SAN FRANCISCO – After blowing a six-run, ninth-inning lead the day before, the Giants bullpen needed something more than a mere bounceback Thursday night. It needed to be special, and was.
Trent Harris and Carson Seymour, who were not part of Wednesday’s late debacle against the Reds, spoke defiantly for the bullpen in a 6-1 victory in the first of four games against the playoff-contending Diamondbacks.
Harris and Seymour combined to protect a 2-1 lead with three hitless innings once the Giants went ahead in the fifth. The offense padded the lead with a four-run eighth against Arizona reliever Kevin Ginkel.
In a far cry from the bullpen’s seven-run ninth inning in Wednesday’s 10-9 loss, the Giants enjoyed a much calmer ninth Thursday with Ryan Walker surrendering singles to the first two hitters but getting the final three outs.
Drew Gilbert supplied the Giants’ first two runs, with his first career leadoff homer and the fifth-inning sacrifice fly that enabled Landen Roupp to break a five-game losing streak. Rafael Devers, Bryce Eldridge and Turner Hill had successive RBI hits in the eighth, including Eldridge’s double in his return from the bereavement list. Shay Whitcomb bunted home the inning’s fourth run.
The Giants improved to 3-1 on their homestand and forestalled their 80th loss in front of a sellout crowd, a quarter of whom were drawn by a Pokémon giveaway.
Roupp’s losing streak was fueled by an inability to throw strikes. In those starts he walked 19 over 24 2/3 innings.
Roupp had his share of three-ball counts and walks against Arizona but made enough good pitches over five innings to leave with a 2-1 lead.
The one exception was a full-count changeup in the fourth inning that Gabriel Moreno lasered over the left-field wall at 110 mph for a solo homer, the only run that Roupp allowed. He threw 35 pitches in the inning but struck out Ryan Waldschmidt to strand the bases loaded.
The Giants retook a 2-1 lead on Gilbert’s fifth-inning sacrifice fly made possible by Christian Koss’ heads-up baserunning, after Arizona starter Jose Cabrera hit him with a pitch.
Koss not only went first-to-third on a Nate Furman bunt when the Diamondbacks left third base unguarded, he also alertly retreated to third on Gilbert’s sinking liner, which looked like a possible hit, allowing him to tag and score on Max Kepler’s sliding catch.