atypical starters, as hybrid arm Jakob Junis and converted reliever Zack Littell took the mound.
Both the Rays and Giants, two analytically inclined franchises, have embraced the opener strategy in recent years. But both certainly would prefer to have five reliable starting pitchers who can go deep into games.
Tampa Bay has lost Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs to significant injuries this year. San Francisco has had to tinker with underperforming starters like Alex Wood, Sean Manaea, Ross Stripling and Anthony DeSclafani (before he got hurt).
So it was Littell, the former Giant, versus Junis, the former starter. Littell entered the contest coming off two straight quality starts after transitioning away from the bullpen midway through the year. Junis’ role as a flexible option has been clear from the beginning. After starting 61 straight games between 2018 and 2019, Junis has been asked to throw anywhere between nine and 69 pitches this season.
Both pitchers were tremendous. Junis fanned a season-high seven batters in four scoreless innings. Littell came one out away from extending his quality start streak to three.
“Junis was as good as he’s been,” Kapler said.
During Littell’s fourth clean frame, Kapler got ejected while arguing balls and strikes for Meckler, the rookie. Kapler typically makes a point of staying even-keeled, but perhaps felt it necessary to try to inspire his club by fighting for them.
It was Kapler’s seventh ejection in 828 games managed. For reference: hotheaded Yankees skipper Aaron Boone has 32 in the same amount of seasons.
The last time Littell was on the Oracle Park mound, he showed up Kapler by shoving the ball in his hand and yelling at him on his way to the dugout. This time, it was the manager who lost his cool.
Kapler explained that Meckler — whose plate discipline is probably his most impressive skill — was getting squeezed despite knowing the strike zone. Earlier in the day, the manager read an Oregon Live story about all the adversity and obstacles Meckler overcame to get to this point, and eventually snapped. The rookie had gotten “F-d” the night before and took multiple balls outside of the zone for strikes already.
“He’s had to grind and fight every step of the way,” Kapler said. “Reacted on behalf of Meck, who deserves to be stood up for by all of us.”
Littell struck out Brandon Crawford to lead off the sixth inning, but then served up a homer to Estrada. Two batters later, Meckler recorded his first Major League hit.
“Relieving,” Meckler said postgame. “You’ve done it your whole life, and especially that rough start the first couple at-bats here and yesterday. So to get one feels very relieving.”
Even though the Rays ended his night before he could get an 18th out, Littell had no issues passing the ball to Kevin Cash and walking off the mound this time.
Maybe he should have.
On righty Kevin Kelly’s first pitch, Flores elevated a two-seamer for a two-run shot. The dueling homers were so identical, only Camden Yards in Baltimore would’ve kept each of them in.
It was the first time since June 13 that San Francisco hit multiple home runs in a single inning.
The Rays gave the Giants help the next inning, walking a batter and committing a fielding error to load the bases with no outs. Then with two down, catcher Rene Pinto allowed two more Giants to score after his errant backpick attempt trickled into shallow left field.
Heliot Ramos, who was pinch-running, scored from second shortly behind Patrick Bailey to give SF a comfortable, five-run lead. More shoddy Rays defense in the eighth allowed SF to tack even more on.
The Giants wouldn’t be entirely wrong to feel like it was an overdue break that went their way. Their effort was so all-around, it included some luck.