Fourth of July weekend has arrived and the only thing heating up faster than your barbecue is Giants’ center fielder Denard Span’s bat.
Three days after Span’s walkoff single in the 14th inning carried San Francisco past the Colorado Rockies, the Giants’ leadoff hitter arrived in Pittsburgh and greeted Pirates’ starter Gerrit Cole with a leadoff home run that foreshadowed his team’s offensive fireworks.
The 13th leadoff home run of Span’s career set the tone for his night –and the Giants’ evening– as he pounded out four hits and tied his career-high with four runs scored in San Francisco’s 13-5 series-opening win.
After Span’s walkoff helped the Giants record back-to-back wins for the first time in June, his dominant night at the plate helped Bruce Bochy’s ballclub to its first four-game win streak since the middle of May.
In a pitching matchup featuring a pair of aces who will hear their names discussed in potential trade deadline deals for the next month, San Francisco’s Johnny Cueto out-dueled Pittsburgh’s Gerrit Cole on a night where neither pitcher had their best “stuff.”
With the Giants trailing 3-2 in the top of the fourth inning, Austin Slater slapped a two-out single to right field that ignited a rally that turned the game in San Francisco’s favor. Slater’s single led to five straight two-out knocks for the Giants –including a single up the middle from Cueto– that gave the club a 5-3 lead that stood the test of time.
The defining blow in the fourth inning came off the bat of Giants’ right fielder Hunter Pence, who knocked in a pair of runs to give the Giants the lead and allow him to collect two of his five RBIs, which are the most runs he’s driven in since September 10, 2013.
The Pirates had a chance to rally against Cueto in the bottom of the fifth, as Pittsburgh loaded the bases with two outs. However, on his 114th pitch of the night, Cueto induced a two-out groundout from Pittsburgh catcher Chris Stewart, allowing the Dominican Republic native to pick up his sixth win of the year on a night where he had to battle for every out.
In the top half of the sixth, San Francisco rewarded Cueto with enough run support to put the game out of reach, as a two-run double off the bat of Buster Posey followed by a two-run double from Brandon Belt pushed the Giants’ lead to 10-3.
Even with a seven-run advantage, San Francisco’s dugout received another injection of life in the late innings when rookie Ryder Jones snapped an 0-for-17 stretch to start his career with his first Major League hit. Jones came around to score his first run on Pence’s fifth RBI of the night, a single up the middle off of Pirates’ reliever Jhan Marinez.
Belt also drilled his 15th home run of the year in the top of the eighth, which now leaves the Giants’ first baseman three home runs shy of his career-high for a single season. Just for good measure, Belt added a sacrifice fly to notch his fourth RBI of the night in the ninth.
Following two of his best performances of the season, Cueto labored in all five innings against Pittsburgh, and pitched the majority of his outing from the stretch. All five of the Pirates leadoff hitters Cueto saw reached base, and nearly every pitch he threw came in a high-stress situation. Despite struggling to locate his off-speed offerings with consistency, Cueto exited after five innings with a 5-3 advantage and enough sweat on his jersey to make up for the nights spent pitching in the cool air at AT&T Park.
The Giants were able to solve Cole, who entered Friday’s start coming off back-to-back outings in which he surrendered just a lone run. However, the seven runs charged to Cole’s ledger marked the third time this month he’s allowed seven tallies, and should be cause for concern for a Pirates team that dropped six games below .500.