SAN FRANCISCO -- One day after hitting his first career walk-off home run, Giants rookie outfielder Victor Bericoto found himself back in the starting lineup with a heavy heart.
Bericoto shared Thursday that his brother’s girlfriend was killed in the deadly earthquakes that struck his native Venezuela on Wednesday night. Bericoto said the rest of his family is OK, but he added that he has friends and former teammates who also lost loved ones in the tragedy.
“It’s sad to see everything that’s happening in my country -- to see that a lot of people lost their homes, everything they had, even their families,” Bericoto said in Spanish. “So many lives have been lost. It’s really sad. The message is we’re with them and supporting them through these terrible times that they’re going through.”
For the second straight game, Bericoto found a way to persevere. He hammered another mammoth home run to provide a silver lining to a 9-6 loss to the A’s that denied the Giants a three-game sweep at Oracle Park on Thursday afternoon.
The Giants trailed, 2-1, before briefly surging ahead behind a five-run outburst in the bottom of the sixth. Jung Hoo Lee kicked off the rally with a bases-clearing triple that got past a diving Lawrence Butler in right field and put San Francisco in front, 4-2.
Bericoto then extended the Giants’ lead by launching a down-the-middle fastball from A’s right-hander Justin Sterner a Statcast-projected 445 feet out to center field for his second home run in as many days. Bericoto’s third home run of the season had the same distance and exit velocity (108.7 mph) as his walk-off shot on Wednesday, showcasing his intriguing power from the right side.
The parallels didn’t end there. Bericoto also threw out a runner for the second consecutive game when he caught Tyler Soderstrom trying to stretch a single into a double to lead off the fourth. He’s the first Giants rookie to collect a homer and an outfield assist in consecutive games since at least 1900, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“Incredible throw,” said right-hander Landen Roupp, who didn’t factor into the decision after allowing two runs over six innings. “He’s really showing who he is out there. I played in Low-A with him when I first got drafted. You could see it then, what we’re seeing now. Pretty good ballplayer.”
Bericoto’s all-around effort wasn’t enough for the Giants, who ultimately saw their four-run lead slip away after allowing the A’s to score a combined seven runs over the final three innings.
Caleb Kilian came within one out of closing out the Giants’ first three-game sweep of the year in the top of the ninth, but he surrendered a game-tying single to Jonah Heim that bounced past a diving Matt Chapman at third base. Butler then put the A’s ahead with another RBI single before Max Muncy tacked on a pair of insurance runs with a two-run bloop single to left field.
“We gave up a touchdown in the last three innings,” manager Tony Vitello said. “You could talk about some balls finding holes or a broken-bat hit and things like that, but the bottom line is we needed to do better.”
Bericoto said he found out about the earthquakes before the Giants’ 2-1 comeback win over the A’s on Wednesday, but he wasn’t aware of the magnitude of the disaster until after he delivered his dramatic walk-off homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning.
“I was a little worried because I wasn’t able to get a hold of my family at first,” Bericoto said. “But a little before the game, I was able to get in touch with them and feel a little more at ease. I didn’t realize how serious it was until after the game.”
It ended up being quite an emotional night for the 24-year-old Bericoto, who was devastated by the images he saw coming out of his homeland in the wake of the seismic event.
“It’s been pretty difficult,” Bericoto said. “There were a lot of bad things after the game. “My brother’s girlfriend lost her life in the earthquakes. It was a really tough night. Like all Venezuelans, I don’t think anyone was able to sleep. It’s been really hard to process everything that happened.”
Vitello commended Bericoto for being able to stay in the moment despite all the uncertainty weighing on his mind on Wednesday.
“He just kind of kept things to himself, but obviously, he was battling that deal the whole day,” Vitello said. “To do that in that moment is pretty tough to put into words. ... I know some people in this area may have familiarity with the damage an earthquake can do. But I don’t know how you really comprehend what’s going on for them, much less what’s going on with everybody else over there.”
Bericoto said he was grateful for the support he’d received from his Giants teammates and coaches over the past 24 hours.
“I appreciate that,” Bericoto said. “It means a lot. Since day one, they’ve treated me like family. I really appreciate them.”