SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants probably won’t have another month where they win 70 percent of their games. They won’t look like the major league’s best team every night, even this month, but they probably didn’t anticipate a 23-year-old rookie being the cause of that.
Daniel Mengden (1-3, 2.81 ERA) was masterful over his first seven innings, and Jeff Samardzija (8-4, 3.91 ERA) was not. The A’s (33-43) ambushed him for six runs, five in one inning, and beat the Giants (49-29) 8-3. Here’s how the festivities played out Monday night.
The big moment
The game was effectively decided in the second inning, largely on this blast by Marcus Semien.
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At the plate
Behind the curled mustache, and herky-jerky delivery of Mengden lives a 94 mile-per-hour fastball, an 88 mile-per-hour slider and a 75 mile-per-hour curveball. He mixed and matched his repertoire brilliantly, toe-tapping and shoulder-rocking the Giants over 7.2 innings to earn his first career win.
The 23-year-old rookie dazzled the entire evening, carving through the Giants order with efficiency. It took just 44 pitches to work through four innings, and he set down the first 13 hitters he faced. Angel Pagan was the first Giant to reach base — lacing a one-out single in the fifth inning — ending Mengen’s bid for a perfect game in his fourth career start.
He didn’t allow consecutive hits until Ramiro Peña and Conor Gillaspie teamed up for the second game in a row for a pair of hits — this time in the eighth inning. A Jarrett Parker walk loaded the bases, and the only run scored with Mengden on the mound came via a Chris Stratton double play. A second run tacked onto Mengden’s record after he exited, and Fernando Rodriguez fired a wild pitch.
On the mound
After a five-run, five-out outing against the Cubs on May 20, Jake Peavy lamented to reporters about having of “those innings.” An inning that never seems to find its end, at least not until a smattering of runs already scored. The same bug found Jeff Samardzija on Monday night, this time en route to his third six-run outing this month. The A’s battered him for five runs in the second inning. An inning where nine A’s stepped to the plate, six reached base and three scored on Marcus Semien’s three-run homer.
Samardzija unfurled a flat slider to Semien, and he belted it into the left-center seats. It was the ninth home run hit off the Giants right-hander this month (five starts), but the A’s still sprinkled in four doubles. When Samardzija strayed away from his off-speed pitches, the A’s crushed nearly every fastball over the plate. He saved the bullpen by throwing six innings, his final frame punctuated by back-to-back doubles that brought home the sixth and final run on his record.
In the ‘pen
Stratton, a starter throughout his baseball life, has been in a tough spot. He’s the Giants’ long man, and in a blowout game, Bochy’s leash is as long as it’ll ever be. That’s why Stratton was left to fend for himself when the first five A’s reached in the seventh inning.
The rookie right-hander limited the damage to two runs, and came out to pitch a clean eighth inning. He manage to work around trouble in the ninth, closing out his three-inning, 57-pitch outing. It wasn’t an easy task, but in a game the Giants largely had no chance in, he took one for the bullpen.
On deck
Tuesday’s matchup pins Albert Suarez (3-1, 3.68 ERA) against Kendall Graveman (3-6, 4.68 ERA) in the second game of this four-game series. Suarez is coming off a solid start against Pirates, allowing three runs (two earned) over five innings. He’s allowed three runs in each of his four major league starts.
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