Giants win fourth straight to move above .500, Dickerson, Dubón and Ruf homer to key comeback

Darin Ruf's pinch-hit, go-ahead home run led the Giants to a come-from-behind win over the Mariners.

The platoon saloon is open for business and the San Francisco Giants are feasting.

It’s not often a manager would pull a power-hitting outfielder who has already homered early in a game in favor of a pinch-hitter in the late innings, but that’s exactly what Giants manager Gabe Kapler did in the bottom of the seventh of Tuesday’s game against the Mariners.

With left fielder Alex Dickerson due up, Kapler sent pinch-hitter Darin Ruf to the plate against Mariners left-hander Alex Misiewicz. All Ruf did was blast a hanging curveball into the left center field bleachers for a go-ahead home run in the Giants’ 6-5 victory.

“That was awesome, especially when we make a move and a guy immediately does the best thing you can do, he hits a home run,” Dickerson said.

The Giants’ (22-21) fourth consecutive win pushed the team above .500 for the first time since they were 5-4 on August 1 and created more distance in the NL West and NL postseason standings from the Colorado Rockies, who lost 14-5 to the Padres on Tuesday to fall to 20-22.

A night after Dickerson left a game in the fourth inning with a right knee contusion, he was healthy enough to start and kick off a four-run comeback with a solo shot over the right field wall in the bottom of the third. The home runs hit by a lefty and a righty proved how effective a great platoon can be, but neither Dickerson nor Ruf finished the game on defense.

An hour before Tuesday’s game, the Giants made a late roster move as they added rookie left fielder Luis Basabe to the club and optioned infielder Daniel Robertson to the Sacramento alternate site. Basabe’s only prior major league experience came on August 27 as a pinch-runner against the Dodgers, but he had a chance to flash his speed in left field in the top of the eighth when he tracked down a long flyball into the gap hit by Mariners pinch-hitter Phillip Ervin.

“I understand that there are going to be ups, I understand that there are going to be downs, and just like our hitters that are going to be focused on the process and not the outcome, in order for me to be a good leader I need to do that all the time,” Kapler said.

Kapler’s late decision-making worked well in other ways for the Giants as his bullpen tossed four innings of shutout ball following an up and down outing from starter Logan Webb. Webb gave up five runs in his first three innings, but a Giants offense that is rarely fazed by an early deficit overcame the adversity.

With the Giants trailing 5-3, Mauricio Dubón came to the plate in the bottom of the fourth and launched a towering drive down the left field line. The rookie center fielder stood in the batter’s box as the ball traveled toward the stands, but Dubón initially appeared to believe he had pulled the pitch foul.

After tracking the ball into the left field bleachers, Dubón circled the bases on a game-tying two-run blast that became only the third home run hit in the majors this season with a launch angle of more than 45 degrees. The other two homers hit with a launch angle of 46 degrees this season came from teammate Brandon Belt (August 5) and Cubs outfielder Ian Happ (August 29).

The homer took Webb off the hook for the loss, but the right-hander has now given up at least four runs in each of his past three starts, moving his ERA from 3.29 to 5.23.

Under normal circumstances, the Giants could chalk up Webb’s command issues to rookie growing pains and let him work through his mistakes in future starts. With the increased stakes that come from a playoff race, it might be difficult to continue turning to Webb every fifth day, particularly when the club expects two veteran starters, Drew Smyly and Jeff Samardzija, to return from the injured list in the near future.

Despite the early trouble, Webb did a nice job recovering and credited a conversation with Kapler that helped him push through five innings on a night that could have easily spiraled out of control.

“That’s the worst I’ve felt like I’ve pitched in a long time and coming up to me and patting me on the back and saying we got this, that’s a huge thing,” Webb said. “It’s really cool to have that and when you’ve got a manager who does that, it’s pretty special because it takes the pressure off of everything else knowing he’s got your back and being able to go out there and just compete.”

Mariners starter Ljay Newsome didn’t pitch as deep into the game as Webb on Tuesday, but his early exit wasn’t any fault of his own. In the bottom of the second, Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford laced a 100-mile per hour liner up the middle that caught Newsome on his pitching hand, requiring him to leave the mound and forcing the Mariners to turn the rest of the game over to their bullpen.

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