With their top four first basemen unavailable due to injury, the Giants were forced to turn to a player with two career hits and only eight games of major league experience.
Jason Vosler might have been Gabe Kapler’s last option to play first on Wednesday, but with the game hanging in the balance, Vosler delivered a go-ahead solo home run anyway to power the Giants to a 5-4 come-from-behind win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The D’backs loaded the bases with one out in the ninth inning against Tyler Rogers, but the Giants closer struck out Ketel Marte and induced a game-ending groundout from Eduardo Escobar to secure the team’s 30th win of the season.
Vosler’s first career home run capped off a four-run comeback and a three-run eighth inning as he went back-to-back with pinch-hitter Austin Slater, who came off the bench to drill a game-tying, pinch-hit home run against newly inserted D’backs left-hander Alex Young.
The Giants (30-19) didn’t expect to have Vosler on Wednesday’s lineup card when they departed for Arizona earlier in the week, but the team was left with no choice but to add a player from Triple-A Sacramento after first baseman Brandon Belt was placed on the 10-day injured list with a mild left oblique strain.
After Belt’s diagnosis, Kapler spoke optimistically about the team’s ability to replace his production because of the way Darin Ruf has performed this season. But hours after Kapler indicated Ruf would temporarily take over as the team’s starting first baseman, the 35-year-old slugger exited Wednesday’s game in Arizona against the Diamondbacks with an apparent right hamstring injury.
Ruf picked up two hits in three at-bats against the D’backs, but after taking a wide turn around first base following a sixth-inning single, he reached for his hamstring, grimaced in pain and immediately left the game alongside a Giants trainer. His injury came at a time when Belt, Wilmer Flores and Tommy La Stella were already on the injured list, so the Giants were left scrambling.
Vosler, who made his major league debut with the Giants earlier this season, replaced Ruf on the bases and stayed in the game to play first base. His first at-bat didn’t come until the eighth inning, when a Giants rally compelled D’backs manager Torey Lovullo to call on Young to replace right-hander Stefan Crichton.
Donovan Solano, who entered earlier in the game as part of a double switch, led off the inning with a double to right field, but Crichton retired Mike Yastrzemski and Buster Posey before left-handed hitting slugger Alex Dickerson was due up.
Lovullo went to his bullpen for what he perceived as a more favorable matchup, but Kapler countered by making a move of his own as he sent the right-handed hitting Slater to the plate to greet Young.
With the count at 2-2, Slater yanked a cutter from Young into the second deck at Chase Field for the Giants’ sixth pinch-hit home run of the season. The 460-foot blast was the second-longest home run of Slater’s career and the longest hit by a Giants player this season.
It also set the table for Vosler, who was hitting .200 with a .678 OPS at Triple-A Sacramento this year before getting the call to replace Belt on Wednesday.
The Giants fell in a 4-0 hole after starter Johnny Cueto allowed a run in the first and three in the third before settling in and completing five innings. Cueto wasn’t sharp as he allowed eight hits, but he finished his night with three scoreless innings before turning the game over to a Giants bullpen that was able to keep Arizona off the board for the second consecutive night.
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