Chris Mezzavilla/KNBR
With each start, Alex Wood is making Farhan Zaidi and Scott Harris look like geniuses.
With each seventh-inning at-bat, Giants pinch-hitters did the same for Gabe Kapler.
Through five outings, Wood has been one of the best signings — value or otherwise — of the offseason, and Mauricio Dubon was the third off-the-bench bat to come through, his go-ahead, RBI single the biggest in a well-played, 3-1 win over the hot Rangers at Oracle Park in front of 7,450 on Monday.
The Giants (21-14) moved two games ahead of the rained-out Padres and three up of the idle Dodgers. The Rangers had won seven of nine entering play and led Major League Baseball in home runs this month. Wood and the San Francisco bullpen kept them out of the outfield seats, and Brandon Belt’s fourth-inning homer pulled the Giants even with Texas at 15 dingers in May.
The difference in the game, though, came in the seventh inning of a tie game. Lefty John King retired two before Kapler’s bench bats went to work. Austin Slater (subbed in for Steven Duggar) worked a walk, before Darin Ruf (pinch-hitting for Wood) volleyed a single to right. Kapler went to Dubon instead of Mike Tauchman, and Dubon did his best Belt impression by fouling off five straight. On pitch eight of his best at-bat of the year, he finally broke through and singled to left, Khris Davis’ poor throw nowhere close to nabbing Slater at home.
Dubon, who has hit better than his .200 batting average gives him credit for, let off a few fist-pumps upon taking second base in what has been a frustrating and baserunning-error-filled first few weeks of the season. He came through, as did Slater and Ruf.
Dubi double for the lead. #SFGiants pic.twitter.com/iYgzaSCuRB
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) May 11, 2021
Kapler only had three non-catcher bats off the bench, and the Giants made each one count.
The Giants added another from an error from old pal Charlie Culberson, but they wouldn’t need the cushion. Tyler Rogers pitched a perfect eighth, and Jake McGee — with a juiced-up fastball — looked more like the Jake McGee from the first few weeks of the season with a scoreless ninth.
For the first seven innings, Belt’s fourth-inning blast to left-center (his eighth of the year, tying him with Buster Posey for the team lead) was their only damage. But they don’t need very much good wood when Wood is on the mound.
Wood allowed just one run in seven innings, inducing nothing but soft contact and ground balls; of the 21 outs he recorded, just three came via flyballs. His best offering again was his slider, which made Rangers bats swing and miss 10 times. Whenever he needed a strikeout, he knew the pitch to go to; Texas knew it, too, but couldn’t make contact or lay off.
He again worked efficiently and quickly, a no-frills game for a deceptive lefty who now has a 1.80 ERA. He hasn’t allowed more than two runs in a start this season.
His most worrisome and exhilarating moment came in the sixth, when he walked Nick Solak on four pitches and then Nate Lowe on five — his first two bases on balls in the game — prompting a mound visit from Andrew Bailey.
Whatever the pitching coach said, worked. Wood got dangerous Adolis Garcia swinging on a slider that got consistent chases all night from Texas. Another of those sliders, one that crept to the edge of the zone, made powerful Joey Gallo whiff for the last out of the inning. Wood had expertly pitched out of the jam and punctuated it with a fist-pump of his own.
GOT HIM!
Alex Wood is fired up ? pic.twitter.com/saDJx6WcVs
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 11, 2021
In a game of stats, two fist-pumps usually translates to a win.