The hot-hitting San Francisco Giants hope to complete their most powerful three-game home series of the season when they seek to sweep the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday afternoon.
With Patrick Bailey’s two homers leading the way, the Giants (74-71) have taken Diamondbacks pitching deep seven times while running up 11-5 and 5-3 wins in the first two games of the series. Jung Hoo Lee, Dominic Smith, Matt Chapman, Heliot Ramos and Willy Adames also have homered for the Giants in the series.
The seven long balls are just one fewer than the season best the Giants launched at home against the Chicago Cubs on Aug. 26-28. San Francisco belted 10 homers in a series at Colorado from Sept. 1-3.
Counting the current flurry against the Diamondbacks, all three explosions have come during a streak in which the Giants, who were 61-68 on Aug. 22, have won 13 of their last 16 games, including seven of the past eight at home.
“It’s been amazing,” Adames said in an on-field interview with NBC Sports Bay Area immediately following the latest win. With his long ball on Tuesday, the shortstop is within two of having back-to-back 30-homer seasons.
“The guys are having a lot of fun,” he continued. “When you’re having fun and you’re winning games, that will build confidence. The boys have been swinging the bats good.”
The Giants will get a chance to feast in the series finale on Arizona left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez (7-8, 5.22 ERA), who has allowed 21 homers in 25 starts this season.
San Francisco got to him for four runs in four innings, but without a homer, in what turned into an 8-7 Diamondbacks road win on May 14. That raised Rodriguez’s lifetime ERA against the Giants to 6.14 in three starts, during which he has gone 1-1.
The 32-year-old veteran is coming off two impressive performances. He shut out the Los Angeles Dodgers on four hits over six innings in a 6-1 road win on Aug. 30, then limited the Boston Red Sox to one run and four hits through six innings in a 10-5 home win on Friday.
“That’s what they pay me for here,” Rodriguez said after the win over the Red Sox. “Go deep in the game and keep the team winning.”
Arizona had won three in a row at the time. A fourth straight the next day got the club to 72-71. However, the Diamondbacks (72-74) haven’t won since. They are now 4 1/2 games back of the Mets, who hold the third National League wild-card spot. San Francisco is two games behind New York.
Like the Giants, Arizona will get a shot Wednesday at a friendly target, Carson Seymour (1-2, 4.25 ERA). The Diamondbacks jumped on the rookie right-hander for four runs, two earned, when he threw three innings of relief in Phoenix on July 1. James McCann was among three Diamondbacks to homer off Seymour in the contest.
This time around, the 26-year-old is scheduled to make his third major league start. He pitched well in his latest outing, an 8-2 win at St. Louis on Friday, when he held the Cardinals to one run and two hits in five innings.
–Field Level Media
