Giants’ ‘best overall game’ of season fueled by Crawford, Webb originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
SAN FRANCISCO — At 10:30 am PT on Saturday, Brandon Crawford climbed the dugout steps and squinted as he looked at two figures who were standing a couple hundred feet away. He was searching for Kai Correa, and after a couple of minutes, the Giants’ infield coach saw the shortstop and came running back to the dirt.
Crawford is 13 years and more than 1,500 games into his MLB career, but he still has a passion for the simple act of fielding a groundball. After a long cross-country flight from Florida, he was out early on Thursday afternoon to do extra defensive work. He repeated the process on Saturday, using a small glove to work on his hands.
The defensive drills are fun for the four-time Gold Glove Award winner. The work in the cage is a bit more serious, and on Saturday it paid off.
Crawford made minor swing adjustments at the end of the road trip and kept working in the cage once the Giants returned home, even as he dealt with some rib discomfort. He finally found the right swing Saturday, smoking a three-run homer in the first inning that sparked a 7-3 win over the New York Mets.
There are no must-win games in April, but this one was about as close as it gets. Losers of seven of eight, the Giants are hopeful that they can dig their way out of an early hole. It was particularly important not to waste a sharp outing from Logan Webb on Saturday, and the early outburst made sure that didn’t happen.
“I thought that was the best overall game we’ve played,” Webb said. “That’s the brand of baseball we’re trying to play. That’s Giants baseball. It’s been tough lately but we know what we’re capable of.”
Webb said there was extra energy in the dugout and on the field Saturday, and the Giants kept it going throughout. They scored four runs off lefty David Peterson in the first inning after totaling just nine against the seven previous left-handed starters they faced this month. Crawford’s left-on-left blast was the biggest blow, and he celebrated by blowing a kiss to his teammates as he rounded third.
“He wanted that, he needed that, the whole team needed that,” Webb said. “That’s the type of guy he is, right? There are moments when you feel down and out and you need something to go your way. He came up big with that.”
Webb went seven strong, picking up his first win of the year. He has been disappointed with the way he has thrown the ball this month, but he also has not gotten much help. The Giants scored seven total runs in Webb’s first four starts but got nearly that many in the first two innings Saturday, jumping on Peterson, who is off to a brutal start for a Mets team that is surprisingly short on starting pitching at the moment.
The Giants won’t see the injured Justin Verlander or suspended Max Scherzer in this series, but lately the caliber of an opposing pitcher hasn’t mattered. They have been one of the league’s worst offenses against left-handed pitching, but Saturday’s effort looked more like what they had in mind when they started the season.
Thairo Estrada singled twice in the first two innings and scored both times. David Villar drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and Wilmer Flores hit a solo homer against his former team. Defensively, they were backed by one of Joey Bart’s best defensive games of his young career.
It was, as Webb said, the most complete game of the year for the Giants. There was just one thing missing.
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Three hours after his homer, Crawford wondered aloud where the ball had actually landed. The FOX cameras caught it floating in the cove but didn’t have a clear shot of the ball as it cleared the cheering fans in the arcade. The Splash Hit counter stayed at 98.
“That’s tough,” Crawford said, smiling. “Unbelievable.”
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