SF Giants: Late comeback leads to 6-5 victory against Diamonbacks

The SF Giants squeaked by with a 6-5 victory against the Arizona Diamondbacks thanks in part to a clutch blast by Austin Slater. The Giants have won two of the first three games in this series and they look to secure the series win on Sunday.

SF Giants: Late comeback leads to 6-5 victory against Diamonbacks

On the mound, Sammy Long continued to dazzle with his swing-and-miss stuff as he collected six strikeouts across four frames. However, he left too many pitches in the strike zone, yielding four earned runs on seven hits and one walk.

The Giants and Diamondbacks were tied at four by the time Long’s outing came to a conclusion. The bullpen was tasked with keeping the Giants in the game and they did just that as they allowed only one unearned due in part to an error by LaMonte Wade Jr. in the fifth inning.

Arizona had a chance to capitalize on that error, but José Álvarez recorded the final two outs of the inning, leaving a runner on third base to end a potential rally. Álvarez, Zack Littell, Dominic Leone, Tyler Rogers, and Jake McGee combined to allow just three hits with seven strikeouts in the final five innings of the game.

As a whole, the bullpen has been strong in 2021 as they have the third-best ERA in baseball at 3.20. Álvarez, in particular, has strung together 11 consecutive scoreless appearances after a rough start to the season.

In the batter’s box, Curt Casali, Donovan Solano, and Brandon Crawford each recorded multi-hit games. Solano and Crawford collected three hits apiece, whereas Casali added two hits.

It does feel like Solano might be in jeopardy of losing playing time given the presence of Thairo Estrada on the roster. Estrada is better and more versatile with the glove, but he does not have the recent track record of success with the bat that Solano has.

Despite these notable performances, it was an eighth-inning blast by Austin Slater that helped notched the victory for the Giants. He came to the plate with Mike Yastrzemski on first base and two outs and blasted the sixth pitch of the at-bat from Ryan Buchter over the center-field fence.

This was really a strong at-bat by Slater. He spoiled a couple of good pitches by Buchter before hammering a mistake over the plate for a two-run blast, giving the Giants the 6-5 advantage.

With no margin for error, Giants manager Gabe Kapler tapped Tyler Rogers and Jake McGee to finish the job and they did so without much excitement. The Diamonbacks will be happy once this series is over considering that the Giants are 8-1 against them in nine matchups this year. Anthony DeSclafani faces off against Caleb Smith on Sunday night as the Giants look to nab the series victory.