Devers blasts off to McCovey Cove for 1st Splash Hit as a Giant

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants knew it was only a matter of time before Rafael Devers used his tremendous power to clear the right-field wall and launch a ball into McCovey Cove.

On Wednesday night, that moment finally arrived.

Devers crushed a game-tying solo shot off Sonny Gray in the third inning to collect his first career Splash Hit and help the Giants avoid a three-game sweep with a 4-3 win over the Cardinals at Oracle Park.

Devers led off the bottom of the inning and quickly got ahead 3-0 against Gray, but he didn’t hold back on the next pitch, ripping an up-and-in fastball a Statcast-projected 376 feet out to right field to deliver the 108th Splash Hit by a Giant since the club’s waterfront ballpark opened in 2000.

“It was only a matter of time,” manager Bob Melvin said. “I had a hard time believing he wasn’t going to get one in the water before we left. 3-0, he took a healthy hack, got a good pitch to hit. It put a smile on his face.”

According to third baseman Casey Schmitt, Melvin actually called Devers’ 34th home run of the season and his 19th for the Giants, who acquired the three-time All-Star in a blockbuster deal with the Red Sox on June 15. The towering blast came off Devers’ bat at 108.3 mph and had a launch angle of 43 degrees, tying his Sept. 2 homer against the Rockies for the second-highest by a Giant on a home run this year.

“I saw it go really high,” said Schmitt, who went 3-for-4 while filling in for Matt Chapman at the hot corner. “It was up there. I knew it was going to get out. I was hoping it was going to get in the water because it’d be cool for him to get that.”

San Francisco took a 3-2 lead in the fourth after Christian Koss reached on a fielding error by right fielder Jordan Walker and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Knizner, but the Cardinals re-tied the game on another sac fly by longtime tormentor Nolan Arenado in the top of the eighth.

Still, Koss and Knizner teamed up to put the Giants ahead for good in the bottom half of the inning. After Koss hustled down the line to lead off the frame with an infield single, Knizner came through with a line drive up the middle that got past a diving Victor Scott II in center field and rolled all the way to the warning track for a go-ahead triple off right-hander Riley O’Brien. It was the first triple of Knizner’s seven-year career in the big leagues.

“I was hoping he’d get an inside-the-parker, but I guess he doesn’t have that speed,” Schmitt said of the veteran backstop. “We were loving it. We were top step just waving him over just to get to third. That was a really clutch hit that he had against a really good reliever.”

At 78-81, the Giants will have a chance to finish at .500 if they close out the regular season with a three-game sweep of the Rockies.

This weekend could bring another cool milestone for Devers, who hasn’t missed a game this year and will have a shot at becoming the first player to appear in 163 regular-season games since Justin Morneau in 2008.

The Giants hoped Devers would serve as the finishing touch on a roster that had lofty goals of competing in the National League West and getting back to the postseason for the first time since 2021. But Devers’ arrival inexplicably sparked a downturn for the Giants, who went 37-50 over their next 87 games and were officially eliminated from postseason contention on Tuesday.

While Devers didn’t supercharge the Giants as expected this year, he’s projected to anchor their lineup for the foreseeable future, as he’s signed through 2033 and should continue to headline a core of position players that currently features Chapman, shortstop Willy Adames and first baseman Bryce Eldridge, who's ranked by MLB Pipeline as San Francisco's top prospect.

Eldridge and Devers now man the same defensive position, but the two have been splitting time at first base and designated hitter this month, which could provide a glimpse as to how they’ll co-exist on the Giants’ roster next season.

“That’s not something I’ve had conversations [about] with anyone, but whatever it takes to win, I think that’s what both of us are going to be comfortable doing,” said Eldridge, who went 2-for-4 to record his first career multihit game on Wednesday. “Whether that’s flip-flopping or one of us doing one or the other, I’m here to win games. Whatever the people in the [front] offices and BoMel decide is going to help us win the most, I'm going to do my job there.”