SAN FRANCISCO — With the exception of three games in Phoenix next week, the Giants will spend the rest of the regular season in California. That means that before most games, they’ll have a pretty good idea of whether or not they can make up ground in the wild-card race.
Minutes before Monday’s game, they watched as the New York Mets fell short in Philadelphia, losing for a third straight game. After a couple of missed opportunities Saturday and Sunday, the Giants took advantage.
Christian Koss and Heliot Ramos sparked a five-run outburst in the sixth and the Giants cruised from there, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 11-5 on the first night of a huge seven-game homestand. They’re now just three games behind the Mets with 18 to go, although New York holds the tiebreaker, so the Giants essentially are four back. They also picked up a game on the Diamondbacks, who are hoping to make a run of their own.
The offensive explosion came after Logan Webb departed, but it was still a big night for the staff ace. He reached 200 strikeouts for the first time and allowed just one earned run (along with three unearned) in six innings.
The Giants’ five-homer game behind Webb was their first at home since 2021, and their third with at least four this season. All have come since Aug. 27.
Join The Club
The changeup that Webb threw past Adrian Del Castillo in the fifth was huge for a couple of reasons. It stranded Corbin Carroll at third after the Diamondbacks star had stolen second and advanced on an error, and it also got Webb to 200 strikeouts for the season.
Webb said this spring that reaching 200 was one of his goals, in part because it was the standard for the pitchers at the top of the rotation — Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija — when he was working his way through the minors. His previous career-high was 194, and that’s where he entered Monday’s game. The strikeout of Del Castillo was his sixth of seven.
Webb became the first pitcher in the NL to reach 200 strikeouts and joined Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet as the only ones in the big leagues. With six innings, he got to 184 2/3, which leads the majors. Unless Paul Skenes falls apart down the stretch, Webb won’t win the Cy Young, but he is putting together a very compelling case to finish second for the second time in three years.
Five In The Sixth
The Giants have a bullpen that has been patched together in recent weeks, but the Diamondbacks have been dealing with that all season. That bit them in the bottom of the sixth.
An error, walk and infield single loaded the bases for Koss, who went the other way with a two-run double that made up for his early error. Patrick Bailey immediately followed with a sacrifice fly, and before the Giants were done celebrating their three-run lead, Ramos blasted a two-run shot.
The ballpark was rocking, but nobody was more excited than this guy:
Big Dom Moment
Dominic Smith started his season in Triple-A with the New York Yankees. He might finish it by giving a speech on the pitcher’s mound at Oracle Park.
Smith is a compelling Willie Mac Award candidate, and also one of the main reasons the Giants are still alive. After the Diamondbacks took a 4-2 lead in the top of the third, he smoked a homer into the arcade section, tying the game.
The homer was Smith’s fifth in orange and black, and he finished the night with a .291 average and .768 OPS. Jung Hoo Lee homered early in the game, and after Lee, the Giants got dingers from Ramos, Matt Chapman and Bailey.
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