The San Francisco Giants have eight home runs over the first two games of their series with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Giants will look to finish a series sweep and close a nine-game road trip in style on Wednesday night when they face the Diamondbacks in Phoenix.
Suddenly hot San Francisco (79-79) has won a season-high five straight games and is 7-1 on a road trip that began against the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals.
The Giants hit three homers in Monday’s 6-3 victory over the Diamondbacks and followed with five blasts in Tuesday’s 11-0 rout while delivering blows to Arizona’s playoff hopes.
The Diamondbacks (87-71) have lost three straight games and didn’t resemble a team fighting for a postseason berth on Tuesday.
“Usually I try to filter things and come up with something that’s positive, but I don’t think there was much positive that came from this game,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “We’ve got to play better baseball.”
The Diamondbacks are in third place in the National League wild-card derby, a half-game behind the New York Mets and only a half-game ahead of the Atlanta Braves.
“We want to play postseason ball, and in order to do that, we got to take care of business in these next four games,” Arizona outfielder Corbin Carroll said. “Got to leave it all out there. That’s what we plan to do.”
Meanwhile, the Giants are wondering about what could have been due to their torrid play down the stretch.
“It’s hard to put a finger on that,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Things happen for a reason. We’re getting a lot of younger guys ready for next year at this point in time, too. You can lament all you want about it, but you’d rather have it happening now than not.”
Right-hander Logan Webb handcuffed Arizona hitters and gave up four hits over six shutout innings on Tuesday.
Webb noted that San Francisco didn’t fold up the tent after being eliminated from playoff consideration.
“We’re kind of having fun with this,” he said. “I think it’s important. It’s building that chemistry that you’ve got to have to be in the lead over 162 games. Maybe during that stretch where we weren’t winning, we were getting tight, and we thought we had to do too much. I think we’ve done pretty well since we were eliminated, which (stinks).”
Diamondbacks All-Star second baseman Ketel Marte (ankle, back injuries) returned to the starting lineup Tuesday and went 1-for-3 with a walk. Catcher Gabriel Moreno (adductor) also was back and went 0-for-3.
Arizona ace right-hander Zac Gallen (13-6, 3.74 ERA) has won his past four decisions and hopes to match his start from Sept. 4, when he tossed six no-hit innings in San Francisco. Gallen struck out eight and walked four during a 6-4 victory.
That was better than his other 2024 outing against the Giants. On April 20, Gallen was touched up for five runs and nine hits over five innings during a 7-3 loss.
Gallen, 29, is 5-5 with a 4.12 ERA in 15 career starts against the Giants. Patrick Bailey (3-for-5), Michael Conforto (5-for-21) and Curt Casali (1-for-3) have homered against Gallen, while Matt Chapman is hitless in seven at-bats.
Giants right-hander Mason Black (1-4, 5.88 ERA) will return to the mound for the first time since recording his first major league win last Friday. Black gave up four hits over 5 2/3 shutout innings while beating the Kansas City Royals 2-1.
Black, 24, served up a homer in each of his first seven big league outings — which included six starts — before keeping the ball in the park against the Royals.
Black has never faced the Diamondbacks.
–Field Level Media
