SAN FRANCISCO — With an offense that’s struggling to hit with runners in scoring position, a rotation that’s been crushed with injuries and a team that appeared to be limping into the All-Star break, the Giants looked like a club that needed a jolt of energy.
Starter Alex Wood was the man who provided it.
For the second consecutive outing, Wood helped bring an end to a Giants (54-32) losing streak as he followed up a win over the Diamondbacks with a dominant performance in a 5-2 victory over the Cardinals.
Wood tossed seven innings of one-run ball and struck out six St. Louis hitters in his best outing in two months as the Giants left-hander pushed the club 1.5 games ahead of the Dodgers in the National League West.
The Giants left 12 runners on base in an underwhelming offensive showing against a Cardinals pitching staff that lacked control for much of the night, but three runs were all San Francisco needed as relievers Tyler Rogers and Jake McGee closed out a much-needed victory.
Rogers encountered trouble in the eighth inning as he gave up a RBI single to Paul Goldschmidt, but with two on and one out, he induced a 6-4-3 double play off of Nolan Arenado’s bat to preserve a one-run lead. McGee didn’t have quite as much stress as Rogers, as Austin Slater led off the eighth inning with a single before Darin Ruf launched a two-run home run to center field.
A Giants team that can’t seem to go a week without losing a player to injury was forced to replace first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. in the top of the sixth with a left hand strain. It’s unclear when Wade injured his hand, but with the Giants rallying in the bottom of the fifth, Ruf came out on deck and would have hit for Wade if Wood was able to reach base before replacing him in the field in the following inning.
Wade scored the Giants’ first run of the game against Cardinals starter Johan Oveido in the first inning after the club loaded the bases and rookie Jason Vosler was hit by a pitch. The Giants’ offense missed a chance to take the lead in the first inning as the club had the bases loaded with no outs, but after strikeouts from Alex Dickerson and Brandon Crawford, Vosler was plunked on the leg on the first pitch of his plate appearance.
San Francisco added its second run in the following inning after catcher Curt Casali and Mike Yastrzemski drilled doubles off of Oveido. Yastrzemski’s RBI double hit the center field wall on a fly and a few pitches after he pulled in at second base, the Cardinals starter stepped off the mound and shouted at Yastrzemski, who appeared to be complaining about Oveido’s pace.
The brief exchange of words was unusual for Yastrzemski, who mouthed, “Throw a pitch,” at Oveido after TV cameras caught the right-hander directing an expletive at the Giants outfielder.
The Giants went for a knockout punch in the fifth inning when Kapler brought pinch-hitters Wilmer Flores and Donovan Solano off the bench against Cardinals lefty Brandon Waddell, and while the club didn’t push multiple runs across, Solano did deliver a broken-bat, RBI single to bring Dickerson home.
After a challenging stretch in June in which he seemed to lose the feel for his slider, Wood has regained his command of the pitch and coupled that with improved control of his sinker on Wednesday. The southpaw got 16 called strikes with his sinker against St. Louis and mostly relied on a solid two-pitch mix as he threw only seven change-ups.
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