SAN FRANCISCO _ It took nearly three weeks, but the San Francisco Giants have finally won consecutive games in the month of August.
Behind a strong start from possible trade deadline darling Johnny Cueto and a couple of two-out homers against Los Angeles Angels left-hander Patrick Sandoval, the Giants raced out to an early 5-0 lead and held on for a 7-2 win.
After the Giants blew out the Angels with an 8-2 victory in Anaheim Tuesday, they returned to Oracle Park and watched Wilmer Flores and Austin Slater smash key home runs to secure back-to-back victories for the first time since defeating the Texas Rangers at home July 31 and Aug. 1.
Some lineup decisions are easier than others for Gabe Kapler and on Wednesday he admitted agonizing over whether he should start Brandon Belt at first base and potentially leave Flores out of the lineup. The Giants' first-year manager considered keeping Belt in a consistent rhythm at the plate due to his recent success, but opted to start Flores at first base.
With Slater unable to play the field due to a right elbow flexor strain, the Giants couldn't slide Belt into the designated hitter role and ultimately opted to make defensive sacrifices to improve their lineup.
The decisions paid off early for Kapler when Flores launched a two-strike, two-out, three-run home run to put the Giants on the board against Sandoval in the third inning. Flores' fifth home run of the season was the 18th hit by a Giants player with two strikes this summer and their fifth three-run home run as a team at Oracle Park.
In the fourth inning, Slater hit his own two-out home run that also brought home shortstop Brandon Crawford, who recorded his fifth extra-base hit in the last four games with a double against Sandoval earlier in the inning. Kapler said Crawford could have sat in favor of Mauricio Dubon, but he stuck with him anyway and rewarded Crawford's strong at-bats of late with his third start this year against a left-handed pitcher.
The Giants knew keeping Darin Ruf in left field and Hunter Pence in right field was also a defensive risk, but it was center fielder Mike Yastrzemski who made a costly miscue with his glove in Cueto's final inning. With one out in the top of the sixth, Yastrzemski couldn't track down a long flyball hit by second baseman Tommy La Stella that tipped off his glove and hit the center field wall.
Cueto may have been able to pitch his way through the sixth if Yastrzemski fielded the flyball cleanly, but was instead removed after an Anthony Rendon RBI double that gave the Angels their first run of the night.
The Angels' two-run sixth put a few blemishes on Cueto's line, but there's no denying he's been among the best pitchers in baseball when facing hitters the first and second time through the order this season.
Opponents are now 16-for-96 with 25 strikeouts and only four extra-base hits in their first two trips to the plate against Cueto this year while they're 7-for-16 with one strikeout and five extra-base hits when seeing him for a third time in the same game.
Outside of racking up 12 swings and misses on Wednesday, Cueto also showed off his athleticism with a pair impressive defensive plays, twice retiring Angels designated hitter Shohei Ohtani on nearly identical putouts.
In each of Ohtani's plate appearances, he tapped groundballs up the first base foul line that required Cueto to race off the mound and field. In both instances, the Giants' pitcher tagged Ohtani out himself because he didn't have time and space to underhand the ball to Flores at first base. The first tag was more physical while the second more graceful as Cueto lunged to swipe Ohtani's jersey immediately before the batter's foot stomped down on first base.
Despite a 4.35 ERA, Cueto should receive plenty of interest from contending clubs at the Aug. 31 trade deadline, especially because an acquiring team will have the right-hander under contract through the 2021 season.
With an impressive bounce-back from a 2018 Tommy John surgery, the Giants also view Cueto as a leading candidate to anchor their own rotation through the end of next year and may not want to part with him if executives believe they'll have a chance to contend as soon as next summer.
