Brandon Crawford blasts grand slam, Giants back at .500 after blowout win over A’s

The Giants are 26-26 with eight games to play.

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OAKLAND — In the midst of a race for a postseason berth, the San Francisco Giants are relying on several players who were once relegated to part-time roles to step up and a lead a late-season surge.

Few players on the roster have more experience in navigating the challenges of a playoff race than shortstop Brandon Crawford, but he’s also among the group of players taking on a bigger role than the Giants envisioned entering the season.

After the Giants dropped below .500 with back-to-back shutout losses to open their series in Oakland, Crawford broke open Sunday’s game with a fifth-inning grand slam that helped the club capture a 14-2 victory.

Crawford opened the summer as a platoon player at shortstop, but in the final week of the season, the club is counting on him to play on an everyday basis and serve as an offensive catalyst.

Since finishing 12th in National League MVP voting in 2016, Crawford’s offensive numbers had dropped off in a considerable way and in each of the past two seasons, defensive metrics ranked the three-time Gold Glove Award winner as a below average fielder. After finding himself on the bench against most left-handed starters early in the year, Crawford has the best OPS of his career and has recaptured some of the magic he found during an early-season hot stretch in 2018 that helped him secure his second All-Star nod.

“He’s been taking very aggressive hacks and very confident hacks and he has proven that he is still a very productive offensive player in this league through his work this year,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “I know last year was not a good year for him, but Craw has been extremely good in the batter’s box against both lefties and righties.”

Crawford had plenty of help on Sunday in Oakland as catcher Chadwick Tromp and left fielder Darin Ruf each hit two-run home runs against A’s left-hander Mike Minor while starter Tyler Anderson gave the Giants 5 2/3 innings against a tough Oakland lineup.

With Mike Yastrzemski dealing with a calf injury, Austin Slater unable to play the outfield due to an elbow issue and Alex Dickerson on the paternity list, the Giants are counting on Ruf to face both right and left-handed pitchers and the outfielder shined on Sunday. Aside from his two-run homer, he added a two-run single in the eighth inning that gave him four RBIs in a game for the first time since September 1, 2015 when he was playing for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Tromp isn’t likely to start the majority of games down the stretch, but Kapler said pregame he wanted rookie catcher Joey Bart to have a “mental refresh” following recent struggles at the plate. Bart wasn’t included in the starting lineup Sunday and will likely sit on the bench for Monday’s series opener against the Colorado Rockies and the Giants

Tromp grades out as one of the top defensive catchers in baseball and has been an elite pitch framer this year, but it was Tromp’s bat that led to a key breakthrough. In his first plate appearance against Minor, Tromp golfed a pitch below the strike zone over the left center field wall for a two-run home run to snap the Giants’ scoreless streak at 22 innings.

Tromp finished with his first career three-hit game and a season-high three RBIs after picking up an infield single to drive in Crawford in the eighth.

Ruf, who was signed as a minor league free agent in the offseason to aid the lineup against left-handed pitchers, hit his fifth home run of the season in the fourth inning as he crushed a curveball from Minor over the center field wall. An early 4-0 edge allowed the Giants to extend Anderson, who wasn’t slated to start Sunday’s game until Saturday afternoon.

With veteran right-hander Johnny Cueto dealing with hip discomfort, the Giants decided to shuffle their rotation and push his scheduled start back from Sunday to Monday. The decision allowed Kapler to bring Anderson back on short rest after the left-hander was ejected from the Giants’ 6-4 win over the Mariners on Thursday.

Anderson threw just 49 pitches and recorded six outs in his last game against Seattle, but the Giants believed the starter could have close to a full workload in a critical matchup against the A’s. A day after right-hander Kevin Gausman opened his outing with three perfect innings, Anderson also didn’t allow a baserunner until the bottom of the fourth.

It was A’s first baseman Matt Olson who recorded Oakland’s first hit against both Giants starters, but his single against Anderson was the product of a softly-hit, well-placed ball against a defensive shift. With third baseman Evan Longoria standing on the right of second base, Olson hit a pop-up on the left side of the infield that dropped inside the foul line and rolled just beyond third base.

Anderson nearly completed six innings on Sunday without allowing a run, but a two-out, two-run single hit by Jake Lamb brought an end to his afternoon.

With a win Sunday, the 26-26 Giants will play their remaining eight games against National League West clubs and will begin their quest to make up ground in the wild card race with a four-game set against the Colorado Rockies that begins Monday at Oracle Park.

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