The Giants hadn’t hit a three-run home run since July.
The stat is more of a statistical anomaly, an arbitrary note highlighting a historically bad stretch of offense that has shown signs of uptick recently.
And it’s no longer applicable.
With a pivotal series against the Guardians in the balance, J.D. Davis cracked a game-tying, three-run homer in the eighth inning. The Giants had trailed by four runs for four innings, but Davis drove in Joc Pederson and Patrick Bailey to even the score.
Davis’ homer just barely cleared the left-field fence, and the Giants just barely escaped with a series victory.
In the 10th inning, Patrick Bailey beat Bo Naylor’s tag by a hair, tagging up from third on LaMonte Wade Jr.’s second walk-off of the past three days. In a 6-5 victory, Wade, Bailey and Davis were the heroes as the Giants (75-71) remain in lockstep amidst a tight National League wild card race.
In a home stand against the last-place Rockies and sub-.500 Guardians, the Giants went 5-1.
“It’s exactly what we needed,” Davis said postgame. “And what we should be doing. We went through a tough stretch of facing a lot of good teams. Even coming off that series loss against the Cubs, that was a big stinger. But to come home and make a statement — get the sweep of Colorado, to only drop one against Cleveland — I think that’s huge for us to kind of get some momentum and get some positivity going back on the road.”
San Francisco overcame rookie Kyle Harrison’s least effective start as a big leaguer. The Guardians tagged Harrison for four first-inning runs, highlighted by José Ramírez’s two-run home run to the left-field bleachers.
Casey Schmitt, who has Gold Glove potential, made a throwing error at third base, compounding Harrison’s tough start to the afternoon. Schmitt had only played seven combined innings in the past four games leading up to Wednesday.
Schmitt’s error gave the Giants 101 on the season, surpassing last year’s total. Though the eye test and some advanced metrics suggest San Francisco’s defense has improved, the error total is still noteworthy. Poor infield defense also hurt the Giants in their Tuesday loss.
“We want to make as few errors as possible,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said pregame. “Making a lot of errors is not something that we’re going to be proud of — or try to discount, act like it doesn’t exist. It does exist. On the other side, I feel like we’ve made more plays to protect our pitchers than we did last year. And I think our outfield defense has been improved at times. I don’t think we play the type of defense that championship teams need to play, yet. We have to keep driving towards that level of defense.”
Harrison, meanwhile, departed after four innings — his shortest start since his debut in Philadelphia. He punched out a career-low three hitters and was less efficient than he had been in recent outings.
Harrison’s fastball averaged 92.8 mph, a full tick down from his season average. He topped out at 95.4 mph and threw one heater 90.5 mph. He hasn’t thrown an exorbitant amount of innings this season as the Giants have managed his workload, but it’s possible there was something physically bothering him.
When Alex Wood replaced Harrison for the fifth, the Giants were in a 5-1 hole. By spinning two double plays in four scoreless innings, he did his job as the pitcher in a down game, freezing the Giants’ deficit and allowing for a comeback.
“I thought it was one of the better performances that he’s had all year,” Gabe Kapler said postgame. “When he first took the mound, it didn’t seem like it was going to be so important. It was just going to be, we had a guy who can come in and cover a good chunk of the game for us. But he was so efficient, and sometimes an offense need that, just give us a chance to keep clawing back. It kind of presents a crack in the door for us.”
The Giants first pushed the door more ajar in the seventh inning, when Thairo Estrada and Wilmer Flores — two of the few everyday players on SF’s roster — tallied consecutive two-out hits to cut Cleveland’s lead to three.
Then they swung the door off its hinges. Pederson drew a leadoff hit-by-pitch on an inside fastball that grazed his arm. Then Bailey, in his first game back from the concussion IL, lined a single into right. That set up Davis for his 18th long ball of 2023.
The Guardians threatened in the top of the ninth, but the Giants called on Camilo Doval to retire Josh Naylor with two men in scoring position for the final out.
That summoned All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase for the third straight game. They got to him in the opener, and looked poised to again Wednesday when Flores drilled a single into left Blake Sabol swiped second while pinch running for him. But Mitch Haniger, Pederson and Bailey went down quietly to send the game into the second extras of the series.
Doval stranded the automatic runner, just like he did in the opener, and the Giants caused havoc in the bottom half.
Davis walked, as did a pinch-hitting Brandon Crawford, who showed bunt the whole time. That loaded the bases for Wade, who delivered Monday’s walk-off.
All the Giants needed was a fly ball, and Wade came through.
“We’ve always preached, just try to get the series win — that’s all that matters,” Davis said. “Fortunate enough, we came out here, just grinded it out and got a win…To be 5-1 (on this home stand) it puts us in the driver’s seat, and can controlling kind of our own destiny here on out.”