D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants would happily sign up for a season’s worth of games in which their pitching does not kill them and their defense is a strength.
Because if there is an area of the club that does not worry them, it’s the offense.
For five innings, perhaps it worried them; there was a lot of hard contact, plenty of at-bats that became battles and several frustrated batters who thought their work at the plate deserved better. There were signs of a breakout coming until Brandon Crawford turned the theoretical into reality.
For a second straight day, the Bay Area native welcomed Bay Area fans back to Oracle Park with a go-ahead swing and the Giants eked past the Rockies, 4-3, in front of 6,176 at Oracle Park on Saturday afternoon to win their third straight.
The Giants already have claimed the series and have started well — even without overwhelming help from their offense — improving to 5-3 on the season. That could be 3-5 without Crawford, whose two-run double lifted them in the fans’ return Friday before his Saturday home run made the difference.
The shortstop’s second homer of the season followed walks to Alex Dickerson and Wilmer Flores against Colorado reliever Ben Bowden. The Giants had chased opposing starter Chi Chi Gonzalez after five innings and 80 pitches, wearing him down and prompting the lefty-on-lefty matchup for Crawford. He wants to show he can hit southpaws, and his 385-foot shot to right that landed just short of being a splash hit will help his cause.
10/10 Kuip call on that Crawford ding-dong ?? pic.twitter.com/Y2LMlIgRj9
— KNBR (@KNBR) April 10, 2021
After Crawford’s blast gave them the lead, the Giants’ bullpen was shutdown. Caleb Baragar, Reyes Moronta, Tyler Rogers and Jake McGee combined for four one-hit innings. McGee earned his fourth save of the short season.
So much of the Giants’ offensive work was done without immediate pay-off. Mauricio Dubon crushed two balls that ended in outfielders’ gloves. The Giants forced Gonzalez to throw 28 pitches in the first. Tommy La Stella saw 25 pitches in four plate appearances, with a single, double and walk, but the Giants could not get a crooked number on the scoreboard until the sixth.
They broke out in the game with one blast and hope more is coming. Their four runs is the most they have scored in a tilt since last Friday, averaging 2.3 runs per game in the span. And yet, because of their pitching, they’re 4-2 during the span.
Their defense has quietly been solid, but not so quietly Saturday. Evan Longoria’s smooth work at third base helped get Logan Webb an inning-ending double play in the second. Crawford handled a C.J. Cron smashed grounder in the fourth. And Buster Posey has looked like Buster Posey without a bat, too.
The catcher pinpointed two throws to second to nab would-be base-stealers, first Garrett Hampson in the first inning and then Raimel Tapia in the sixth. There were different receivers — a shifted-over Longoria and then La Stella — but they were otherwise carbon copies, runners who had gotten good jumps and required perfect throws to throw them out. And so Posey threw perfectly.
The Human NFT, @BusterPosey.#SFGiants pic.twitter.com/p46yvTKNty
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) April 10, 2021
The defense helped Webb, who was not particularly sharp for a second straight outing but also not bad.
The 24-year-old extended an impressive streak by Giants starters, but just barely. Their starting pitchers have thrown at least five innings while allowing less than four runs in each of their first eight games, a streak beaten by just the 2002 and 1973 Giants.
Webb went exactly that — five innings with three runs, while allowing eight hits and two walks and striking out six. He induced 13 swinging strikes, which is encouraging, but the contact got worse as his day progressed.
The third time through the order was his downfall. He surrendered three hits and a walk in the fifth, including a Ryan McMahon two-run homer to right-center off a spinning slider in the middle of the plate. The ball just kept carrying in a park whose right-field viewing area still is closed.
It carried for Crawford, too, though, on a day on which the sun grew brighter for the Giants.