SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants entered Thursday’s game looking for anything to snap their seven-game losing streak.
How about a no-hit bid?
Alex Wood helped the Giants to a 4-2 win by holding the flailing Cubs hitless through his first six innings, a bid broken up by Ian Happ’s single up the middle to start the seventh inning. Patrick Wisdom made that hit pay with a two-run that bounced off the wall in left field, cutting what was a Giants’ four-run lead in half and forcing Wood out of the game.
Joc Pederson almost made a play on Wisdom’s home run, but hit the wall hard and was removed from the game. He has a “little bit of a headache,” manager Gabe Kapler said, after jarring his head.
It was a rewarding outing for Wood despite not having his best command, made even sweeter by a clean defensive effort that led to their first win since July 17.
“There’s a fine line when you go through what we’ve gone through the last 10 days, losing seven in a row out of the break,” Wood said. “It’s tough to walk that line between our brand of baseball where no one is panicking, there aren’t a whole lot of highs or low lows.”
The Giants, frequent victims of their own poor defensive play, were on their toes back at home behind Wood. Joey Bart set the tone when he caught a runner stealing third base in a rocky first inning. Wood had walked the first two batters he faced, struggling with a lopsided mound off kilter because Oracle Park’s field was taken apart for the International soccer game played there on Tuesday night.
The grounds crew whipped the mound back in shape and Wood settled in. And the defense followed Bart’s lead. David Villar made a handful of clean plays at the hot corner and Wilmer Flores some tricky stops at second off the bounty of ground balls Wood drew.
Mike Yastrzemski made a spectacular over-the-head catch off Christopher Morel’s line drive into the deepest corner of Oracle Park, not only holding the runner on but adding a highlight to Wood’s no-hit bid.
“The biggest difference in today’s game was we played crisp defense and made some very difficult plays,” Kapler said. “We’re going to be fine if we play strong defense behind our pitchers. That’s probably the most important thing we can do.”
In a role reversal, the Giants benefitted from the Cubs’ poor defensive play. They scored three runs in the third inning that all went unearned for starter Justin Steele, pulled after 3 2/3 innings. First third baseman Patrick Wisdom lost Yastrzemski’s infield fly and let it fall — Kapler noted that Yastrzemski was smart to hustle to second base, knowing well the marina winds could make that for a difficult play — then couldn’t field Austin Slater’s swinging bunt single to put runners on the corners. A walk loaded the bases.
Yermín Mercedes worked an 11-pitch at bat, including four foul-offs with a full count, to punch a two-run bloop single into shallow center field. Thairo Estrada tacked another on with an infield hit.
Shortstop Nico Hoerner’s throwing error in the next inning on Villar’s ground ball set up Slater’s two-out RBI double to extend the lead to four.
“That’s the quality of ball that we’re used to playing,” Slater said. “I think over this last stretch for a month, we’ve been playing sloppy ball. It’s only a matter of time before we right the ship, start playing clean baseball and take advantage of other team’s mistakes instead of it being the other way around.”
Brandon Crawford’s return
Crawford, who was placed on the 10-day IL with left knee inflammation on July 16, could be sent to a rehab assignment within days, Kapler said. Crawford, 35, initially injured his knee on an awkward slide into home plate in June. This is his second IL stint of the season and just the fourth of his career.
Source: www.mercurynews.com