The Giants playoff hopes appeared dead in the water after they dropped three of four to the Padres in San Diego. The odds are still not in their favor, especially with Landen Roupp and Randy Rodríguez both out for the season.
As September begins, they maintain a pulse.
The Giants began a six-game road trip with an 8-2 Labor Day victory over the Colorado Rockies. They’ve won eight of their last nine games, boasting a run differential of +34 during this stretch. At 69-69, they’re at .500 for the first time since Aug. 10.
Still, San Francisco made up no ground. The New York Mets, owners of the final NL wild card spot, won a whirlwind game against the Detroit Tigers. Despite their win, the Giants remain five games back of that final spot with 24 games remaining.
Should they maintain this recent brand of ball, they’ll position themselves to make up some ground by the time they return to San Francisco.
With long balls from Rafael Devers, Drew Gilbert and Willy Adames, the Giants extended their streak of games with a home run to 15, their longest since 2001. Devers not only hit his second homer in as many games, but he set the record for the hardest-hit long ball by a Giant in the Statcast era (since 2015) with a 114.5 mph line drive over the right-field fence.
The Giants’ streak of failing to have a 30-homer hitter wouldn’t end if Devers reaches that mark since 15 of his 29 homers this year were with the Red Sox. The streak would unquestionably end if Adames, who now has 26 homers on the season, reaches that mark by September’s end.
Fresh off recording his first career three-hit game on Sunday, Gilbert totaled his first four-hit game on Monday and continued making a case for more playing time. The 24-year-old’s two-run homer in the third inning came at the expense of rookie right-hander Chase Dollander, his teammate at the University of Tennessee.
The Giants’ three-homer barrage was more than enough on an afternoon where Kai-Wei Teng allowed two runs over 5 1/3 innings and totaled career-highs in strikeouts (eight) and whiffs (17).
One of the few things that went wrong for the Giants on Monday afternoon was Casey Schmitt leaving the ballgame after being drilled in the right elbow by a 95.7 mph sinker by Dollander.
Schmitt, who has already been banged up and bruised on numerous occasions, instantly went down in a heap of pain. Head athletic trainer Dave Groeschner tended to Schmitt for several minutes, and while Schmitt initially remained in the game to run, he was replaced by Christian Koss after one batter.