SAN FRANCISCO -- One day after riding Harrison Bader’s grand slam to a feel-good win at Oracle Park, the Giants decided to stick to the same script against the White Sox.
Another grand slam from Rafael Devers fueled an 8-5 win for the Giants on Sunday afternoon, clinching the club’s first series victory at home since April 24-26 against the Marlins.
“I think the potential there to drive the ball is up and down throughout the lineup, to be honest with you,” manager Tony Vitello said. “I think other people saw that before the season and got excited. It’s just a matter of things developing. It’s our story. I guess it’s got to kind of develop at its own pace. But there’s potential to do that.”
Casey Schmitt gave the Giants a 4-1 lead with his team-leading 11th home run of the year in the third, but Chicago tied the game behind a two-run rally in the top of the fifth that featured a trio of walks and a couple of defensive miscues from San Francisco.
Still, it didn’t take long for the Giants to land the decisive counterpunch.
Willy Adames led off the bottom of the fifth with a double, Luis Arraez reached on his second hit-by-pitch of the afternoon and Schmitt walked to load the bases for Devers, who promptly unloaded on a first-pitch fastball from White Sox right-hander Grant Taylor to put San Francisco back in front, 8-4.
Devers’ seventh career grand slam -- and his first for the Giants -- traveled a Statcast-projected 391 feet out to the opposite field, firing up the 40,220 fans that packed the house ahead of Memorial Day.
“It’s fun, right?” Schmitt said. “That was great for him to get that out of here, too. It was a big moment for us and a big momentum boost.”
It marked the sixth time in Giants history that they’ve hit grand slams in back-to-back games and the first since Schmitt singlehandedly accomplished the feat against the Dodgers on June 13-14, 2025.
“Oh, that’s right,” Schmitt said when reminded of the fact. “That’s pretty cool. Wow. I forgot about that.”
(It’s worth noting that Schmitt’s second slam came off a position player -- Kiké Hernández -- who came in to pitch the top of the ninth inning of an 11-5 blowout win at Dodger Stadium.)
“Hey, they all count,” Schmitt said, smiling.
The Giants’ three grand slams in May are also tied for the second-most they’ve ever hit in a single calendar month, trailing only April 1970 (four). All three have come in the last eight days, a first for the Giants since 1924.
“The offense has been great,” said left-hander Robbie Ray, who gave up four runs over four-plus innings while issuing a career-high seven walks on Sunday. “They’ve been carrying us these past couple of games. It’s been nice. At this point, you have to get the pitching and the hitting synced up, and we’ll be rolling, for sure.”
The Giants came into the season expecting to have that type of game-changing pop in their lineup, but their offense struggled mightily to hit for power early this season, which helps explain their disappointing 22-31 record.
Still, they went deep five times over their final two games against the White Sox and have now homered at least once in 17 of their last 19 games since May 4, an encouraging trend for a team that will need to put together stretches of consistent production to climb out of the deep hole it’s dug itself in.
“If you’re talking about getting four runs on one swing, there’s got to be some build-up to it,” Vitello said. “I think the quality of the at-bats has gotten better, so it’s provided more opportunities to do that. Again, the way our story’s developed is our guys are starting to make progress to where we’re consistently driving the ball.”
Devers remains the Giants’ biggest power threat, but their most reliable bat this year has been the 27-year-old Schmitt, who has accounted for 11 of the club’s 46 home runs while settling into a super-utility role this year. He’s now homered at five different positions for San Francisco this year -- first base, second base, third base, left field and designated hitter -- becoming the first Giant since at least 1900 to do so since Alvin Dark in 1953.
“The one thing you know about Casey is we want him in the lineup almost every day,” Vitello said. “He makes life so much easier on us with him kind of being that Swiss Army Knife, but also being a home run threat that can do it at a bunch of different positions.”