John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports
Anthony DeSclafani needed some help finishing off Josh Bell. The Giants righty had thrown a couple four-seamers, a couple sliders, a couple curveballs. In a 2-2 count, he turned to a changeup, and the Washington first baseman was looking for something harder.
Bell swung, and his bat kept swinging long after he stopped. It helicoptered down the first-base line to finish his fourth-inning at-bat in what what then a game the Giants led by eight.
It wasn’t a white flag per se, but the bat whistling and whiffing across the field sure felt as if the Nationals were conceding.
The Giants did everything — hit, pitched and especially fielded — better than Washington in a 10-4 dismantling on Saturday afternoon in front of 25,901 at Oracle Park, the club’s third win in a row as it finishes up a first half that only the clubhouse believed could occur.
With one more game before the break, the Giants (56-32) are 2.5 games up on the Dodgers and 4.5 above the Padres before either NL West contender had begun play Saturday. They will finish the first half as the best team in baseball for plenty of reasons, like excellent starting pitching (Anthony DeSclafani lowered his ERA to 2.68), resurgent play from a few veterans (Brandon Crawford launched his 18th home run of the first half) and a defensive effort that has been spotlighted the past two days.
After Crawford’s highlight-reel day a night prior, Wilmer Flores added a nifty pick at third base, and Mike Yastrzemski had a tumbling catch in foul territory for a Giants defense that did not make an error.
Washington, conversely, allowed five unearned runs, serving as further illustration of how clean the Giants’ first half has been.
YAZ MAKES THE CATCH pic.twitter.com/XF57iqHX4Z
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) July 10, 2021
The Giants scored three in the first, all of which followed a Darin Ruf drive to left that got knocked down by the wind and then knocked onto the ground, former Giant Gerardo Parra (having a rough series) dropping it on the warning track to load the bases.
They added five more in the third, all of which followed Nationals third baseman Starlin Castro booting a ground ball from Donovan Solano. Jon Lester was knocked out after 2 2/3 innings in which he allowed eight runs, but only three were earned.
With the exception of Crawford’s blast, the Giants’ offense took it easy from there and finished with 14 hits. Crawford, the team’s only All-Star who will be at the game, had three, Thairo Estrada tallied four, Austin Slater added two and so did Joey Bart, who had a successful first start of his season.
He also caught DeSclafani well, but then again so does everyone this season.
The near All-Star — which is to say, not an All-Star but arguably deserving — went six strong, scoreless innings allowing just three hits and walk. He struck out six and has kept the Giants in the game in 17 of his 18 starts, a dud against the Dodgers his only blip. Other than that May 23 blow-up, he did not allow more than three runs in an outing in the entire first half.
Runs on runs on runs
— KNBR (@KNBR) July 10, 2021
The Giants have not trailed for an inning of the past two games after Washington looked like the superior team during last month’s four-game split at Nationals Park. Against everyone except maybe Los Angeles this season, the Giants have looked like the superior team.
If there was a downside Saturday, it arrived in the seventh inning, when Tyler Beede successfully made his return to a big-league mound following Tommy John surgery. The same control issues that haunted him with Triple-A Sacramento appeared on this stage, though, and he allowed three runs in his one inning. His stuff was back, though, hitting 97.4 mph with his fastball.
The Giants will go for the sweep behind ace Kevin Gausman on Sunday, and the first half is ending like it started and continued: with really good baseball from the Giants.