SF Giants win fifth straight game behind another strong start from Anthony DeSclafani

SAN FRANCISCO — Make that five in a row for the Giants, who have come out of nowhere to find an unexpected winning streak against the Mets and Cardinals.

Wednesday night, Anthony DeSclafani kept the hot streak going with six strong innings as the Giants cranked out a 7-3 win over the Cardinals in front of 21,748 fans at Oracle Park.

All of a sudden a team that looked lifeless for the first few weeks of the season is starting to gain momentum. The Giants are now 11-13 and just two games behind the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks.

Over the club’s five-game winning streak, Giants starting pitchers have gone 3-0 with a 2.02 ERA. They had previously been 1-8 with a 3.79 ERA through the first 19 games.

While nobody on the Giants’ six-man rotation is making more than $12.5 million this season, their starting staff now ranks fourth in the big leagues with a 3.40 ERA.

DeSclafani, who might want to avoid ever throwing another strike to Paul Goldschmidt after the former MVP continued his decimation of DeSclafani with a 3-for-3 game that included two home runs, was otherwise brilliant as he held the Cardinals to two runs over six innings.

Signed to a three-year-, $36-million contract before the 2022 season, DeSclafani is now 2-1 on the season with a 2.70 ERA.

Goldschmidt could start a record label with all the hits he’s gotten off DeSclafani over his career.

In the first inning, he got a 1-1 belt-high sinker and launched it for a solo home run that put the Cardinals ahead 1-0. He went deep again in the third off another sinker, a juicy pitch that DeSclafani knew was gone immediately off the bat.

And wouldn’t you know it, Goldscmidt was at it again in the fifth. He couldn’t resist another first-pitch temptation, a belt-high slider, and smoked it down the right-field line for a double. He saw five pitches from DeSclafani on the night; he acquired 10 total bases.

Nobody has hurt DeSclafani like Goldschmidt, who is now a remarkable 17-or-30 (.567) with six doubles and four home runs off him in his career.

Behind 2-0 in the fourth, the Giants started to come alive.

The left-handed hitting LaMonte Wade Jr. wasn’t supposed to play, but got into the lineup after a late scratch by Mike Yastrzemski, who is battling side soreness.

Wade was relentless in his refusal to swing at anything but strikes his first time up, when Steven Matz gave in and walked him. Then Wade ran the count full in the fourth inning and forced Matz into a mistake, a 93-mph sinker down the middle. Wade smoked it over the right-center field wall for his third home run of the season, and the first home run of his career against a left-hander.

Blake Sabol’s two-out single and stolen base led to the game-tying run as Austin Slater poked a single into right field to even things up, 2-2, to end the fourth.

In the bottom of the fifth, Mitch Haniger singled for his first hit of the year. Then Wilmer Flores launched one into right-center that should’ve been caught but was fumbled by Lars Nootbar, allowing Haniger to get to third. Haniger then scored on a wild pitch while David Villar was at the plate.

Flores put the Cardinals away with a two-run shot in the seventh.

With a little bit of steam from the offense, the Giants have out-scored their opponents 28-16 in the last five games.

Overall, the Giants offense ranks 14th in MLB while scoring 4.5 runs per game.