San Francisco Spoilers

Sep 24, 2024 | 2024 Season, Latest Post

by
Greek Giant

Many interesting things happened in last night’s 6-3 Giants victory of an Arizona Diamondbacks team fighting for a playoff spot. Matt Chapman hit an inside-the-park-homer in the top of the third inning following a Jerar Encarnacion opposite-field double that scored Heliot Ramos from first base when the Giants were down 1-0. In that quick succession of at bats the Giants took a 3-1 lead they would never relinquish. From there Hayden Birdsong held the fort pitching five innings, earning his fifth win in allowing two runs to a very deep DBacks line up. He had a live fastball and showed some mettle in getting out of jams in a couple innings. I was very impressed with Birdsong on this night. He has a swagger and a body language that screams “winner” and I think he is going to end up being a very important part of the Giants starting rotation for many years. He may even end up being an Ace. That’s how high on him I am. Birdsong, apart from an assortment of excellent pitches, possesses that “IT” factor that separates great players from good ones. I look forward to him pitching in October for the Giants, a dream I believe will be a reality as soon as the team makes the right changes in its leadership at the front office level.

The GIants added more runs thanks to a booming Casey Schmitt home run down the left field line in the top of the fourth inning on a slider from Arizona starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez. Then in the top of the fifth inning Michael Conforto took Rodriquez deep for one of the most majestic home runs you will ever see. It went to right center and simply refused to land. It would end up hitting the second deck and, according to Statcast, went 430 feet. I think it was much longer than that, more like 460. Conforto might be the most confounding player on the Giants. One night he looks like Willie McCovey at the plate and the next…well, you know. Conforto has plus plus power and has the ability to hit the double the other way. It’s just that he lacks consistency, even in the short term. He has been a head-scratcher his entire Giants tenure. The homer he hit was his 19th of the season to go with 63 RBIs, not too shabby for a player who does not play every day.

The Giants sixth run came from Matt Chapman again. Chapman hit a triple off the wall in center that scored Michael Conforto in the top of the seventh. On that triple, DBacks center fielder Jake McCarthy made a long, running leap at the wall and just missed a fabulous catch. He hit the wall hard with his head after the play and I hope he is ok. He made a similar, non-catch on Chapman’s inside-the-parker in the third inning, running at least 150 feed and slamming into the wall as the ball rolled another 100 feet towards right. McCarthy had an eventful night, one he will never forget as much as he would like to. Speaking of that homer by Chapman, that was a ball that, had it been properly backed up by the right fielder, would have kept Matt at third base. But evidently the DBack was asleep on the play or assumed it would be caught. That little mistake cost Arizona the run though it did not go down as an error.

There were other such miscues in the game. In the bottom of the first inning, on a slicing liner to right hit by Gerald Perdomo, Heliot Ramos played a sure single into a double by waiting too long to try to dive for the ball then holding up and getting caught in between. The ball clanked off his glove, caromed into center and allowed Perdomo to take second. It should have been scored a single and an error but that’s hometown scoring for you.

Ramos was involved in another miscue that nearly cost the Giants a run. On the double by Encarnacion with Ramos running from first he began to slow down at third, either assuming he would not score or mis-reading Matt Williams, the third base coach. He resumed running hard, trying to score but watched the play in the process when he should have kept his eyes and his head straight ahead. He would end up scoring but those two mistakes made the play much closer than it should have been. These are the baseball details that hopefully the Giants staff will address with Ramos and other young players. They are easy fixes.

The Giants win gave them a record of 78-79 for the season with five games remaining. The Giants seem to be embracing their spoiler role wholeheartedly.

The Highlights

Tonight’s Game

Game two of the series will feature Logan Webb against Pfaadt at 6:40 PM.