SAN FRANCISCO — On their way to a 13-2 romp Wednesday over the Milwaukee Brewers, the Giants ventured outside their comfort zone a couple times.
Not only did they jump out to an early lead against Brewers starter Colin Rea, they did so with the help of some aggressive base running.
The home runs that followed may get the headlines, but it was Heliot Ramos’ steal of second base that started it all.
After the 25-year-old outfielder drew a walk to give the Giants runners at the corners with one out in the first, they sent him in motion, which set in motion their first two runs. When Ramos bolted from first, Brewers catcher William Contreras tried to get a head start and instead let a low pitch from Rea sneak to the backstop, allowing Fitzgerald to scoot home from third and open a 1-0 lead.
With Ramos safely on second, he was in position to score when the next batter, LaMonte Wade Jr. dropped a single into center field, making it 2-0.
The Giants piled on with home runs from Jerar Encarnacion, Mike Yastrzemski and Matt Chapman — 10 runs charged to Rea, one of three opposing starters to surrender that many in the history of San Francisco’s waterfront ballpark — but their opening salvo was arguably more notable given their difficulty manufacturing runs and their stated goals for next season.
“I was just trying to go all out,” Ramos said, describing his effort on three highlight-reel catches in left field that was equally apt to his aggression on the base paths. ” … I’m all about the guys. If they get the RBIs, that’s all I care about.”
Ramos is one of a handful of young players that has given the Giants’ roster an infusion of athleticism, which manager Bob Melvin has said he hopes to see deployed at an even greater level next season, when Ramos and Fitzgerald and Grant McCray have an extra year of experience and Jung Hoo Lee is back atop the lineup.
“We’re starting to get some personnel that can do that,” Melvin said afterward.
If that sounds familiar, well, Farhan Zaidi echoed a similar talking point last winter.
After the Giants finished last in the league with 57 stolen bases in 2023, Zaidi said, “That just can’t happen.”
While their $113 million investment in Lee signaled some shift in roster-building strategy, it hasn’t resulted in any real progress. Ramos’ stolen base was the Giants’ 62nd of the season, tied with the Atlanta Braves for the fewest in the majors — again.
In perhaps a preview of next season, it has gotten better in the second half since they opened more opportunities for players such as Ramos, Fitzgerald and McCray. Since the All-Star break, they’ve swiped 31 bags, at least out-running the bottom third of the league (20th overall).
Not to be overlooked: a career-best 15 thefts from third baseman Matt Chapman to go with a team-high 17 from Fitzgerald, the first pair of Giants’ infielders to each steal at least 15 bases since Tito Fuentes and Dave Kingman in 1972. Ramos’ was his sixth in seven attempts, which ranks third on the team.
Combined with the league-high 139 steals allowed to their opponents, though, the running game has been a real deficiency for these Giants.
So, too, for that matter, has been scoring in the early innings. While the Giants have been one of the best late-game offenses in the majors — scoring the seventh-most runs from the seventh inning onward — only the Angels, Pirates and White Sox have had less success scoring in the first three frames.
So, the Giants’ eight runs in the first two innings amounted to as much of an anomaly as the method that got them on the board.
It proved to be more than enough for Blake Snell, who rebounded from his one-inning outing in his last start to complete five.
“They were swinging it,” Snell said. “It was fun to watch. They got hot, got eight runs quick and just kept at it. It’s always fun to watch the offense go double-digits.”
Pulled after a 42-pitch first inning against the Diamondbacks, Snell was threatened with another early exit but instead authored the alternate reality had a few other pitches gone his way his last time out. After issuing a 10-pitch walk to Joey Ortiz, the Brewers had the bases loaded and Snell’s second-inning pitch count had climbed north of 30. But he fired three straight fastballs past Brice Turang to end the frame with no runs on the board, exhausting 34 pitches.
Snell went on to strike out eight batters while limiting the Brewers to one run over five innings, walking two and surrendering four hits.
“I want to be in the zone, I want to attack the zone,” Snell said. “The lack of doing it has been pretty frustrating, but to go five today with what I had to battle, it’s good. But the offense carried us. It helped me a lot to where I could make more mistakes knowing that I had a big lead.”
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Notable
Encarnacion‘s two-run homer in the first inning rode the jetstream out to right field and just cleared the arcade. It was only the 75th time in the history of Oracle Park that a right-handed hitter went the opposite way for a home run and the first since J.D. Davis last May.
Chapman‘s solo shot in the fourth was his team-leading 24th of the season and also his 60th extra-base hit, the first time a Giant has reached that figure since Kevin Pillar in 2019. Yastrzemski cleared the bases with a three-run blast in the second, homering in back-to-back games for the second time this month.
Up next
After being pushed back by two days, RHP Hayden Birdsong (3-5, 5.19) starts the series finale Thursday against RHP Frankie Montas (6-10, 4.69). First pitch is scheduled for 6:45 p.m.
