SAN FRANCISCO — Timely hits proved maddeningly elusive for the Giants throughout their season-high six-game skid, however their slumping bats discovered a approach to break via late towards the last-place A’s on Tuesday evening.
Mike Yastrzemski delivered a go-ahead RBI double within the eighth inning, and All-Star right-hander Alex Cobb struck out a season-high 9 over six scoreless innings because the Giants rallied for a 2-1 win within the Bay Bridge Series opener at Oracle Park.
“Every win is great, but I think when you’re scuffling a little bit and you can claw out one that’s a close game, it feels nice to be able to kind of feel like the monkey’s off your back,” Yastrzemski mentioned.
Yastrzemski entered Tuesday mired in an 0-for-21 funk that dropped his batting common to a paltry .085 (4-for-47) over his first 17 video games in July, however he offered an enormous raise in his lone plate look of the evening. After coming in to pinch-run for Joc Pederson within the sixth, Yastrzemski remained within the sport in proper area and got here as much as the plate to face A’s left-hander Sam Moll with a pair of runners on and two outs within the eighth.
The Giants have been hitless of their earlier 28 at-bats with runners in scoring place, however Yastrzemski lastly snapped that drought by yanking a 3-1 sinker from Moll down the right-field line to attain Luis Matos from second base and put San Francisco forward for good. It was Yastrzemski’s first hit off a lefty since June 20 towards the Padres.
“He’s been having really quality at-bats,” supervisor Gabe Kapler mentioned. “He hasn’t been rewarded when he’s hit the ball on the screws. … That was a really good example of when Yaz is locked in from the beginning of the at-bat how an at-bat can end like that against a tough lefty. Moll’s been really tough this year. He was throwing really hard. I thought it was an excellent at-bat and big for our club, obviously.”
The Giants hope that Yastrzemski’s clutch hit will assist spark a bigger offensive turnaround, because the membership nonetheless mustered solely 4 hits on Tuesday and is sporting an MLB-worst .611 OPS over 20 video games in July.
“We won,” Yastrzemski mentioned. “That’s the positive outcome. That can change everything. It can change your mindset. It can change a feeling. It can change anything. To scratch one out was nice. Hopefully we’ll try and keep things rolling.”
With Cobb on the mound, the Giants didn’t want a lot to get by as they returned residence following a grueling 11-game, four-city street journey to open the second half. Cobb scattered a season-low three hits and struck out seven of the primary eight batters he confronted en path to decreasing his ERA to 2.97 throughout 19 begins this 12 months. That’s the third-best mark within the National League behind the Padres’ Blake Snell (2.61) and the Cubs’ Justin Steele (2.95).
The Giants have now received every of Cobb’s final six begins at Oracle Park, with the 35-year-old veteran going 4-0 with a 0.46 ERA over that span.
“I do like throwing here,” Cobb mentioned. “I’m very comfortable with the backdrop. There’s always a nice, cool breeze here, so you’re not fighting much elements. After that road trip, you really appreciate coming here and putting a hoodie on and coming to the ballpark.”
While he generated 10 of his 14 swinging strikes together with his splitter, Cobb mentioned he wasn’t fully pleased with the motion profile on the pitch, as he felt he needed to seek for it early on, which prevented him from pitching deeper into the sport.
“I think you saw Cobb at his best tonight with the split,” A’s supervisor Mark Kotsay mentioned. “The split was really effective. The fastball has enough velo on it to get you sped up a little bit, but the split was really his pitch tonight. He dominated with the split down in the zone, got a lot of swing-and-miss. We’ve seen him that way in the past, and tonight was a good night for him.”
Cobb departed with a 1-0 lead after Casey Schmitt opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly off Ken Waldichuk within the fifth inning, however the A’s tied it on JJ Bleday’s two-out RBI single off Tyler Rogers within the eighth. While Yastrzemski’s heroics helped them eke out a win Tuesday, the Giants know they’ll want extra constant manufacturing from their lineup to stay aggressive shifting ahead.
“I still think we’re going to need to get more than a few hits here or there,” Kapler mentioned. “For our team to be successful, we’re going to have to have some more consistently productive at-bats. We’re not where we want to be, but we came away with a win tonight, and that’s all that matters.”
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