Back-to-back homers lift Giants over Cubs

On the day the San Francisco Giants retired Will Clark’s No. 22, the club honored him in fitting fashion by blasting back-to-back homers to defeat the Chicago Cubs 5-4 on Saturday night at Oracle Park.

Just as Clark had done 284 times across 15 big league seasons, the Giants relied heavily on the long ball, something they’ve lacked most of this season compared to a franchise record 241-home run season in 2021.

After David Villar reached on an infield single, Luis Gonzalez stepped up in a 2-0 game and turned on a fastball on the inside corner, knocking it over the 24-foot-high right field wall for a two-run blast to extend the San Francisco lead.

This story has been updated with quotes and post-game material from the Giants clubhouse at Oracle Park.

It was quite the scuffle for Gonzalez in recent weeks, but he’s picked up the pace in his last seven games. Entering Saturday, he was 7-for-his-last-23 with two doubles after going hitless in 17 at-bats in his previous six contests. Considering all the Giants left-handed hitting outfield options, Gonzalez’s success against southpaws helps makes him platoon-proof in a heavily matchup-reliant lineup.

The blast didn’t even land in the arcade before Joey Bart followed up by demolishing a first-pitch hanging cutter deep into the left field seats to make it 5-0. To say the ball left the ballpark in a hurry is a complete understatement. He got every bit of the majestic blast.

Bart’s homer left the bat at 114.3 mph, the hardest-hit ball of his career and the hardest hit by a Giant in the Statcast era (since 2015), passing Mac Williamson’s 114.2 mph dinger on April 20, 2018. If you blinked, you missed it.

Giants manager Gabe Kapler hasn’t given up on Bart’s ability to make consistant contact:

He’s incredibly talented. I think the ground ball that he hit was 100 miles an hour if I’m not mistaken and lined another ball down the right field line that was 100 miles an hour. Not that we’re solely dependent on exit velocity, but seeing him square the baseball up is good. Having some barrel accuracy is good. We definitely wanted to have as much adjustability with his swing in the batter’s box is possible and he showed some of that tonight.”

The Giants scored in the third inning after two frustrating frames of leaving runners in scoring position. Designated hitter Darin Ruf drew a walk against Cubs starter Drew Smyly before scoring from first on a bullet in the left-center field gap off the bat of Austin Slater. Ruf isn’t the fastest runner, but he’s gone first-to-home successfully a few times this season and managed to do so again on Slater’s double for the first run of the ballgame. 

Yermin Mercades followed with his second hit of the night to drive in Slater from second. Mercedes almost tucked one inside the left field line for his third hit, but it tailed just foul at the last second. 

Mercedes finished the day 2-for-3 with a walk. He’s seeing the ball well, according to Kapler:

It’s really entertaining at-bat. It’s got a little little bit of (Juan) Soto antics in the batter’s box, very, very competitive, has control of his body. He’s able to stop his swing, but then he also identifies the ball very early as well spits on balls that other other batters may may swing at.”

Jakob Junis, who knew the significance of the Clark festivites because of all the jerseys he saw on the streets, took the mound for the Giants and displayed erratic command in 74 pitches over four innings. He’s still revamping his workload since coming off the injured list before the All-Star break. The Cubs made him work, jumping ahead of the count and fouling off consecutive pitches.

On the effort, Kapler thought Junis threw well despite a pitch count:

I thought Jake pitched great. I don’t know that his slider was perfectly crisp, but he threw enough good ones where he was able to do exactly what we would have hoped – throw up zeros give us a chance to win the game.”

Kapler handed it off to the bullpen, with the only run of the game coming for Chicago against Yunior Marte in the seventh when Nelson Valazquez singled home a run to make it 5-1.

A scary moment unfolded in the fifth when shortstop Thairo Estrada was drilled in the head by Chicago’s Mark Leiter Jr. on a 84 mph changeup. Estrada hit the deck hard and stood motionless on his back for quite some time before three trainers came to his aid. He exited the game by walking under his own power and was replaced by Jason Vosler.

Estrada was feeling dizzy with concussion-like symptoms, Kapler said. He’s expected to go on the injured list, so the Giants will need to find themseleves another shortstop ––– and fast.

Without a backup shortstop on their roster due to the injury to Brandon Crawford, the Giants were forced to put Vosler at a position he hasn’t played at since 2015 when he was in low-A with the Cubs organization.

Vosler was tested in the ninth, when three balls were hit his way at shortstop. With the bases juiced and nobody out, Vosler fielded a ground ball and threw late to Wilmer Flores at second, unable to get the lead runner. It happened again the following batter, this time the Giants got the lead runner but couldn’t complete the double play. Two runs scored on two straight plays, making it a one-run game.

Up Next

The finale of the four games series against the Cubs will be a special 4:08 p.m. start as part of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. Carlos Rodon (8-6, 3.18 ERA) takes the ball for San Francisco against right-hander Adrian Sampson (0-1, 3.20 ERA).

Notes

After three years in the making and two pandemic-related cancellations, the Giants officially retired Will Clark’s No. 22 ahead of Saturday’s contest. The six-time All-Star first baseman was honored in front of family, friends, teammates and fans as the hour-long ceremony reflected on Clark’s eight-year career with the Giants from 1986 to 1993 – a tenure that many credit to have changed the direction of a lost franchise. 

In a complete change of heart, the Giants are switching gears to become sellers at the upcoming Aug. 2 trading deadline, according to Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The report also notes that San Francisco has begun the process of listening on a few of their veteran players – outfielder Joc Pederson and starting pitcher Carlos Rodon. The general consensus is that their poor play as of late is the key reason for the adjustment in front office philosophy. Not only that, the Mariners gave up four top prospects, a total haul, to the Reds in exchange for right-handed starter Luis Castillo, who has one season left of club control. There’s a chance that the brass of the Giants saw this and figured they can replicate the prospect return on Rodon, considering the starting pitching market appears to be slim on game-changing arms. Pederson is a left-handed hitting power bat that can hold his own in a corner outfield spot or as a designated hitter. Every team needs one of those to create some stability. 

Steven Rissotto

Steven Rissotto has covered the San Francisco Giants for SFBay since 2021. He is the host of RizzoCast, a baseball interview show featuring players, coaches, media and fans. He attends San Francisco State University and will major in Journalism and minor in education.