San Francisco Giants: Alex Dickerson had a debut for the ages

The San Francisco Giants have been looking for an answer in left field all year. With the recent call-up of Alex Dickerson, they may have finally found one.

If you have been following the San Francisco Giants this season, you know that it has been normal to see a different name starting in left field every night. Yesterday, we got to see the most recent addition to a left field group that has included Connor Joe, Mike Gerber, Mike Yastrzemski, and backup catcher Stephen Vogt.

Alex Dickerson was acquired from the San Diego Padres earlier this month in exchange for right-handed pitcher Franklin Van Gurp.

With some intriguing power, a low strikeout rate and a negligible acquisition cost, Dickerson fit the mold of players that Farhan Zaidi has targeted in his efforts to make incremental improvements to the roster.

While he played just 12 games and tallied just three hits at the MLB level for the Padres, he was hitting .372/.469/.606 with five home runs in 26 games at Triple-A. That success had not immediately translated following the trade, and he was hitting just .176 (3-for-17) in six games at Triple-A Sacramento.

The Giants were not expecting to see Dickerson on the big league roster so soon, but when Steve Duggar hit the injured list on Friday, the need for a left-handed hitting outfielder presented itself. He joined the active roster on Friday and made his Giants debut against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

What a debut it proved to be.

After coming up empty in his first at-bat, Dickerson stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the third inning. He was able to work a hitter-friendly 2-1 count before crushing a pitch that was out over the plate for a grand slam.

With that, he became just the third San Francisco Giants player ever to hit a grand slam in his debut with the team, joining Barry Bonds and Brandon Crawford.

Dickerson’s night did not end there. In the top of the seventh, he tripled off the left field wall to extend the Giants lead to five, again coming through with two outs and a runner in scoring position.

When all was said done, Dickerson finished the night with the following stat line:

• 3-for-5, 1 3B, 1 HR, 6 RBIs

While he fell a double short of the cycle, his impact was impossible to ignore and the Giants left Chase Field with an 11-5 victory over their NL West rival.

For a Giants team that has lacked power all year, especially out of the left field spot, it will be interesting to see if Dickerson can build on his fantastic debut. If he continues to hit, it is going to be awfully hard to send him back down.