Darin Ruf’s first home run of the night gave San Francisco some an extra run of wiggle room. His second put the game officially out of reach in the eighth inning.
The home runs — Ruf’s fourth and fifth of the season — were two of the three furthest hit balls of Friday night’s series opener against the Dodgers. At 389 and 409 feet respectively, both provided little doubt. And both came after an emotional two weeks for San Francisco’s thumper, whose dad, Bill, died on May 30 at age 87.
“It’s been a tough couple weeks,” Ruf said postgame. “To go out like that, big game — things haven’t been great for me this season. This was special.”
Ruf beamed about the support he’s received both from the Giants organization and his teammates. When Ruf initially went on the bereavement list, manager Gabe Kapler made it clear San Francisco would allow Ruf to take however much time he and his family needed.
“It’s been unbelievable,” Ruf said of the support. “Overwhelming at times. But to know that so many people care about you is obviously pretty special.”
Ruf credited his teammates for putting together an all-around win on Friday. The Giants tacked on two runs against Dodgers ace Walker Buehler, played much sounder defense than they have in recent weeks and received shutdown relief performance even after Jakob Junis exited unexpectedly.
Still, Ruf provided the thunder. His solo shot off Buehler left his bat at 106.1 mph and careened into the left field bleachers on a line. He squared the eighth-inning shot straight away, sending it over 400 feet into the center field netting.
Ruf hit .177 in April to start 2022. It took 26 games before the thumper drilled his first home run. But even through the struggles, Ruf maintained strong advanced metrics that suggested he was getting unlucky. His hard-hit rate always ranked well, so he resisted the urge to make major changes to his swing and approach. Through his slump, Ruf reminded himself of all the work that goes into being a productive major league hitter.
“I think Ruf has had consistently good at-bats throughout the season,” Kapler said. “(Friday) is what we expect him to be: a great performer.”
Three May home runs later and Ruf’s numbers look closer to normal. He rejoined the team from the bereavement list on June 7 and now, days later, has two more long balls to his name with his third career multi-HR game.
“Obviously playing with a pretty heavy heart right now,” third baseman Evan Longoria said. “I don’t know that there’s a better series to break out in. Seems like every fan, everyone I talk is like ‘it doesn’t really matter what you do, except for against the Dodgers.’ If you play well against the Dodgers, you’ll be everybody’s hero. Great game for him. Obviously, hopefully that allows him to kind of relax a little bit. He’s been great for us. He has the potential to carry us…obviously we have a lot of guys who can contribute but it’s nice to have him back on track.”