High Five

Apr 27, 2023 | 2023 Season, Latest Post

by
Greek Giant

The Giants Are a Better Team With Austin Slater and Mitch Haniger

The Giants won their fifth consecutive game last night by a score of 7-3 over the St. Louis Cardinals. The patter of this win was different from their previous two wins. The Giants fell behind early, 2-0 but bounced back thanks solid work by Anthony Desclafani and late  home runs by LaMonte Wade Jr., and Wilmer Flores.

The Cardinals started the scoring with home runs by Paul Goldschmidt in the first and third innings. Both of those homers were solo jobs. It needs to be mentioned that Paul Goldschmidt is a Giant-Killer, even as a member of the Cardinals. It also needs to be mentioned that Goldschmidt, according to ESPN, “extended his on-base streak at Oracle Park to 28 games, tied for the 10th longest streak in stadium history. It was the 24th multi-homer game for the seven-time All-Star, whose 15 home career home runs at the waterfront ballpark are also the most by an opponent.” He’s a future Hall of Famer for sure but on this night the Giants absorbed his blows and countered with their own.

Goldschmidt would end the game by hitting into a double play while facing Camilo Doval who was pressed into relief when Sean Hjelle could not escape the inning without surrendering an rbi double.

Wade’s homer came in the bottom of the fourth inning to get the Giants on the scoreboard. Austin Slater then followed with an RBI single, later in the inning. Suddenly it’s a tie game. The winning run was scored in the bottom of the fifth when Mitch Haniger raced home on a wild pitch.

Wilmer hit his homer in the seventh inning and then in the 8th the Giants scored crucial add-on runs in the form of an RBI single by Michael Conforto and a triple by Wade Jr.

Thairo Estrada had three hits to raise his batting average to .326. This was one of those textbook Giant wins that you draw up in your dreams (sound timely hitting, great starting pitching, good defense (mostly), etc., more or less.

Giant Manager Gabe Kapler comments on the Giants current winning streak:

“Early in the season we weren’t getting the job done. We knew that our pitching staff was performing well but they were giving up home runs and that was causing games to go in the other direction. Things have turned the other way. And a lot of that is just getting healthy and our true talent emerging here in the last five games or so.”

The Cardinals made another error in the game and have looked incredibly sloppy defensively all series. The Giants have clearly benefitted from superior starting pitching, better defense and the injection of both Austin Slater and Mitch Haniger in the line up.

Anthony Desclafani

Anthony Desclafani earned his second win of the season with six innings of work allowing only the two solo homers by Goldschmidt in terms of scoring. He surrendered six hits and struck out six while walking two. This win was a character-builder after going down 2-0 in the form of two loud homers.

Speaking of homers, I took a gander at the stats today and noticed the Giants have allowed the second fewest homers (26) as a staff in the National League, behind only the Braves (20). The Giants staff has also allowed the fewest walks (61). That’s as impressive as the low amount of home runs given up and explains a little about the success of the staff, particularly the starters.

The Drew Maggi Story

This story is just too awesome to pass up: Drew Maggi made his Major League debut for the Pirates after ten years and over 1,100 games with more than 4,400 plate appearances as a Minor Leaguer. I dare you not to cry after watching the video of his at bat and the reception the fans, his teammates and even the Dodgers gave him. Speaking of the Pirates!? What the hell is going on in Pittsburgh?

Today’s Game

The Giants are playing for a rare four-game sweep over the Cardinals today at Wiilie Mays Field. Game time is 12:45 PM. The pitching matchup is schedule as Mike Mikolas against Logan Webb.