“That Was a Good Swing”

Jul 7, 2025 | 2025 Offseason, Latest Post, San Francisco Giants News

by
Greek Giant

Today’s happy headline is brought to you by F. P. Santangelo in reference to Luis Matos’s sweet two-run double to right center in the top of the fifth inning to give the Giants a 5-1 lead in a game they would win 6-2. The Giants took many good swings in this game and in Saturday’s 7-2 victorious contest in Sacramento to take two games of the three-game series after losing Friday night in very ugly fashion.

The weekend belonged to Willy Adames! Yesterday he drove in three runs, two with two bases loaded walks and one with an old-fashioned moonshot homer on a low fastball. Adames is one of those players who can hit the home run on any pitch anywhere in the zone when his swing is on fire and make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen, Willy Adames is on fire. On Saturday he drove in four runs. He now has 45 RBIs on the year with 11 homers, not bad considering we are barely half way into the 2025 campaign and considering how mightily the Giant shortstop was struggling. That’s the thing about great players, it can only take a game or two to turn around their whole season and this weekend we saw one such example.

“We ended up winning.  think that’s the most important part for me. Obviously, taking good at-bats. I feel like the whole team was on the same page today of taking deep at-bats, taking team at-bats and doing the little things. That’s when I feel like we have been most successful throughout the year.”

-Willy Adames

Let’s remember too, another crucial ingredient to the Giants wins in Sacramento: Matt Chapman. He made his return to the field on Friday after missing nearly a month’s worth of games due to a sprained right hand he suffered diving back to first base in San Francisco. His presence in the line up makes everyone better and solidifies the infield defense. With Chapman at third and Fitzgerald at first base the Giants have 3/4 of their infield figured out from a defensive standpoint. To make matters even more interesting, Chapman’s play on a slow roller to end the game in the bottom of the ninth inning last night was classic Chappy. He had to run in at least 40 feet and fire a throw in one motion as the Athletics were rallying after just plating a run. Chapman got the out at first and made it look easy. Camilo Doval, you and me, were all celebrating.

Together we’re exhaling.

Hayden Birdsong got the win, a gritty victory at that, after experiencing a couple shaky outings. He would end up throwing five innings and walking five Athletics but what saved him was his terrific change-up that got him out of several jams with strikeouts on A’s hitters who could not believed they missed such hittable pitches. Birdsong only allowed three hits while striking out 7 Oaklanders. His only run allowed came courtesy of a Tyler Soderstrom homer to right off a change-up in the bottom of the fourth inning. Birdsong and Knizner went to the well one too many times in that at bat and they paid the price.

It was an interesting game from a starting pitcher’s perspective. At one point Athletics starter Jacob Lopez struck out seven Giants in a row while Birdsong had struck out four A’s in a row. That made 11 straight outs in the game recorded via a “K”!

Just ridiculous! We’re not even talking about a Nolan Ryan facing Steve Carlton start here!

That’s baseball today. The Giants would end up striking out eight times in the game against eleven for the Sacramento baseball club. The Giants actually could have done far more damage in the first three innings with Lopez pitching around traffic but the Oakland pitcher used a big sweeping sideways curveball to flummox several Giants hitters and get the strikeout, Heliot Ramos, among them.

Tyler Fitzgerald hit a home run to left that bounced off the glove of the aforementioned Soderstrom when the left fielder ran hard to the wall, turned and jumped to catch the well-struck baseball. As he jumped he lost eye contact with the pelota and it clanged off his glove and just over the wall. It was fun. It was not something you see everyday.

This was a good series win for the Giants after salvaging a split in Arizona. The boys in orange and black have now won 4 of 5 games and raised their record to 49-42 in the process. They are tied with San Diego for second place in the NL West, seven games behind you-know-who.

The Highlights

Tonight’s Game

The Giants return home to the most beautiful ballpark in the land to host the Phillies at 6:45 PM. The starting pitchers are listed as Sanchez (7-2, 2.68) versus Roupp (6-5, 3.48).

One final note: I will not be publishing a post tomorrow as I will be in transit from Rome to Miami to visit my parents, and eat some BBQ Ribs (with all the trimmings, of course!).

Go Giants.