SAN FRANCISCO -- Giants manager Gabe Kapler loves to create as many favorable matchups as possible when constructing his lineups, but he didn’t think twice about starting Joc Pederson against Mets left-hander Thomas Szapucki on Wednesday. Pederson, after all, was coming off his first career three-homer game and brimming with confidence following an inspiring chat with franchise icon Barry Bonds.
“That was just strictly self-preservation on my part,” Kapler joked before the game. “I’m all good with trying to get the platoon advantage wherever possible, but I also want to survive the day.”
Pederson entered Wednesday with only 10 at-bats against lefties this season, but he stayed red-hot against Szapucki, blasting his fourth home run in two days as the Giants rode an early power binge to a 9-3 rout of the Mets at Oracle Park. San Francisco launched four homers -- including two by Evan Longoria and one off the bat of Mike Yastrzemski -- in the first two innings to hand New York only its second series loss of the year.
All eight of the Giants’ hits went for extra bases, providing plenty of support for right-hander Jakob Junis, who delivered six innings of two-run ball to improve to 2-1 with a 2.76 ERA over six appearances (four starts) this season.
Longoria, who returned to the lineup after missing one game with a jammed left shoulder, set the tone with his first home run of the season, hammering a three-run shot to center field to put the Giants on the board in the first. Two batters later, Pederson sent a two-run homer over the right-field arcade to extend San Francisco’s lead to 5-0 and pick up only his 12th career homer off a lefty.
“Joc is, to use Kawhi Leonard’s term, a fun guy,” Longoria said. “He’s a guy that really keeps it loose in here. I think he’s great for our clubhouse. But as you can see, when he gets hot, he can swing the bat with the best of them. He’s going to be a huge part of our success going forward.”
Pederson, who is 5-for-8 with 10 RBIs and two walks over his last two games, now leads the Giants with 11 homers, tied for third in the National League. Given how locked in Pederson is at the plate, Kapler felt it made sense to brush aside platoon considerations and give him a chance to continue his tear with his first start against a lefty this season.
“I believe in players feeling confident, coming off a big game and stepping back in the batter’s box the next game feeling good about themselves,” Kapler said. “Does that always translate into success? No, it doesn’t. We know that it doesn’t. It probably gives you a marginal advantage rather than not feeling good about yourself.”
Wednesday proved to be a confidence-builder for Longoria, as well. The 36-year-old third baseman missed the first month of the season while rehabbing from right index finger surgery and went only 7-for-36 with two RBIs in his first 11 games back from the injured list. But he looked more like himself against the Mets, going back to back with Yastrzemski to cap a four-run second and seal his 20th career multihomer game.
“One of the reasons we were successful last year is because our veteran players had signature and sort of career years,” Kapler said. “Longo was excellent when he was on the field for us. Obviously, he had some injuries and wasn’t able to complete a full season, but while he was there, he did very well for us. In order for us to get where we want to go, it’s going to have to be [Brandon] Crawford and [Brandon] Belt and Longo and Joc and some of these veteran players carrying us.”
Kapler put Yastrzemski in that category, too, though the 31-year-old outfielder has certainly been doing his part thus far. With his fourth home run of the season, Yastrzemski extended his hitting streak to a career-high-matching nine games, going 13-for-29 over that span to raise his overall batting average to .309 with a .909 OPS over 34 games this season.
This six-game homestand proved to be a show of resiliency for the Giants, who were swept by the Padres over the weekend and then dropped Monday’s series opener to the Mets to extend their losing streak to five games. But they managed to snap the skid with a thrilling 13-12 walk-off win on Tuesday night, providing a huge emotional swing that carried into Wednesday and ultimately helped them take two of three games from the NL East-leading Mets.
They’ll hope to continue to ride that momentum as they head to Cincinnati to kick off a 10-game road trip on Friday night at Great American Ball Park.
“The game last night, those games can either catapult you forward or have a tendency to set you back,” Longoria said. “We were luckily on the winning end of that one last night, and today we came out excited, swung the bats well and won a series against a playoff team. That’s a good team. I think we’re all happy with the results.”