NEW YORK — It took 13 innings of baseball in 2023 for the San Francisco Giants to score their first run, and it didn’t take much longer for them to claim their first lead, too. After being shut out on Opening Day and blanked through the first three innings Saturday, Joc Pederson and Brandon Crawford woke up the offense in a big way, leading them to a 7-5 win that evened their record back to .500 after two games.
It wasn’t without stress, though, as an erratic Camilo Doval allowed a run to score in the ninth inning and loaded the bases with two walks and committed two pitch clock violations before Crawford slickly fielded a chopper from Giancarlo Stanton to start a game-ending double play.
Here’s how it went down.
Power display
Before first pitch, Crawford emerged from the dugout and headed to home plate. He was met there by Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, who is married to his sister, Amy, and the brothers-in-law exchanged the day’s lineup cards and posed for a photo.
It was a nice moment, but Crawford was likely happier to see Cole at home plate than on the mound again.
Brandon Crawford and brother-in-law Gerrit Cole exchanged lineup cards today and took a picture at home plate pic.twitter.com/CKssp2Ht32
— Evan Webeck (@EvanWebeck) April 1, 2023
The assignment Saturday proved slightly easier, after Cole struck out 11 over six innings and didn’t allow a run in the Giants’ season-opening loss. With Carlos Rodón sidelined with a mild forearm strain, the Yankees turned instead to 27-year-old right-hander Clarke Schmidt.
And by the end of the fourth inning, they had already turned to their bullpen.
After working the count full to lead off the fourth, Pederson put his best golf swing on a sweeping slider from Schmidt and sent it sailing 404 feet into the right-center field seats. The solo shot represented the Giants’ first run and Pederson’s first hit of the season. In fact, it was the first ball Pederson had put in play, and he had to go down to get it. Well below the strike zone, barely a foot above the ground, according to Statcast, it was the seventh-lowest pitch a Giant has homered on since data became available in 2015 (h/t Sarah Langs).
Three batters later, Crawford paused for a moment to admire the mammoth blast that he launched, which put San Francisco ahead 3-2, its first lead of the season, and ended Schmidt’s day. The towering shot landed at least a dozen rows up in the seats, 415 feet away, and followed a hard-hit double by Mike Yastrzemski down the right field line, one of a pair of two-baggers for Yastrzemski on Saturday.
Crawford, who accomplished a goal of playing in all 30 ballparks last season, has now homered in 25 of them. He finished with three RBIs, two runs scored and a triple away from the cycle, after singling and doubling to contribute to scoring rallies in the sixth and the ninth. And on defense, made the play that sealed the win.
“It was a good day,” Crawford said with a smile. “I guess it was my best game of the year so far.”
After the inflammation in his left knee popped up again during spring training, Crawford and the Giants were concerned it would be an ongoing issue this season. But, Crawford said, “it’s been feeling a lot better.”
“If we get Craw healthy and producing at the plate, it’s gonna be a really good season for us,” Kapler said. “Those were the type of at-bats that we’ve seen from him at his best and on a pretty big stage here at Yankee Stadium.”
Pederson drilled a line drive single scored from first in the ninth on Yastrzemski’s second double of the game, and Crawford singled home Yastrzemski for the Giants’ second insurance run of the inning. Pederson and Yastrzemski each scored twice and drove in a run, while David Villar also contributed a two-hit effort in his first start of the season.
After being shut out in their first game, the Giants combined for seven runs on 12 hits — five for extra bases — on Saturday.
“We’re gonna hit for power this year,” Kapler said. “It’s probably not going to come from just one individual. It’s gonna get spread out. You’re going to see extra base hits and home runs. We expect contributions up and down the lineup.”
As for the meeting at home plate, it was actually educational for Crawford, who had always wondered what went on during those things.
“Surprisingly easy,” Crawford said. “You just hand them the lineup card.”
Doubling up
The Giants’ starter, Alex Cobb, didn’t last much longer than Schmidt, pulled with two outs in the bottom of the fourth. With new swingman Jakob Junis entering behind him, though, the Giants made it through six innings with a 5-3 lead, effectively a quality start split between two pitchers.
Cobb, whose workload was already going to be limited after missing two weeks in spring training, labored through a 38-pitch first inning. While it felt like Cobb was walking a tight rope the entire inning — not doing himself any favors, throwing a would-be double-play ball into center field — he limited the Yankees to one run and stranded two runners on base.
While Cobb needed 76 pitches (47 strikes) to complete 3⅔ frames, he recorded six strikeouts, and the only hard-hit ball after the first inning came off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton, who sent a laser beam over the right-field wall for the Yankees’ second run.
“I should’ve taken my time,” Cobb said of his botched throw to second on Stanton’s first-inning comebacker, which allowed Aaron Judge to score and give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. “There were moments where we all bent and things could’ve gotten out of hand and we stepped up and limited the damage, just making a certain pitch. Junis did that really well. Camilo did that really well in the ninth. That decided the game.”
Junis, last on the depth chart of the Giants’ seven capable starters, showed well in his first outing out of the ‘pen, pitching around three straight hits from the top of the Yankees’ order in the fifth (including a hard-luck leadoff double by D.J. LeMahieu on a ball that turned around Yastrzemski in center field) to complete 2⅓ innings while allowing one run, in a style of usage you’ll see more of from Junis — and perhaps another starter or two — throughout the season.
“That,” Kapler said, “is exactly how we planned on using Junis.”
Save that ball
No bruised baseballs from Blake Sabol on Saturday, but he’ll have a couple shiners to remember his second major-league game by, after getting drilled by pitches in back-to-back plate appearances.
The more memorable — and permanent — keepsake for Sabol came in his first at-bat, when he dropped down a bunt for his first major-league hit. A 3-1 count didn’t deter him from laying one down the third-base line, with Josh Donaldson playing back on the dirt, and 90 feet later, Sabol was standing on first with a big grin on his face.
Holding the authenticated souvenir, in the same paper bag as his debut jersey, Sabol reminded reporters that there was another pretty good player who bunted for his first hit: Mike Trout. Sabol, an Orange County native, remembers because he was there, at Angel Stadium.
“Well, I would love to have that type of career,” Sabol said, never lacking confidence. “When I got to first, it was cool, (Anthony) Rizzo congratulated me, like, hey man, they all count the same, so don’t let anyone tell you different.”
A moment to remember @Blake_Sabol24 👏 pic.twitter.com/BwKjD3P8vZ
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) April 1, 2023
