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Oftentimes, the reaction of hitters can be the most revealing concerning pitchers’ stuff. So when Rhys Hoskins gave a bit of a nod and quickly walked back to the dugout in the sixth inning, Sammy Long had made a quiet statement.
Hoskins, also a former Sacramento State star, had just seen a curveball drop from the clouds. It was at his eyes, and then it was at his knees, and the bat — which has been so hot for the Phillies slugger — never left his shoulders. He was one of six Philly strikeout victims of Long, who looked like a solid major league starter in his first major league start.
Meanwhile, the Giants were sending balls to the clouds in an 11-2 win over the Phillies in front of 18,265 at Oracle Park on Sunday afternoon, taking another series and now winners of six of seven, two of three against the NL East’s second best team. There is not much that is not going right for the club.
The win bumped the Giants (46-26) back to 20 games over .500, two up on the Dodgers and 5.5 above the Padres before either NL West foe had finished play. The Giants will have an off day Monday before a two-game set at Angel Stadium of Anaheim and refuse to show any sign of regression.
Instead, their offense is only coming alive. They have scored 54 runs in six games, nine per game, and used four home runs — two from Wilmer Flores and one apiece from Mike Yastrzemski and Brandon Crawford — to blast their way to Sunday’s victory. They pulled even with the Blue Jays at 107 home runs, tied for the most in the majors.
Happy Father's Day to Mike Yastrzemski and Wilmer Flores who just son'd these baseballs
— KNBR (@KNBR) June 20, 2021
Long, who had piggybacked off an opener in his first two appearances, looked comfortable immediately without the training wheels. He lasted six innings and 84 pitches — both season-highs — and surrendered two runs on four hits with a walk.
If the two runs don’t require an asterisk, they do require an explanation. With two outs in the third inning, he threw two pitches that appeared to be strikes but instead were balls to Hoskins, who walked. The next batter was J.T. Realmuto, who hammered a two-run shot to left to draw the Phillies to within 3-2. Crawford knocked his dinger in the bottom of the inning to balloon the lead right back.
The southpaw Long dropped in his curveball for an impressive nine called strikes, consistently freezing a starting lineup that featured Bryce Harper as its only lefty. He also induced 11 total whiffs and has looked like a legitimate major league talent. The swing man who had quit baseball briefly after he got cut by the Rays before the 2018 season, who had not pitched at all during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, had not lasted this long in a game since Aug. 24, 2019, in a seven-inning outing with the Kannapolis Intimidators, the Class-A White Sox affiliate.
As their rotation gets a boost, the Giants’ bats are only getting stronger, too, perhaps in relation with the league cracking down on sticky substances. Yastrzemski hit a two-run shot in the first inning for a second straight game. Flores finished 4-for-4 to extend a nine-game hitting streak in which he is 12-for-27 (.444) with three homers and a double. After a slow start, he is consistently making good contact.
As is Crawford, whose blast was his 16th of the year, tying him with Javier Baez for the second most among shortstops in baseball, trailing only Fernando Tatis Jr.’s 22. Crawford is just five shy of his career high, and he’s only played 63 games. He finished with four RBIs and nearly crushed his second home run of the day in the eighth, but had to settle for a double. Oh, and he made a couple dazzling defensive plays, too, including a barehanded play to retire Luke Williams.
The Giants added on in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth, including Donovan Solano and Steven Duggar launching back-to-back doubles and an eight-batter, lengthy seventh in which Curt Casali walked with the bases loaded.
Zack Littell, Jimmie Sherfy and the just-activated John Brebbia, in his 2021 debut after 2020 Tommy John surgery, had no trouble in relief for a unit that has looked new this month, and with good reason. The belated reliever roster adds from Triple-A have been excellent.
Fans and front offices look for holes, particularly before the trade deadline. It’s hard to find the Giants’.