SAN FRANCISCO — First impressions didn’t favor the San Francisco Giants on Friday night.
It took just three pitches for the Miami Marlins to jump on Giants’ lefty starter Alex Wood, a towering solo home run to right-center field off the bat of Marlins’ phenom second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. The Giants struggled to respond to Chisholm’s emphatic blast, leaving three runners on base in the first two innings and striking out as many times.
But momentum quickly swung back to the Giants’ dugout in their 5-3 victory over the Marlins. The Giants improved to 13-7, putting them six games above .500 for the first time since 2016.
After second baseman Tommy La Stella led off the bottom of the third inning with a walk, right fielder Mike Yastrzemski lifted a ball to left field and with some help from the 19 mile-per-hour winds blowing towards the outfield at Oracle Park, Yastrzemski hit his third home run of the season to give his team a lead it never relinquished.
But it was hardly the Giants’ offense that carried it to victory against a Marlins team that won six of its last 10 games entering play on Friday. Wood was superb in his second start of the season, carving through the Miami lineup with ease over seven innings of one-run ball with seven strikeouts and just two baserunners allowed.
Wood’s performance was his latest in a lengthy string of excellence against the Marlins. In his last 10 appearances against Miami, Wood owns an impressive 1.40 ERA, a great number that was aided this year with all 12 of his innings coming against the Marlins.
The Giants bullpen also performed well. Righty Tyler Rogers, who leads the Majors in appearances (13), pitched a scoreless top of the eighth inning, dropping his ERA to a minuscule 0.66. Lefty closer Jake McGee surrendered a wall-scraping, two-run home run in the top of the ninth but it never came back to hurt the Giants.
Wood was so good he was able to give his team enough time to find its footing offensively despite six uninspiring innings. San Francisco collected five hits and as many walks but left six on base and were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position through the sixth.
In the seventh, they came to life, though, picking up three runs on three hits and a walk. It was a perfect surge of offense to put the game out of reach and it featured a critical base hit from first baseman Brandon Belt, who dealt with some quad tightness that allowed him to take just one at-bat in the Giants’ last three games.
Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford, who felt some minor rib soreness on Thursday that prevented him from starting, was in the lineup on Friday night and made a diving stop in the top of the first inning to rob Miami right fielder Garrett Cooper of a base hit back up the middle.
The Giants will have an opportunity to continue their momentum on Saturday night against the Marlins at 6:05 p.m. PT with an opportunity to win their third straight game.
(Rudner is a special correspondent)
