San Francisco Giants Destroy Reds Behind McCutchen’s Milestone

San Francisco Giants’ all-star outfielder Andrew McCutchen smacked a double for his 1,500th career hit in the second inning of the team’s matchup against the Reds. His milestone was one of seven doubles in an explosive showing from the offense on Monday night.

After a long road trip, the San Francisco Giants were desperate to return to the comfort of their own ballpark with hopes to get back on track and forget the woes of Pennsylvania. Andrew McCutchen, who had just endured the emotional roller coaster of his return to Pittsburgh over the weekend, came into the homestand just two hits shy of the 1,500 hit milestone.

He didn’t waste time trying to get there, hitting a double in the first inning, extending his hitting streak to 13 games, and then following it up with the magic hit his next at-bat.

McCutchen isn’t the only one who had a big day at the plate. Four other Giants had extra-base hits, including Brandon Crawford, who went two-for-four with two doubles, and Brandon Belt who blasted his seventh home run of the season in the eighth, now one behind Evan Longoria for the most home runs on the team, and adding a third RBI to his night. Longoria and Buster Posey also contributed to the fun with a double each.

Since the start of May, both Crawford and McCutchen have seen improvement at the plate. Crawford’s numbers jumped from .189/.237/.300 in March/April to .404/.412/.553 in May. McCutchen, always known for having slow starts in April, also saw some expected improvement, his line going from .212/.339/.364 to .359/.458/.462.

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With guys like Crawford and McCutchen heating up, on top of the relatively consistent production from Belt, Longoria, and Posey, the offensive woes that fans have become sadly accustom to, seem to be fading.

Monday night’s win put the Giants back at .500 record and within 3.5 games of the Diamondbacks at the top of the NL West. Even though a win over the Reds doesn’t seem groundbreaking, you can’t discredit a hot team. They came into the series riding a six-game win streak and didn’t go down without a fight either, posting runs through until the end, and just allowing the Giants to pull away with the 10-7 victory.

While pitching and injuries remain an issue, it’s comforting to see that scoring runs are not as elusive as it once was. The hope is that they only trend upwards as players return off the DL and the pitching staff gets stronger.

Next: San Francisco Giants are just fine after disappointing road trip

With a week-long homestand ahead, the Giants have a real chance to make a dent in the standings. They’ll need to have more big nights at the plate to accomplish that.