Mike Yastrzemski comes off the bench, lifts Giants to win over Padres with pinch-hit homer
The Padres lineup is loaded, their pitching staff is stacked and their bullpen is expected to be good enough to give them a chance to compete with the Dodgers atop the National League West.
To get there, they’ll have to figure out how to beat the Giants.
With solo home runs from Darin Ruf, Evan Longoria and Mike Yastrzemski, the Giants (2-2) arrived at Petco Park Monday and picked up a narrow 3-2 win in their first divisional matchup of the season.
Ruf’s second inning home run against Padres starter Adrián Morejón put the Giants on the board before Longoria crushed his third home run of the season to push the Giants ahead 2-1 in the fourth. The most dramatic hit of the night, however, belonged to the Giants player who wasn’t certain he would even be available for the series opener.
Less than an hour before first pitch of Monday’s series opener at Petco Park, the Giants announced Yastrzemski had been scratched from the starting lineup with wrist soreness.
Yastrzemski had been plunked on his left wrist last week in the Giants’ final exhibition game against the A’s and didn’t look like himself against the Mariners, as he went 1-for-13 at the plate with several bad strikeouts.
“I felt like it was a really good opportunity to get back on track,” Yastrzemski said. “You don’t have to worry about four or five at-bats, you just have to have one good at-bat and make sure you’re helping the team win.”
His absence from Monday’s lineup led to some initial concern, but when he stepped into the batter’s box in the seventh inning, Yastrzemski wasted little time alleviating that sentiment.
After Padres righty Craig Stammen missed with two straight sinkers, Yastrzemski plopped the third pitch he saw over the center field fence to break a 2-2 tie. His 406-foot blast gave the Giants a major league-best nine home runs on the season and rejuvenated a dugout that had just watched San Diego pull even.
“It was certainly a gutsy moment for him,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “He’s a resilient kid and he did a nice job in that plate appearance.”
New Giants starter Anthony DeSclafani pitched well enough to earn a win on Monday, but after five innings of one-run ball, the defense cost the free agent signee a shot at his first victory with a new team.
With right-hander Matt Wisler on the mound in the sixth, Jurickson Profar hit a high flyball to right center field that should have been tracked down by either Mauricio Dubón or Austin Slater. What looked like a routine play turned into a triple as neither Dubón nor Slater took charge, which allowed Profar to capitalize on a ball that had a .110 expected batting average when it left the bat.
After a Victor Caratini sacrifice fly brought home Profar, DeSclafani’s solid performance against a tough Padres lineup was spoiled.
San Diego ran up DeSclafani’s pitch count early, but he still ended his Giants debut by throwing some of the best pitches of the night to strike out Eric Hosmer and Tommy Pham swinging. With a pair of runners on base and the Padres threatening the Giants’ one-run lead in the fifth, DeSclafani turned to his sinker to put each San Diego batter away.
The right-hander threw 25 sinkers on Monday and Padres hitters swung at 15 of them, yet the only two whiffs came against Hosmer and Pham in the bottom of the fifth.
“There’s always nerves,” DeSclafani said after his Giants debut. “It’s the first game of the year and all of that stuff and you want to set the tone.”
Despite Wisler’s sixth-inning hiccup, the Giants were still able to hold on against a San Diego lineup that lost superstar shortstop Fernando Tatis, Jr. to a left shoulder subluxation following an awkward swing on early strikeout against DeSclafani.
Reyes Moronta and Tyler Rogers each earned holds while lefty Jake McGee picked up his second save in as many tries, which gave the Giants an important win before they face the Padres’ high-profile offseason acquisitions, Yu Darvish and Blake Snell, in the final two games of the series.