ARLINGTON, Texas — The Giants have not been been a particularly powerful group through the first portion of the season, entering Friday’s series opener with the Texas Rangers 22nd in the majors with 59 home runs.
But don’t tell them.
Wilmer Flores launched a pair of solo shots and Michael Conforto provided the tie-breaking two-run homer to guide the Giants over Bruce Bochy and the defending World Series champions, 5-2, for their second win in a row, and the second straight where the long ball loomed large.
A grand slam from Flores, a towering two-run shot from Heliot Ramos and a late solo shot from Jorge Soler two days prior contributed to seven of their nine runs to avoid being swept by the Diamondbacks on the first leg of this road trip.
The Giants have not lost this season when getting three or more home runs, but they haven’t had many chances. It had happened twice in their first 62 games before the past two contests.
Flores has three home runs in the past two games after leaving the yard just once in his first 50 games of the season. Hooking near-identical solo shots to left field in his first two at-bats — both traveled 387 feet and as he punished middle-middle fastballs in hitters’ counts — Flores built a 2-0 lead behind Logan Webb heading into the fifth inning.
It was the ninth multi-homer game of Flores’ career and the fourth time he has hit three in the span of two games. It was the Giants’ biggest power display over two games since they hit eight home runs in two games in Mexico City last April.
To earn a win behind Webb for the first time in four starts and only the second time in his past eight times on the mound, it required one more power stroke.
Webb mostly mowed through the Rangers’ order, striking out six without walking a batter over seven innings but ran into trouble in the fifth, allowing the first two batters of the inning to reach base and score to even the game at 2. It was the eighth time this season Webb has gone seven or more innings, the most in the majors, but the Giants have gotten only two such starts in 50 games from the rest of their rotation.
While Flores’ power swing has been absent from the lineup for much of the season for performance reasons — his past two games still left him with a .226 average and .654 OPS — the Giants missed Conforto during the 19 games he missed with a hamstring strain and welcomed him back earlier this week.
Conforto was one of the Giants’ most productive hitters before landing on the injured list, and he provided a reminder in his third time back in the starting lineup.
Driving in an insurance run with his third hit of the night the following inning was none other than Heliot Ramos, who didn’t look out of place making his first start of the season in center field and continued his hot hitting at the plate.
Notable
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After being re-evaluated in Arizona on Thursday, LHP Blake Snell (groin) could be back on a mound by next week. “It seems to be a little bit more on the milder side than it was last time,” Melvin said of the adductor strain that landed the left-hander on the injured list for a second time in as many months.
At Triple-A Sacramento, RHP Spencer Bivens was named the Pacific Coast League pitcher of the month, the first monthly leaguewide honors earned by a River Cats player since Austin Slater in 2016. Recording his eighth save of the season Thursday night, the 29-year-old right-hander signed out of independent ball extended his scoreless streak to 10 appearances, spanning 17⅔ innings.
Up next
Both teams have their starters for the final two games of the series listed as TBA, but it should be some combination of RHP Keaton Winn (3-6, 6.17), RHP Spencer Howard (0-0, 2.08) and a possible opener against LHP Andrew Heaney (2-6, 3.99) and RHP Nathan Eovaldi (2-2, 2.70) for the Rangers.
