Patrick Bailey launched a second-inning home run and four teammates followed with their own as the San Francisco Giants continued to romp through their final road trip of the season, despite being eliminated from playoff contention.
With an 11-0 rout over the Diamondbacks (87-71), the Giants (79-79) claimed their third of three series on the trip and achieved something that had evaded them all season. It was their fifth straight victory, a season-best, and their seventh in eight games overall since hitting the road.
The loss cut Arizona’s lead a playoff position down to half a game, while the Giants’ wins have been so convincing that not only did they improve their record back to .500 for the first time since August 28, they improved their run differential into the positive at plus-3. They’ll go for their second sweep of the trip and attempt to extend their late-season winning streak to six games Wednesday (6:40 p.m.) with Mason Black on the mound against D’backs ace Zac Gallen.
Here are three takeaways from Tuesday’s win:
Finishing strong
If these were the Giants who showed up all season, they’d be making postseason preparations instead of vacation plans.
Against three teams who do have their sights set on the playoffs, the Giants have thrown four shutouts and scored nine or more runs three times while going to 7-1 with a run differential of 38-12. This is the same team, mind you, that was shut out three times while losing the final four games of its previous home stand.
San Francisco Giants’ Patrick Bailey (14) celebrates in the dugout with Heliot Ramos, right, and others after hitting a home run during the second inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
For the second time on the trip, they hit five home runs, as Michael Conforto, Brett Wisely, Heliot Ramos and Tyler Fitzgerald joined Bailey in the power display. The catcher opened a 1-0 lead in the second, Conforto and Wisely each went deep in a six-run second, Ramos made it 8-0 in the fourth and Fitzgerald tacked on two more in the fifth. Prior to their five-homer game Saturday in Kansas City, the only other time they had done it was April 13 at Tampa Bay.
Bailey had been quietly putting together a nice finish to the season at the plate but had been stuck on seven home runs since the All-Star break. When he finally got No. 8, after drought of 175 at-bats, there was no doubt about it. He got all of Brandon Pfaddt’s 3-1 fastball and sent it at 109.1 off the bat, 422 feet to right field.
That wasn’t even the hardest-hit ball of the game from Bailey, who also laced a single at 110.1 mph off the bat.
Ramos collected his first career four-hit game and has hit safely in 14 of the 18 games he has started in September. And with his three-run shot in the third, Conforto reached the 20-homer mark for the first time since 2019.
200 innings
With six shutout innings, Logan Webb earned the win to improve to 13-10, lowering his ERA to 3.47.
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But Webb achieved an even more meaningful number on his season stat line when he recorded the second out of the second inning. It pushed the Giants’ workhorse ace over the 200-inning threshold for the second straight season, becoming the first San Francisco pitcher to do so since Jeff Samardzija in 2016-17.
Webb has said he was inspired by the guys like Samardzija who surrounded him in the rotation when he was a rookie, but the truth is, there are fewer and fewer of their breed. There were 15 200-inning pitchers in 2017, as opposed to five in 2023 and just three, including Webb, so far in 2024.
.500?
It didn’t seem to be a realistic goal when the Giants hit the road, but they have put a .500 finish within reach.
The Giants can’t finish any better than 83-79, but they can avoid a losing record by winning just half of their four remaining games.