Metaphorically speaking, there hasn’t been much sunshine around AT&T Park this season.
The San Francisco Giants began Wednesday’s contest eight games under .500 at home, and 24 games below .500 for the season. That’s a dark record in a year filled with storms.
On Wednesday afternoon, though, the sun was out at China Basin, and its bright rays helped the home team capture a 2-1 win and its second series victory of a 10-game homestand.
With the game tied 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Giants’ first baseman Brandon Belt lofted a lazy flyball toward Pirates’ left fielder Starling Marte that Marte should have circled under and secured for a third out. Instead, though, Marte lost track of the baseball in the sun, the ball plunked down on the grass, and Miguel Gomez came around to score the go-ahead run.
“Our left field is a tough left field as you saw and we got a break,” Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy said. “We had chances there, runner on third, one out and we couldn’t get him in. But we got the run in in time to give Shark the win, too.”
For a franchise that has hardly caught a break this season, the Pirates’ defensive blunder was an open door on a house that said for sell on Tuesday night.
In the midst of San Francisco’s Tuesday evening win, the Giants made their first significant trade of the season, shipping starting third baseman Eduardo Nunez to Boston in exchange for a pair of pitching prospects. The transaction officially put the Giants in “sell mode,” but on Wednesday, it was San Francisco foreclosing on the Pirates’ inability to make Giants’ starter Jeff Samardzija pay.
Thanks to Gomez’s pinch hit double to lead off the inning, and Belt’s never-should-have-happened RBI, Samardzija snatched up his first win since July 2, and just his fifth victory of the season.
“He looked great, didn’t he?” Bochy said. “He’s had a tough go as far as wins. He’s had some bumps in the road, but he’s thrown the ball very well at times. There’s times he probably should have had a win and you know, we just couldn’t score enough runs and we barely did today.”
After allowing 16 earned runs over his last three starts, Samardzija’s earned run average climbed all the way above 5.00, as he entered Wednesday’s start with a clip of 5.05 for the season. Since his name first began appearing in trade rumors, Samardzija has struggled, losing back-to-back outings against a San Diego Padres’ lineup that’s produced the fewest runs in baseball this season.
On Wednesday, though, Samardzija turned in a valiant effort, retiring 13 straight batters between the start of the third inning and the top of the seventh. At one point during that span, “Shark” set down five of eight hitters on strikes, and wound up finishing his afternoon with eight punchouts.
The Giants’ defense backed Samardzija up for the majority of his seven-inning stint, but he was responsible for San Francisco’s two finest defensive plays. In the top of the second, with the Pirates threatening to score, Samardzija pounced on a Trevor Williams tapper in front of home plate and corralled the ball with his bare hand. Immediately, the Giants’ right-hander fired the ball to catcher Buster Posey, who secured a force out at the plate for the second out of the inning. That play allowed Samardzija to limit the Pirates’ output to one run, and kept Pittsburgh from taking an early lead.
“I was just, like I said, doing the only option I had,” Samardzija said. “I didn’t think I had a chance at first and Cervelli was running at third so I figured as long as I didn’t throw it to the backstop we can get there with two outs and get Marte with that other out or whoever was up next.”
Then in the top of the seventh, with two outs and a runner in scoring position, Samardzija showcased a lightning quick reaction when he snared a comebacker off the bat of pinch hitter David Freese to rob Pittsburgh of another chance to move ahead.
“He (Samardzija) looked like he was receiving a football, didn’t he?” Bochy said in reference to the run-saving play in the second inning. “He’s so quick off the mound, he’s a good athlete. Not just that play, but they had the go-ahead run on second base and he had the hard chopper up the middle he jumped up and got. Saved a run there. For a pitcher, it’s one of the better plays I’ve seen, that’s a credit to a good athlete that was able to jump off the mound that quick.”
Following an 11-run outburst on Tuesday evening, the Giants appeared as if they were going to pick up where they left off, as second baseman Joe Panik slugged an opposite field double in the bottom of the first and San Francisco eventually loaded the bases. After an RBI groundout by shortstop Brandon Crawford pushed San Francisco ahead 1-0, though, Williams, the Pirates’ starter, settled down and kept the Giants off the board in his final five innings of work.
When Williams exited and gave way to lefty Tony Watson, though, the Pirates’ defense came unsettled, as Marte’s blunder wound up costing Pittsburgh the ballgame.