While Blake Snell mowed through Triple-A hitters, the Giants climbed out of a 4-1 hole they were put in by the pitcher filling his rotation spot.
SAN FRANCISCO — As soon as Thairo Estrada’s line drive cleared the left field wall Friday evening, the Giants could rest easy.
The wall-scraping three-run blast in the fifth inning put the Giants ahead for good in their first of three games against the red-hot Rockies, a 10-5 win, and officially erased whatever damage was done against their starting pitcher, Mason Black, who may be the last temporary solution required for this troublesome rotation spot.
Next time around, the Giants should have the reigning National League Cy Young winner on the mound.
As Black walked off the mound in the top of the fourth down 4-1, Blake Snell was nearing the end of his final rehab start returning from an adductor strain. About 90 minutes east of Oracle Park, Snell made easy work of his competition for the Triple-A River Cats, striking out 10 over five hitless innings.
Combined with his rehab start for Single-A San Jose on Sunday, Snell has struck out 19 batters and walked one over nine innings without allowing a hit.
“If you’re looking for quality to make it back here, the last two games would suggest that,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Even in his bullpen, we said before, it looked like his mechanics were a lot better and certainly the performance the last couple games would suggest that.”
Albeit against minor-league competition, that is the type of dominance the Giants believed they were signing up for when they agreed to a two-year, $62 million contract with Snell, 31, on March 19. In nine times through his rotation spot, however, the Giants won Friday night for only the second time.
When Melvin came out to get Black after the first batter of the fourth inning — catcher Jacob Stallings, whom he hit with his first pitch of the inning — it looked like the Rockies were heading toward their eighth consecutive win; they hadn’t lost since the Giants beat them at Coors Field last Saturday.
Making his third career start, Black didn’t have much of a leash after the first four Rockies to led off the game with hits — three for extra bases — and he served up a solo home run in the second to the No. 9 hitter, Jordan Beck. Tagged for four runs on six hits, Black’s ERA rose to 7.71.
In eight prior turns through Snell’s spot in the rotation — three starts by Snell, two by Black, two by Daulton Jefferies and a bullpen game — Giants pitchers had a 9.13 ERA entering Friday’s game.
It required the relief work of Sean Hjelle to keep the score close, recovering from a leadoff double by the first batter he faced that put runners on second and third with nobody out to complete two scoreless innings. Since taking the loss April 24, Hjelle has limited opponents to two runs over 11⅓ innings, a 1.59 ERA, and struck out 15 batters without issuing a walk.
“That’s a huge momentum swing at the time to get us back in the dugout and all of a sudden we hopefully have a chance to score some runs,” Melvin said of Hjelle’s tightrope work in the fourth. “I think this year he’s just had a different mindset going in, where he feels like he can really contribute. … There are a number of roles that we’re using him in now that are probably a lot more important than maybe in the past where it was just length. I think he came into this spring expecting that, digging for that, and he’s certainly gotten it.”
Besides Estrada’s big knock, the bulk of the Giants’ offense continued to come from their recent infusion of rookies.
Learning before the game that they had lost their exciting, young center fielder, Jung Hoo Lee, for the season, the Giants plan to give regular opportunities to another young outfielder, Luis Matos, who drove in five more runs in a multi-hit performance.
Until Estrada’s homer, nine of the Giants’ past 12 runs had been driven in by Matos or Heliot Ramos, who started in left for the injured Michael Conforto. Since being called up Sunday, Matos has come to plate 11 times with runners in scoring position and delivered five hits for 11 RBIs.
“It seems like he’s one of those guys that just absolutely loves runners on base,” Melvin said. “There are times where you have to shrink the zone. He can get a little aggressive, but it’s working for him at this point in time. It’s not just fastballs; he’s hitting breaking balls, too. Five RBIs is a pretty good night, and it seems like since he’s been here, he’s really embraced guys on base. That’s been a problem for us.”
The ailing Giants did get one piece back in their lineup, designated hitter Jorge Soler, who missed the past 10 games with a strained right shoulder.
Inserted into the leadoff spot typically occupied by Lee, Soler reached base twice and played the role of table setter in the fifth. He led off the inning by lining a single back up the middle at 108.9 mph, followed by an equally well-struck single from LaMonte Wade Jr. that brought Estrada to the plate as the go-ahead run.
Presented a middle-in fastball on a 3-1 count, Estrada deposited the pitch where it belonged — in the left-field bleachers — and the Giants never looked back.
“At some point in time you have to put a crooked number up like we did in the fifth,” Melvin said. “That was huge. We took a lead and never gave it back after that and added on runs. We haven’t done a ton of that this year, so it was good to see.”
SS Marco Luciano recorded his first career RBI in the seventh inning, poking a two-strike slider into right field to score Mike Yastrzemski for the second of two seventh-inning runs. With Casey Schmitt optioned back to Triple-A Sacramento before the game, Luciano is being given the opportunity to take the position and run with it as long as Nick Ahmed (wrist) is sidelined.
LHP Kyle Harrison (3-1, 3.42) vs. LHP Ty Blach (1-1, 3.00) in the second game of the series, with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m.
