SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants entered Sunday’s series finale with the St. Louis Cardinals having scored just 10 runs total in their last six games. The club went 1-5 in those games.
But on a warm and sunny day at AT&T Park, the Giants’ offense finally thawed out. Pablo Sandoval had a crucial three-run home run in the fifth, Steven Duggar started a five-run rally with a double in his major league debut, and the Giants teed off on Cardinals’ pitchers for 13 runs in a 13-8 win.
The Cardinals scored first when second baseman Yairo Munoz homered to left off Bumgarner. But in the third, Gorkys Hernandez doubled and scored when Buster Posey’s ground ball to short took a bad hop and bounced off Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong’s glove into left field. The Giants continued to go station-to-station when Andrew McCutchen singled to right to drive in Bumgarner, who had walked earlier in the inning. Brandon Belt then blooped a single just in front of left fielder Marcell Ozuna to score Posey from second. After a successful double steal, the Cardinals elected to intentionally walk Brandon Crawford to load the bases. Pablo Sandoval and Alen Hanson were unable to convert, however, flying out and popping out, respectively, to end the inning.
In the fourth, the Cardinals tied the score with a pair of RBI singles from DeJong and Munoz. The Giants nearly countered in the bottom on the fourth, but right fielder Harrison Bader made an incredible diving catch to rob Buster Posey of an RBI:
What a 13% catch probability looks like pic.twitter.com/RgOAz5foj6
— Ahmed Fareed (@FareedNBCS) July 8, 2018
Bader added insult to injury in the fifth when he scored on a single after being hit by a pitch and stealing second, putting the Cardinals up 4-3.
But the Giants struck back in the bottom of the frame. Sandoval returned to the plate with runners on first and second, and this time, he came through, launching a three-run home run deep into the right field arcade to give the Giants a 6-4 lead.
In the sixth, the Giants broke the game wide open with a five-run rally. Duggar doubled to lead off the inning and reached second in 7.73 seconds, the fastest time for any Giant and the 39th fastest time for any MLB player in 2018. The Giants then loaded the bases before Sandoval singled home two more to give him five RBIs on the day. Hanson blooped a single in front of Cardinals center fielder Tommy Pham to score Brandon Belt before Gorkys Hernandez broke the game open with a single to right-center, scoring Sandoval from second and Hanson all the way from first to put the Giants up 11-4.
Ray Black joined Duggar by making his major league debut in the eighth. Black’s debut was far less auspicious than Duggar’s, as he allowed a three-run home run to pinch-hitter Matt Carpenter and recorded just one out before being replaced by Tony Watson.
But Black’s brief struggles were just a footnote, as the Giants plated two runs in the bottom of the frame to seal the win.