SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants have gone deep only twice over their first 10 home games of the year. Both shots have come off the bat of the same man: Rafael Devers.
Devers flexed his tremendous power by hammering a three-run blast to snap a scoreless deadlock in the sixth inning and then added an RBI single in the eighth to spur the Giants to a 5-0 victory over the Phillies in Wednesday afternoon’s series finale at Oracle Park.
The second consecutive shutout gave San Francisco (5-8) back-to-back wins at home for the first time this season, clinching a much-needed series victory before the club embarked on an 11-day, nine-game road trip through Baltimore, Cincinnati and Washington.
“It'd be awesome to be in a better situation, but I think we found some things out about ourselves that can be valuable in the long run,” manager Tony Vitello said. “Also, we’re playing pretty decent ball right now. All in all, there's plenty of positives to look at, but we’ve certainly got to be motivated to learn from mistakes in the past and hunt down the best version of ourselves.”
Veteran right-handers Tyler Mahle and Aaron Nola matched each other with five scoreless innings to start the game before the Giants finally broke through thanks to Devers’ big swing in the sixth.
Willy Adames sent a blooper to shallow right field and hustled into second base in the sixth inning for his fifth double of the series, becoming the first Giant to collect five two-baggers in a three-game span since Buster Posey did so from June 13-15, 2013.
Luis Arraez followed with a walk to put a pair of runners on with one out, though Nola managed to strike out Matt Chapman looking after the Phillies issued a successful ABS challenge that flipped an initial ball four into a called third strike.
That brought up Devers, who entered Wednesday batting only .196 with a .543 OPS and 14 strikeouts over his first 12 games of the year. The 29-year-old slugger struck out looking to leave a runner stranded on third in the first and then grounded into a double play in the fourth, but he made sure not to squander a third scoring opportunity against the Phillies.
Devers mashed a first-pitch fastball from Nola a Statcast-projected 411 feet out to center field for his second homer of the year, giving San Francisco a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
“I think it was massive, because everybody sees his frustration in the dugout,” Vitello said. “He's really good about, if he does get emotional, kind of putting it in his back pocket after a few seconds. But everybody can see it, and also everybody knows what he's capable of.”
Devers said he wasn’t sweating his slow start, as he still felt like was doing better than last year, when he started the season 0-for-19 with 15 strikeouts after struggling to adapt to designated hitter duties for the Red Sox.
“We know that things aren’t always going to work out like we want, but those are just temporary stretches,” Devers said in Spanish. “I know the type of hitter that I am. I don’t need to fear those stretches. I know things can turn positive at any moment. I feel good, thank God.”
Devers was limited to DHing for his first nine games of the year due to a tender left hamstring, but he was cleared to start playing first base on Sunday and said he’s enjoyed the chance to get back out on the field.
“You can feel the difference, because [when you’re DHing], you’re only thinking about hitting,” Devers said. “Now I’m thinking about defense, how to cover first, a lot of other things, so it’s a lot different. Before, I was just sitting in the dugout, going to the cage and thinking about my swing. It was good, but at the same time not so good.”
The Giants added on in the eighth after Adames reached on a leadoff single and scored on a costly defensive miscue from Phillies left-hander José Alvarado.
Alvarado attempted to field a sacrifice bunt from Arraez, but he airmailed his throw to first baseman Bryce Harper and then watched the ball roll past a diving Bryson Stott, allowing Adames to score all the way from first. Arraez advanced to second on the play and later came home on Devers’ RBI single up the middle.
Mahle held the Phillies to three hits and four walks over 5 2/3 scoreless innings, and the Giants’ bullpen took over from there, with Matt Gage, Caleb Kilian, Blade Tidwell and Erik Miller combining to cover the final 3 1/3 innings to complete the shutout.
Gage was credited with his first MLB win, a cool milestone for a 33-year-old journeyman who enjoyed a full-circle moment when he rejoined the Giants organization last year.