Giants’ Gausman beats Padres again with help from Crawford, Belt

The Giants beat the Padres again Saturday and go for a series sweep Sunday.

SAN FRANCISCO — The 90th birthday celebration for Willie Mays isn’t the only reason things are feeling nostalgic at Oracle Park.

Franchise mainstays Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt hit home runs and Kevin Gausman continued his dominance against the San Diego Padres Saturday in a 7-1 win by the Giants before a crowd of 9,764.

Now 20-13, the Giants have a 2 1/2 game lead on the Padres in the National League West, with the struggling Dodgers hovering near .500.

Crawford hit a three-run home run, his seventh in the second inning against Padres starter and loser Joe Musgrove (2-4). Belt’s solo shot in the fifth, also against Musgrove, was also his seventh.

Combined with eight homers from Buster Posey, who had the day off, the Giants have 22 home runs from three players who combined for seven World Series rings between 2010 and 2014 and were thought to possibly be on their way out in the new regime of president Farhan Zaidi and manager Gabe Kapler.

“Honestly, I think we just had a few years in there where pretty much all of us were not healthy,” Belt said in a postgame video conference. “Just being healthy again, having everybody back in the lineup, we have a lot of good hitters around us. We’re having a lot of fun playing baseball with each other and hopefully we can just keep it going.”

Austin Slater hit his second home run in two nights for the Giants to add two insurance runs in the eighth inning, his fourth. Slater out also had a two-out, run-scoring pinch single in the fifth.

Gausman’s latest domination of the Padres: six innings, three hits, one run, no earned runs, one walk and seven strikeouts. In three games against San Diego, Gausman (3-0) has pitched 19 innings, giving up 14 hits, three runs, two earned with three walks and 18 strikeouts.

In seven starts, Gausman has given up more than one earned run exactly once — a no decision in Cincinnati on April 13 where he gave up five earned runs.

With an extra day off after being pushed back after his COVID-19 vaccine, Gausman was throwing as hard as 97 miles per hour on a warm day. There were his usual assortment of splitters but also with a change-up and a slider or two mixed in.

“Today he had good stuff, he had velocity,” Kapler said. “Sometimes he gets through games at 94, it wasn’t like that today.”

Zack Littell pitched a scoreless seventh, Tyler Rogers worked out of a two-on jam in the eighth in his 19th appearance and Caleb Baragar finished it off in the ninth for the Giants.

It was the fifth win in eight games for the Giants against the Padres, with a series sweep on the line Sunday as starting pitcher Johnny Cueto returns for his first game since leaving with a lat injury on April 14.

The two teams won’t meet again until September, by which time it should be determined whether the Giants are a contender or a mirage. At some point, the Giants should begin to become a story on a national level.

“I would think so,” Crawford said. “We’ve got a pretty good record right now. We’re in first place. But I don’t think that’s necessarily what we’re worried about. We just want to go out and win games.”

BCRAW
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Crawford, who came in hitting .357 (10-for-28) with three home runs in his previous 11 games, hit the first pitch he saw from Musgrove in the second inning for a three-run home run to jump-start the Giants.

“Craw set the tone,” Kapler said. “Musgrove is tough and he can keep you off balance. I think Craw has come through with some of the biggest hits for us all year. That’s no surprise. He’s a clutch player.”

Belt opened the inning with a sharp grounder to deep second that Croenenworth couldn’t handle (It was initially ruled an error but changed to a hit). Evan Longoria, who has been making a living hitting to right field of late, sliced a double into the right field corner, sending Belt to third.

Crawford then tied in to a 91 mph cutter from Musgrove and sent it into the seats in left center for a 3-0 Giants lead.

By striking first the Giants were able to stay away from the back end of the Padres bullpen, where ex-Giants Drew Pomeranz and Mark Melancon have been excelling at shutting down games late.

After today’s series finale, the Giants and Padres don’t meet again until Sept. 13. Following a two-game series at Oracle Park against the Texas Rangers, the Giants embark on an eight game road trip to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.