SAN FRANCISCO — Two days later, the Giants are still riding Logan Webb’s coattails.
Thanks to the seven strong innings from their ace Thursday night, the Giants were able to withstand a second straight subpar showing from their starting pitcher. When Bob Melvin saw that Kyle Harrison didn’t have it Saturday afternoon, the manager was comfortable asking his bullpen to cover the majority of the ballgame.
A well-rested combination of Ryan Walker, Erik Miller, Taylor Rogers, Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval took down the final five innings and put up enough zeroes to ensure Patrick Bailey’s tie-breaking two-run home run in the fifth inning would be decisive, defeating the Diamondbacks, 7-3.
On the day 15,000 fans went home with his bobblehead, Bailey came a few feet away from hitting for the cycle. He had to settle for a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate with the homer and two doubles, after a would-be seventh-inning triple bounced over the wall, robbing Bailey of the extra 90 feet and his name in the history books.
The big day from his batterymate made Harrison’s short start a distant memory.
The Giants’ starting pitcher has failed to make it out of the fifth inning in either of their past two games. Blake Snell was tagged for five runs on nine hits over the first 4⅔ innings Friday night before the floodgates opened in a 17-1 loss, and Harrison allowed three runs on six hits over his four innings Saturday.
The Diamondbacks presented a unique test for Harrison, pitting one of the majors’ top fastball-hitting teams against the starting pitcher who relies on his heater more than almost any other. Harrison had limited opposing hitters to a .190 average in at-bats ending in the fastball, but Arizona hitters went 4-for-12 against the pitch, and Harrison only mixed in his other offerings 22 times, barely a quarter of his 74 pitches.
It was heaters that Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Blaze Alexander smoked for doubles in the first and the fourth innings, and it was another fastball to Christian Walker that the first baseman whacked at 102.3 mph off the bat to drive home Gurriel and open a 1-0 advantage before the Giants came to bat.
Facing Zac Gallen, the third-place finisher behind Blake Snell and Logan Webb in last year’s Cy Young voting, the Giants didn’t trail for long.
Jung Hoo Lee swatted his second pitch of the game, a letter-high fastball, over the Levi’s Landing sign in right field, and San Francisco went on to plate five runs against Gallen in five innings, their most success against Arizona’s ace going back two seasons.
Since the start of 2022, the Giants had lost four of their six matchups against Gallen, who had a 2.90 ERA in those starts.
Lee’s home run landed on the concourse, an estimated 364 feet away, just missing out on a splash hit.
Four innings later, though, Bailey wouldn’t be denied a dip.
Already with two hits and an RBI on his ledger, Bailey stepped in against Gallen following a two-out single from Wilmer Flores that extended the inning. He saw four straight fastballs on or outside the edges of the strike zone before a fifth caught a little more of the plate.
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Bailey’s left-handed swing uncorked it at 109.7 mph, sending the ball to a group of happy kayakers, who might have begun to grow impatient if they had to wait any longer.
Coming the afternoon after the Jorge Soler slugged the Giants’ first home run at Oracle Park all season, it was the first Splash Hit of Bailey’s career and the first by a Giants hitter this season. Before Soler’s solo shot Friday, the Giants were the last team in the majors without a home run at home.
With a chance at the cycle in his next at-bat, Bailey worked the count full against reliever Bryce Jarvis and drove a cutter toward the wall in left-center field. On his horse out of the box, the catcher clearly had his mind on the second triple of his career. But as he made the turn at second, he realized the ball was no longer in play and, thus, neither was the cycle.
Up next
RHP Jordan Hicks (2-0, 1.57) vs. RHP Merrill Kelly (2-0 2.19) at 1:05 p.m. Sunday.
