Minor league call-up Trevor McDonald allowed just two hits in seven innings, Casey Schmitt homered and the San Francisco Giants opened a six-game homestand with a 3-2 victory over the San Diego Padres on Monday.
Rafael Devers drove in Luis Arraez twice, with a single and a sacrifice fly, teaming with Schmitt to produce all the offense McDonald (1-0) and two relievers would need to snap a six-game losing streak.
After Jackson Merrill hit McDonald’s sixth pitch for a solo home run three batters into the game, the Giants immediately countered with a pair of runs in the last of the first inning to take a lead they never relinquished.
Schmitt socked his fifth homer of the season on Padres starter Randy Vasquez’s ninth pitch to get San Francisco even. Arraez followed with a double, and Devers came through one out later with an RBI single to center.
The Giants’ only other scoring came in the sixth, when Arraez doubled again, advanced to third on a groundout by Heliot Ramos and this time raced home on a Devers fly ball to right field.
The multiple-RBI game was the first for Devers in almost a month, since he drove in a season-best four runs in a home win over the Philadelphia Phillies on April 8.
McDonald, promoted from Triple-A Sacramento earlier in the day, matched his career best with a seven-inning effort in his first major league appearance of the season. He gave up just the first-inning run, struck out eight and did not walk a batter.
The only other hit he allowed in his third career major league start was also delivered by Merrill — a single leading off the fourth.
Giants reliever Keaton Winn needed just eight pitches to throw a 1-2-3 eighth. Caleb Kilian yielded a leadoff homer to Ramon Laureano in the ninth before registering three straight outs, two via strikeout, finishing off McDonald’s second career big-league win.
Kilian, a fourth-year major-leaguer, was credited with his first career save.
The homers were the fourth of the year for Merrill and fifth for Laureano.
Vasquez (3-1) was charged with all three Giants runs in 5 2/3 innings. He allowed five hits and two walks while striking out two.
Arraez and Merrill were the only players in the game with multiple hits. The Giants had six hits to the three collected by the Padres, who took their fifth loss in six games.
–Field Level Media
