Chris Mezzavilla
Kevin Gausman, who will be starting Sunday, is out. So is Buster Posey, who was shuffled to the injured list Friday.
Perhaps Tyler Rogers will be a late addition; Anthony DeSclafani still has an outside shot.
Their one surefire All-Star at Coors Field sure looks the part. Brandon Crawford allowed his bat to take a backseat as his glove, arm and legs found different ways to repeatedly save the game for his club.
Crawford began one of the prettiest double plays you will see and helped both Dominic Leone and Tyler Rogers escape trouble, and the Giants played some of the most entertaining baseball of the year in a 5-3 win over the Nationals in front of 27,345 loud fans at Oracle Park. The Giants played well enough to allow the fans to cheer on the City Connect jerseys, even if many loathed the orange and fog.
Let the old guys play!!!
— KNBR (@KNBR) July 10, 2021
The Giants (55-32) moved 1.5 games up on the Dodgers and 4.5 above the Padres before either NL West rival had finished play Friday night. Some nights it is San Francisco’s depth; other nights its pitching. On this night and so many this season, it has been a shortstop who is playing the best baseball of his life at 34 years old.
The game-defining moment arrived in the sixth inning of a game the Giants had managed to create a one-run bulge. Zack Littell, as shaky as the Bay Area’s ground in recent days, had walked Starlin Castro, who is notoriously aggressive, on five pitches to start the frame. Trouble was brewing when Tres Barrera stepped up, and the brewing intensified as he lined a grounder up the middle.
And then Crawford’s glove appeared. He had ranged far to his left and had to reach his left hand back to create the only angle he could get the ball. He then had to lift his glove up, right hand not involved, to flip to Donovan Solano for the only chance the Giants had to complete the double play. And Donnie Barehand did not need his glove to snatch it and complete a double play Joe Panik would be proud of.
Fireworks inside the park, fireworks outside the park pic.twitter.com/AQp1e11ZQG
— KNBR (@KNBR) July 10, 2021
Crawford’s arm, not his glove, was needed in the next few innings. In the seventh, Leone had gotten into danger. Former Giant Gerardo Parra was on third with an out, and Trea Turner ground sharply to Crawford, who showed no nerves as he calmly fielded and threw home, easily nailing Parra, who didn’t even slide.
In the eighth, it was Rogers on the mound and Parra at the plate against Rogers, who had a one-out, bases-loaded jam. Rogers got his patented ground ball and Solano flipped to Crawford, who unleashed a cannon to nab Parra and preserve a two-run lead.
After the first double play Crawford began, the park did not stop buzzing. Darin Ruf’s fifth-inning home run was the offensive difference, a moon shot to left that was blasted an estimated 433 feet. Ruf was not even supposed to start against righty Paolo Espino, but LaMonte Wade Jr. and his sprained hand were a late scratch. So the usual bench bat crushed one and now is 8-for-16 in his past six games, a particularly strong next man up.
Wilmer Flores’ bat brought fireworks, literal and metaphorical, adding a seventh-inning blast that preceded someone setting off some pyrotechnics over the Bay.
In terms of entertainment, there are not many Giants games that beat Friday’s. By the end of the night, nearly forgotten were Logan Webb’s excellent three innings, in which he struck out four and allowed just a hit in his first start off the injured list; nearly forgotten was an imploding and exploding Jose Alvarez, who allowed three runs and was ejected by home-plate umpire David Rackley as he was being checked by another umpire for foreign substances; nearly forgotten was a strong throw by Steven Duggar that gunned down Parra at the plate in the fourth, and nearly forgotten was another big night from Curt Casali (3-for-4 with his third home run of the season, all since he returned from the IL).
What started as the City Connect day ended as the Crawford day. Again and again, he has a way of influencing both the games and the fans.