For all of the success the Giants have enjoyed during the first month of the season, Gabe Kapler’s club opened Monday’s three-game series without a single blowout victory.
Hello, Colorado Rockies.
Against a last-place team whose general manager quit on the team earlier in the day, the Giants scored nine runs in the first two innings and picked up a 12-0 shutout win to improve to 15-7 on the year.
“I usually spend an hour or so after games picking things apart, but what’s there to pick apart?” Kapler said. “The guys did a great job.”
Each of the Giants’ first 22 games this season were decided by four runs or fewer, but that finally changed on a night when three different players — Evan Longoria, Buster Posey and Mauricio Dubón — each drove in at least three runs.
Right-hander Anthony DeSclafani was just as good as the Giants’ offense on Monday as he tossed the team’s first complete game shutout since Chris Stratton blanked the Rockies in a 2-0 win at Oracle Park on Sept. 14, 2018.
DeSclafani allowed just three hits and needed only 100 pitches to record the second shutout of his career and the first since Aug. 27, 2016, when he was a member of the Cincinnati Reds.
Longoria hadn’t started since Thursday due to a nagging left hamstring issue, but broke a scoreless tie with a RBI single in the first inning before doubling home two more runs in the second. The double left Longoria’s bat at 113.2 mph, marking his hardest-hit ball in three-plus seasons with San Francisco and the hardest-hit ball by a Giants player in 2021.
After trotting into second to push the Giants ahead 6-0 in the second inning, Longoria was replaced by pinch-runner Jason Vosler.
Posey, who finished a triple shy of the cycle, hit his first home run at Oracle Park since September 24, 2019 in the bottom of the sixth against reliever Tyler Kinley. The two-run blast gave the Giants a 12-0 advantage and gave Posey his first five-homer month since May 2017, when Posey was in the midst of building his résumé for a fifth career All-Star nod.
With a home run, a double and two singles, Posey racked up four hits for the first time since Aug. 10, 2018, and just the third time since the 2016 season.
The Giants have received consistent production from both Longoria and Posey this season, so the swings Dubón contributed to the team’s highest-scoring game of the season were among the most encouraging signs Kapler saw on Monday.
With two outs in the second, Dubón put an exclamation point on a five-run inning with a three-run double that hit off the base of the center field wall. The Giants shortstop entered Monday’s game with a .150 average and two RBIs on the year, but tripled that total thanks to a fourth-inning sacrifice fly.
The Giants’ offensive outburst took the spotlight and the pressure off DeSclafani, who dominated an overmatched Rockies lineup from the outset of Monday’s game. DeSclafani struck out the side in a 12-pitch first inning and never looked back, keeping his pitch count under 100 in one of the best games of his major league career.
The former Reds right-hander struck out nine Rockies hitters, overwhelming Colorado with a sinker-slider combination that proved effective all night.
DeSclafani received plenty of help from his defense as second baseman Wilmer Flores snared a 111.5-mph line drive, right fielder Darin Ruf made a sliding catch in the right field corner and a running catch in the right center field gap and Dubón handled a tough 105-mph one-hopper up the middle, but DeSclafani only allowed one Colorado batter to even reach scoring position.
His 100 pitches were the fewest in a shutout by a Giants starter since Madison Bumgarner needed just 94 to hold the Mets scoreless on Aug. 3, 2014.
“Part of the reason he was around in the eight and ninth inning was he didn’t waste a ton of pitches,” Kapler said. “He filled it up and forced the Rockies to put the ball in play.”
With 15 wins, the Giants temporarily moved into a tie with the Dodgers for the most in the majors, who were trailing the Reds at the time San Francisco’s game came to an end.
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