Carried by big blasts, Giants feel things swinging their way

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants’ 10-3 win over the White Sox Saturday afternoon at Oracle Park was a team-wide sigh of relief in theory -- but it was more the result of taking the day on its own merits, unencumbered by the frustrations of a less-than-ideal first two months of the season.

“Today was just about today,” summarized manager Tony Vitello after the victory snapped a four-game losing streak.

And sure enough, even without the services of two key offensive contributors in Heliot Ramos (right quad strain) and Jung Hoo Lee (back strain), it was the Giants’ offense that did what it had to do.

Knotted in a scoreless tie with Chicago through three frames, San Francisco packed five hits into the bottom of the fourth against right-hander Erick Fedde, jumping out to a three-run lead.

Though that advantage evaporated in the next frame as Adrian Houser surrendered four hits in a three-run frame that drove him from the game, the Giants climbed back in front for good thanks to elements that have largely eluded the club so far in 2026: Home runs, as well as a bit of good luck.

“You always say in this game things will even out, and I do think it's at least factual to state there's been more of those against us than for us,” said Vitello regarding lucky breaks finally turning in the Giants’ favor.

Left fielder Casey Schmitt clobbered a Fedde cutter into the left-field seats to untie things in the bottom of the fifth. It was Schmitt’s 10th home run, tops on the Giants and roughly a quarter of their team total of 44 long balls on the season.

Two batters later, Miguel Vargas couldn’t reel in a Matt Chapman popup down the left-field line that fell in for a double instead of ending the inning. This would loom large for Chicago.

With the bases loaded and Jordan Leasure on the mound, Harrison Bader’s popup between home and third base was lost in the sun by Vargas -- again -- extending Bader’s at-bat.

The center fielder promptly unloaded on 3-1 fastball, crushing his second grand slam of the week to put the Giants ahead for good with a Statcast-projected 425-foot rocket to center field.

"We’re winning games when he hits grand slams,” joked Houser. “We might have to put in a call for a grand slam every week, so we’ll see what happens.”

It was precisely the sort of game the Giants (21-31) needed to break the skid and, they hope, get back on track.

“I think it was good just to kind of flush yesterday and go and attack today,” said Schmitt of the team’s approach. “That was the message, you know, flush it. Today’s a new day, a new opportunity. And today we got things done, and we’ve got to just continue to build on it.”

Following Houser’s exit, the trio of Matt Gage, Sam Hentges and Joel Peguero held Chicago quiet the rest of the way, allowing just three hits and a walk over 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to nail down the victory.

Top prospect Bryce Eldridge also flexed his skills at the dish, cracking two singles -- one of them a 109.6 mph rocket to cap an 11-pitch at-bat -- and a walk, reaching base three times in a game for the first time in his young Major League career.

With his timely grand slam, Bader became the 11th Giant to hit two slams in a calendar month. The most recent to accomplish that feat was none other than Schmitt in June 2025. The most recent prior to Schmitt was current president of baseball operations Buster Posey in June 2015.

Bader pointed to what he’s able to contribute on the field when healthy, and it’s hard to argue with the results he’s shown this past week.

“I've been on less talented teams before, and this is certainly a very talented team,” said Bader. “I know what a version of baseball looks like that is not as talented as a lot of these guys. So we certainly have the talent to do it, it’s just a matter of executing. … I feel like everything boils down to just a decision when you wake up, how you come to the stadium. That decision looks different for every player, but I think erring on the side of positivity, erring on the side of getting your work in regardless of the noise and trusting yourself. I think those decisions on a daily basis will allow an entire team to kind of match its talent with results.

“We certainly have the pieces for it. And today was a great example of that. So we're going to take that into tomorrow.”