SF Giants: Four home runs helps secure 8-0 win against Mets

The SF Giants secured an impressive 8-0 victory against the New York Mets on Tuesday thanks in part to an offense that blasted four home runs. The story of the night was Brandon Belt, who endured a family tragedy earlier in the day to record four hits, including two home runs, and three RBI.

SF Giants: Four home runs helps secure 8-0 win against Mets

The longtime Giants first baseman has been hit-or-miss at the plate since returning from the injured list just a couple of weeks ago. Interestingly, he has recorded only 12 hits in that time, but eight of them have left the ballpark.

Giants fans have seen this from Belt before. He can be a streaky hitter at times, but when he is locked in, the left-handed slugger can carry an offense and he did so on Tuesday night. Belt got the offense going with a solo shot in the first inning to give the Giants the 1-0 advantage:

The Giants never really looked back at this point, but they tacked on seven more runs. Mike Yastrzemski swatted a towering, two-run homer in the second inning, whereas LaMonte Wade Jr. hammered a two-run long ball of his own in the fourth inning.

Belt followed Wade with another home run, giving him 19 on the year and setting a new career-high. For years, the 33-year-old has flirted with the 20-home run threshold, but injuries have prevented him from being able to reach that benchmark. That looks like it will change in 2021.

Thanks to the impressive output from the offense, Sammy Long’s stellar start might be overlooked. The young, left-handed hurler yielded just three hits across 5.1 scoreless frames, which is the second-longest start in his brief Giants career.

Long has been wild at times since being promoted to the major league roster, but he has flashed a devastating curveball that gets plenty of swinging strikes. If his command can improve down the stretch, the Giants will gain a key arm that they can use in a couple of different roles. For now, he likely earned another start with his performance on Tuesday.

Jay Jackson, José Álvarez, and Tyler Chatwood closed out the game with a combined 3.2 scoreless innings. Chatwood ran into some trouble in the ninth inning, but he was much more effective in the eighth inning. Perhaps, he ran out of gas as this pattern occurred in his first appearance as well. The good news is that many of the Giants’ key relievers got an extra day of rest.

The Giants would welcome it if Brandon Belt’s hot streak stuck around for a couple more months. San Francisco’s record now sits at 81-44 and they are one win away from clinching a winning record in a season for the first time since 2016.