SF Giants: Kris Bryant’s blasts lead charge in 7-5 victory

The potent SF Giants offense was once again too much for opposing pitchers to handle, leading the NL West division leaders to a 7-5 victory over the New York Mets on Monday. While Giants ace Kevin Gausman was on the hill, it came down to San Francisco’s hitters wearing down southpaw Rich Hill and an already taxed Mets bullpen to come away victorious. No one stood out more than recently acquired slugger Kris Bryant, who blasted a pair of home runs and recorded his first multi-homer game in a Giants uniform.

The SF Giants defeated the New York Mets on Monday 7-5.

Hill was far from an intimidating opponent, but the few starters who have shut down the Giants this season are primarily soft-tossing lefties. Through the first 3.1 innings, when Hill had allowed just one hit on 50 pitches, it seemed like he was on his way to joining that list. A long outing from Hill was needed by a Mets bullpen that was heavily taxed in their previous series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, that wasn’t in the cards.

Buster Posey slammed a double to left-center field with one out in the fourth that started a streak of five straight hits that brought two runs home and forced Hill out of the game despite a baserunning blunder by Darin Ruf, who was thrown out after taking too long of a turn past first base. The Giants left some runs on the board, but forcing Hill out early helped them later in the game on Monday and should help them in the rest of the series.

SF Giants Kevin Gausman worn down by Mets hitters.

Gausman’s splitter has been inconsistent over his last few starts, with opposing hitters looking more comfortable than usual taking the pitch. The Mets lineup is filled with hitters that have excellent approaches and a tendency to work long at-bats. Gausman was dominant at times, flashing some of his best velocity of the season, averaging more than 95 miles per hour on his fastball, and inducing whiffs on half of the swings against his splitter. However, the Mets hitters wore him down.

It took Gausman 74 pitches to complete four shutout innings, and that pitch count ultimately did him in. A leadoff single by Brandon Nimmo in the fifth was followed by a Michael Conforto walk, which set up Pete Alonso for the only hard contact the Mets could manage off Gausman’s splitter, sending a line drive with a 112.6 mph exit velocity past Bryant in right field for a two-RBI triple. Alonso scored on a sacrifice fly to give the Mets a 3-2 lead, but good fortune on a pair of line drives hit right at defenders enabled Gausman to finish the fifth and ultimately collect his 12th win of the season.

SF Giants slugger Kris Bryant leads offensive charge.

In the bottom of the fifth, after Gausman surrendered the lead, Kris Bryant took a slider that caught a bit too much of the zone from Miguel Castro out over the center-field wall to put the Giants immediately back ahead by a run. The Giants led the rest of the way.

In the seventh, Brandon Belt added two more runs with a pinch-hit homer, bringing his slugging percentage up over .700 since coming off the injured list, but Bryant would not be outdone. The recent acquisition followed Belt with a no-doubter over the left-field wall on the next pitch. Bryant has been fantastic since he was acquired at the trade deadline and is now hitting .304/.361/.554 with the Orange-and-Black.

Jonathan Villar took one of the most comfortable swings anyone has ever had against a Tyler Rogers slider to drive a two-run blast out to right field. Still, it was an otherwise uneventful eighth followed by a low-stress 1-2-3 ninth inning by closer Jake McGee.

The Giants have blasted their way past opponents with one of the best offenses in MLB all season. That unit has only gotten better since they acquired Bryant at the end of July.

The SF Giants improved their record to 77-42 after pulling out a 7-5 victory against the New York Mets on Monday. The Mets fell victim to a pair of bombs by Kris Bryant and dropped to 59-59. The Giants will host the Mets again on Tuesday at 6:45 pm PST. Logan Webb and Marcus Stroman are the probable starting pitchers.