Fueled by Beethoven, Giants' bats reach crescendo

San Francisco bashes five homers, scores 15 to rout Marlins

June 4th, 2022

MIAMI -- There was a shift in the Giants’ clubhouse on Friday afternoon at loanDepot park. It could have been that, as outfielder Mike Yastrzemski said, the team was feeling more relaxed.

But there was also an audible shift. It went from Biggie, to Beethoven.

Prior to his first Major League start, righty John Brebbia went over to the cabinet in the visiting clubhouse where he keeps an iPad to crank out jams pregame and, as a joke, put on Für Elise. Then, he left the clubhouse to get ready for his start, expecting someone to turn the classical music off after he left. Per Yastrzemski, no one did.

Whether it was the music, the fact that the Marlins were throwing an opener ahead of Elieser Hernandez or some other reason, the relaxed Giants went yard five times in a 15-6 rout, just 24 hours after being held to three singles in Thursday night’s shutout loss.

“We had pressed for a little bit the last two games, trying to score some runs after being behind a little bit,” Yastrzemski said. “But I think today we just relaxed and had fun. … It's not always a thing that you can choose to have or not to have. It's just, you know, we felt like we were in a good rhythm today.”

With home runs from Yastrzemski, Brandon Crawford, Joc Pederson, Thairo Estrada and Jason Vosler, San Francisco tallied the most long balls they’ve hit in a game since July 31, 2021, when they hit five homers vs. Houston.

Crawford’s home run, a seventh-inning grand slam -- the fifth of his career -- was the Giants’ final long ball of the night. In all, they went yard in the second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Having home runs, and hits, from throughout the order speaks to a consistency San Francisco hasn’t felt in quite some time due to injuries and the up-and-down nature of baseball.

But the knocks, homers and otherwise, came from up and down the lineup. Excluding Luis González, who exited after he was hit by a pitch in the second inning, the only Giants starter without a hit was catcher Curt Casali, who struck out in all five of his at-bats.

“It really felt like a team effort,” manager Gabe Kapler said.

Vosler is the perfect example of that effort from throughout the lineup. He didn’t make the Opening Day roster, but he was called up on April 19. Then, he was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento on May 7, before being recalled on June 1. While he was down in the Minors, Vosler focused on getting his hitting mechanics right, specifically his load and stride at the plate.

When he’s not working on his swing at the ballpark, he’ll be back at the hotel or at home practicing in front of a mirror or watching video. His solo home run in the sixth inning was just part of his impressive performance on Friday. The third baseman also made three inning-ending plays and robbed what could have been an extra-base hit for the first out of the bottom of the fourth.

Kapler was very impressed with Vosler’s performance. And with a depleted outfield, and a Miami ballpark that is generous with balls hit into the left-field corner, having a player able to make diving plays at third is crucial, especially against a team with speedy players like the Marlins.

“Obviously [it’s good] any time you get production at the bottom of the lineup like Vosler hit,” Kapler said. “And then the ability to come up and make the throw [after making good defensive plays], that’s one of the things that, it’s really important to us as defenders -- we have to complete plays, we can’t just make the front end of the play. Vos [doing] a nice job at third base [was] crucial to our success tonight.”

It also helped that Crawford, who had missed the series opener with a cold, and Evan Longoria were back in the starting lineup, though with production from the entire lineup, the Giants would have been fine even without the two veterans.

“Those guys are huge key pieces, assets to this team,” Pederson said. “I feel like we've played down kind of the whole year, Brandon Belt, Lamonte Wade [Jr.], [Austin] Slater’s down, I was out for a little bit … You know, we really haven't had our whole lineup that is able to put people in the best position to succeed. … So right now, I think we're just kind of doing a good job of getting by, but we're still not even playing to where our standard is.”