SAN FRANCISCO – The season that Brandon Crawford has enjoyed so far in 2021 can now easily be considered among the most productive for any Giants player his age since the club moved to the Bay Area more than 60 years ago.
Crawford went 3 for 3, including a solo home run in the sixth inning, and finished with three RBIs to help lift the Giants to a 10-4 win over the Washington Nationals on Saturday at Oracle Park.
Austin Slater, Joey Bart and Thairo Estrada all had at least two hits as the Giants won their third straight game and ensured that they’ll enter next week’s All-star break in sole possession of first place in the National League West.
The Giants entered Saturday with a two-game lead over the second-place Los Angeles Dodgers, and Sunday’s season finale with the Nationals is their last before the break.
Crawford now has 18 home runs and 58 RBIs this season. Of every San Francisco Giant aged 34 or older, only Barry Bonds had more RBIs by the All-Star break than Crawford. Bonds had 73 RBIs in 2001 when he was 36 and 63 in 2003 when he was 38.
With his three RBIs on Saturday, Crawford, who turned 34 in January, eclipsed the first halves Bonds had in 2000 and 2002, and the first half of the season Willie Mays had in 1966 when he was 35. Those years, Bonds and Mays had 57 RBIs by the All-Star break.
The Giants finished with 14 hits as they scored three runs in the first inning, all unearned, and five more in the third, making short work of Nationals starter Jon Lester.
Lester didn’t make it out of the third inning as he allowed nine hits and three earned runs. The Giants made him throw 29 pitches in the first inning, all but ensuring a short outing for the five-time all-star. Lester, who nearly signed with the Giants as a free agent in 2014 before he joined the Chicago Cubs, threw 80 pitches, with just 46 for strikes.
Meanwhile, Giants starter Anthony DeSclafani continued his torrid stretch, allowing just three hits over six shutout innings. DeSclafani had six strikeouts before he gave way to Tyler Beede, who allowed three earned runs in the seventh inning in his first appearance since Sept. 26, 2019.
DeSclafani is now 7-1 in his last eight starts since May 28.
San Francisco’s first game after the All-Star break is Friday in St. Louis.
