The San Francisco Giants have chosen the most direct route back into relevance: straight over the wall. They opened Friday night in St. Louis with Rafael Devers launching Michael McGreevy’s sixth pitch 416 feet to right-center and Willy Adames following with a 401-foot shot to left-center. The back-to-back jolts extended San Francisco’s home run streak to 18 games in an 8-2 win over the Cardinals, one shy of the franchise record set by the 1947 New York Giants. It was the fourth time the Giants have gone back-to-back this season — and the second time in seven games it’s been Devers and Adames doing the honors.
For a club that was seven games under .500 two weeks ago, everything suddenly looks loud and contagious. San Francisco racked up 18 hits — matching its season high — and has piled up a staggering 70 knocks over its last five games, the most in any five-game span since the franchise moved west. Six starters collected multiple hits Friday, all nine had at least one, and Jung Hoo Lee tied a career high with four.
Patrick Bailey added three from the nine-spot as the Giants notched their 11th win in 12 games to climb to 72-69, four games back of the Mets and Padres for the final two NL Wild Card berths. “We go into the game feeling good about our offense, and there’s a reason for it. … It’s contagious just like it goes the other way,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Right now, offensively, we feel like we’re as good as we’ve been all year.”
Giants are positioning themselves for a playoff push
Rookie right-hander Carson Seymour rode that surge and then some. In just his second big-league start, Seymour carried a no-hitter into the fifth and finished five innings of one-run ball, allowing two singles with two strikeouts and one walk for his first MLB victory. Melvin had planned for a short night and a bullpen relay, but Seymour’s early dominance changed the script; San Francisco needed only Matt Gage and Tristan Beck, who recorded a rare three-inning save.
The postgame celebration was sticky. “My lip was kind of on fire,” Seymour said of the clubhouse condiment bath. “The whole bit, for sure.” Devers’ early thunder has become a theme. Seven of his 16 homers as a Giant have come in the first inning, and he owns a 1.010 OPS in the opening frame with San Francisco.
“Those are things that just happen in baseball,” Devers said through the team interpreter. “I just take every turn the same way.” Seymour felt the jolt. “It gives us energy in the dugout… It’s just contagious.”
The math is still uphill — FanGraphs pegs San Francisco’s playoff odds around four percent, Baseball-Reference a shade over 11 — but the path is clear. Since Aug. 22 the Giants are averaging 7.5 runs per game, riding a record-chasing long-ball binge that has them one swing from history and, suddenly, within shouting distance of October.
As Melvin put it: “Home runs have been a huge part of what we’ve been doing here recently, and a lot of it has been Devers in the first inning. He’s on a nice little heater.”
