WEST SACRAMENTO -- The winds weren’t blowing in Harrison Bader’s favor on Saturday night.
Bader thought he hammered a grand slam out to left field in the top of the fifth inning, but his Statcast-projected 382-foot drive ended up being knocked down by the wind and falling harmlessly into the glove of A’s outfielder Tyler Soderstrom.
Bader had better luck with the elements on Sunday, though.
Heavy winds helped carry Bader’s opposite-field shot out to right field for a grand slam, capping an eight-run rally in the eighth inning that powered the Giants’ 10-1 drubbing of the A’s.
Did it feel like poetic justice for Bader?
“Yeah, for sure,” Bader said. “Everybody’s joking about that. I think it goes to show you that you’re always just one swing away. You never know. Sometimes you’ve got to play the elements a little bit. Not that I necessarily was trying to do that. It was just a good swing that I’m happy to have put out there for my teammates. Obviously, it feels good.”
The Giants took a one-run lead into the top of the eighth, but they broke the game open with the help of a couple of defensive miscues by the A’s. Bader led off the big inning by reaching on an error by third baseman Zack Gelof, who bobbled Bader's 74.9 mph grounder to the left side.
San Francisco’s next four batters ended up reaching base as well, with Rafael Devers coming through with a bases-loaded single that scored two runs after Lawrence Butler committed another error in center field.
With the Giants batting around, Bader got a chance to take a second at-bat in the eighth and proceeded to deliver the knockout blow, driving a 2-1 fastball from left-hander José Suarez out to the opposite field for his fourth home run of the year.
According to Weather Applied Metrics, Bader’s second career slam was pushed out by 7 feet and 18 feet to the right by the wind, helping it just clear the right-field wall. The 31-year-old center fielder was pumped up after going yard, tipping his head up to the sky as he rounded second as if to thank the universe for his change in fortune.
“I think it evened out,” manager Tony Vitello said. “If the game sidetracks you into the negative and beating yourself down and thinking the game is going against you, it’ll probably work that way. But if you realize you just keep pushing forward and keep doing what you can do or what you control, then we string together innings like we strung together.”
Luis Arraez also hit a wind-assisted homer off A’s left-hander Jeffrey Springs in the third, collecting his second blast in the last three days. Matt Chapman added an RBI double in the fourth to extend the Giants’ lead to 2-0, providing some early run support for veteran right-hander Adrian Houser, who worked six innings of one-run ball to earn his second consecutive win for San Francisco.
Houser issued five walks -- including three to reigning American League Rookie of the Year Nick Kurtz -- but he managed to minimize damage by keeping the ball on the ground and leaning into his Oklahoma roots.
“A groundball pitcher helps,” Vitello said. “But also, he grew up in Oklahoma. … We had a clear unfair advantage with Houser growing up in that state because it’s [windy] like that all the time.”
"It was a battle,” Houser said. “It was a grind out there, trying to just stay in the mechanics and feeling the wind blowing and messing with stuff. But I was able to execute when I needed to.”
The A’s lone run came in the fifth, when Darrell Hernaiz singled, Kurtz walked and Carlos Cortes skied a popup that fell between shortstop Willy Adames and Chapman for a two-out RBI double.
Adames appeared to lose Cortes’ ball in the sun, though it was also blown 58 feet inward and 50 feet rightward, making it difficult for Chapman to track down. Still, Chapman won the battle with Mother Nature in the sixth, when he ranged into foul territory and made a nice play in front of the protective netting to snag Butler’s inning-ending popup.
“Cortes puts the ball in play -- and it’s a tough sunball and -- then communication was tough because the wind was loud,” Vitello said. “But I’ll tell you what, Chappy came in more determined to make a play on a crazy popup. He said it, and it’s kind of like you speak it into existence.”
After splitting a four-game series against the Dodgers and taking two of three from the A’s, the Giants (20-27) will head to Arizona for the final leg of their 10-game road trip. Left-hander Robbie Ray will oppose former D-backs teammate Zac Gallen in the opening game of the three-game series between the National League West rivals on Monday night.