Giants continue improbable quest to .500 with 6-3 win in Arizona

Nothing has fired up the Giants – and Matt Chapman – like the chance to make playoff-bound teams miserable.

The 2024 San Francisco Giants are getting hot at just the wrong time. All it took was the team to be eliminated from playoff contention and the boys in orange and black have gone on a rampage against teams that are headed for the postseason.

That continued Monday night in Phoenix, when the Giants ran their winning streak to four games with a 6-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. After sweeping the likely wild-card-bound Kansas City Royals, after taking two out of three from the wild-card-leading Baltimore Orioles, they took the opening game of a three-game series with the D-Backs, who are barely holding onto the last National League wild-card berth. The Giants have stormed to 78-79, with a winning record on the season now improbably within their grasp.

It was a combination of power hitting, solid starting pitching, and shutdown bullpen work again Monday, powered by the irresistible feeling of ruining another team’s series. To paraphrase Alfred Pennyworth, some men want to make the playoffs, and some simply want to watch the world burn. The Giants are burning down the forest around playoff contenders. Honestly, I haven’t seen someone this dedicated to playing spoiler since an AC Transit driver in Berkeley yelled to a busload of passengers that Bruce Willis was dead the whole time in “The Sixth Sense.”

Matt Chapman showed power and wheels with a two-run inside-the-park home run and an RBI triple, both of which sent Arizona center fielder Jake McCarthy crashing into walls. He’s the first Giant to triple and hit an inside-the-park job in 71 years, when Hall of Famer Monte Irvin did it in 1953.

Since returning from the paternity list Saturday, Chapman has had the strength of a grown man and a little baby. He’s gone 4-for-11, with three home runs and a triple. That’s a slugging percentage of 1.364, with five RBIs. Chapman also absorbed a 106 MPH rocket from Christian Walker and threw him out to end the 7th inning.

Hayden Birdsong delivered another solid start, striking out six in his five innings and giving up two runs to earn his fith win. At the same time, the Giants beat up on starter Eduardo Rodriguez, reaching him for three home runs, five runs, and ten baserunners in his 4.2 innings of work.

If you like a range of styles in your home runs, the Giants delivered a veritable Kellogg’s variety pack of dingers. In the third inning, Chapman gave the Giants the lead and delivered one of the most exciting plays of the entire season. After Jerar Encarnacion doubled home Heliot Ramos to tie the game, the Giants’ 2024 MVP delivered a drive to the deepest part of Chase Field. He just missed a home run when the ball hit just short of the 413-foot wall. Only, he didn’t.

McCarthy crashed into the wall trying to corral the drive and it caromed into right center, with left fielder Pavin Smith sprinting after it. Chappie hit the nitrous button rounding third and just beat the throw home, becoming the first Giant to hit an inside-the-parker since Denard Span.

In the 4th inning, Casey Schmitt delivered a home run in roughly 3% of the time that Chapman’s took. He took an 89 MPH cutter and tomahawked it down the left field line at an exit velocity of 109.7 MPH, and if you look at the video closely, you can see the baseball emitting a very tiny scream as it exits the ballpark.

The NBCS tweet called it “hammered,” but “muscled,” “piledriven” and “summarily executed without the benefit of counsel” all would have worked.

For viewers who prefer massive, Ruthian blasts that are best viewed on NASA’s Space Surveillance Network, Michael Conforto delivered in the 5th inning with a 430-foot mortar shot that offered an in-flight meal and drink service.

That was Chapman’s 27th home run, giving him a chance to match Brandon Belt for the highest home run total since Barry Bonds, with 29. Conforto hit No. 19, while Schmitt hit No. 6 on the season.

Four relievers took things home for the Giants, with Spencer Bivens, Erik Miller, Camilo Doval, and Ryan Walker combining to hold Arizona to one run over four innings, while striking out five. Miller allowed a run on a Jose Herrera double and Geraldo Perdomo RBI single in the 7th, snapping a scoreless streak of nearly 12 innings by the Giants bullpen.

Doval may be a slider-only pitcher, but that slider came through for him in the eighth, striking out pinch-hitter Ketel Marte with a man on second with a filthy slider. Tyler Fitzgerald flashed some excellent glovework in the ninth, throwing out the speedy Corbin Carroll on a grounder hit straight up the middle, before Walker earned his 10th save by popping up Perdomo.

The loss narrowed Arizona’s lead over the Atlanta Braves to 1.5 games. That means Arizona will still be a playoff team throughout this entire series, which should be all the motivation the spoiler-crazy Giants need to pull off another sweep. The only thing sweeter than making the playoffs is knocking your division rival out of the playoffs. It’s just a shame the St. Louis Cardinals are already eliminated.