OAKLAND -- The Giants dug themselves into a sizable hole with an awful start to the second half, but they took a step toward halting their freefall by completing a two-game sweep of the A’s with a 6-4 win in Sunday’s series finale at the Oakland Coliseum.
Behind a trio of home runs, including two from Mike Yastrzemski, the Giants won consecutive games for only the second time since the All-Star break and claimed the Bay Bridge Series trophy in front of a lively crowd of more than 30,000. They have bigger prizes in mind, of course, namely finding a way to climb back into the hunt for a National League Wild Card spot.
At 53-55, the Giants remain 6 1/2 games behind the Padres for the third and final NL playoff spot, but they’ll have an opportunity to make up some ground as they head to San Diego to kick off a three-game series at Petco Park on Monday. It’ll mark the Giants’ first matchup with the new-look Padres, who revamped their roster by adding Juan Soto, Josh Hader, Josh Bell and Brandon Drury in a flurry of deals at the Trade Deadline.
“Obviously, they made a ton of moves,” Yastrzemski said. “But you can’t really look at the opposing players and really get worried about that. We control a lot of our own destiny.”
Here are three keys for the Giants as they attempt to force their way back into the Wild Card race down the stretch:
1. Elite starting pitching
Most contenders prioritized adding starting pitching depth at the Deadline, but the Giants didn’t feel the need to explore that market, underscoring their confidence in their talented rotation. San Francisco flashed that strength over the weekend, with co-aces Carlos Rodón and Logan Webb each delivering strong starts against the A’s.
Rodón, who was viewed as the club’s biggest trade chip, worked 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball on Saturday in his first post-Deadline start, while Webb rebounded from his worst outing of the year with a quality start in Sunday’s finale. After giving up a season-high six runs over five innings against the Dodgers on Monday, Webb managed to hold the A’s to two runs on four hits over seven innings despite not having his best stuff.
Webb’s velocity was down a tick, but he remained effective, inducing tons of ground balls and not giving up a hit until Vimael Machín doubled to lead off the fifth. Machín ended up scoring both of the A’s runs against Webb, coming home on Skye Bolt’s single in the fifth and Tony Kemp’s forceout in the seventh.
“I think sometimes Logan wants to see more velo when he comes out there, but I think he’s really effective when the ball is just moving all over the place,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “He’s not a guy that has to come out throwing 92, 93, 94 [mph]. He can not only survive, but thrive with that 91 mph sinker and a high-quality changeup and slider.”
The Giants will be without their top two starters in San Diego, so they’ll be counting on Alex Wood, Alex Cobb and Jakob Junis to neutralize the Padres’ potent lineup. When Soto wished good luck to opposing pitchers during his introductory press conference, Webb responded with a sarcastic “Hahaha” GIF on Twitter.
“I was agreeing with him, saying like, ha ha ha, so funny,” Webb said. “It’s all fun and games. But at the end of the day, if you go out there and do your job, you can surprise yourself.”
2. Better health
The Giants have been snakebitten by injuries all year, but they’re finally starting to get back to full strength. One day after getting Joc Pederson and Brandon Crawford back in their lineup, the Giants activated Thairo Estrada and saw him clobber an 0-2 fastball from lefty A.J. Puk over the left-center-field wall for a two-run shot that extended the Giants’ lead to 4-1 in the sixth inning.
More help is on the way, as Evan Longoria is expected to return from the IL in the next day or two, which should only help lengthen the Giants’ lineup moving forward.
“When we’re healthy and we’re mostly all together, we’re pretty deep,” Kapler said. “Now the challenge is how do we keep this happening moving forward? It’s not the easiest thing and there’s no perfect formula for it, but I think one of the major emphasis points for our staff is how do we spread out the workload, not overdo it with everybody, so that we can have this group together for the last two months of the season.”
3. Resurgent bats
A few key Giants hitters have endured down seasons this year, including Crawford, Yastrzemski and LaMonte Wade Jr., but all three showed signs of returning to form this weekend. Crawford went 3-for-8 with a double in his first two games back from the IL, while Wade hit a big homer in Saturday’s 7-3 win. On Sunday, it was Yastrzemski’s turn to break out, as he delivered his fourth career multi-homer game and his first since July 16, 2021.
Yastrzemski, who entered Sunday batting .221 with a .699 OPS, put the Giants on the board with a solo shot off right-hander Adrián Martínez in the third and then added a two-run blast off Austin Pruitt to make it 6-2 in the eighth.
The Giants are now 42-28 in games in which they homer this year, compared to 11-27 when they don’t leave the yard. More power and production from the likes of Yastrzemski and Wade should bode well for the offense moving forward.
“We’ve been really close to clicking on all cylinders several times this year,” Yastrzemski said. “It’s nice to win a couple games in a row and see both sides of the ball working really well.”