SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants hope there will plenty of splash hits over the course of Rafael Devers’ nine years at Oracle Park, and the left-handed slugger started the count Wednesday night with a towering shot that barely made it to the water.
The first splash hit of Devers’ career proved to be decisive in a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals that allowed the Giants to stave off a sweep as well as their 82nd loss — which would assure a losing record for the seventh time in nine seasons — for another night.
After Robbie Ray was scratched from his final start of the season, J.T. Brubaker and Carson Seymour combined to limit the Cardinals to two over seven innings, and the Giants got just enough offense to make Devers’ home run stand up.
Andrew Knizner delivered a tie-breaking triple that got past a diving Victor Scott II in center field and allowed Christian Koss to score the go-ahead run in the eighth after Jose Buttó allowed the Cardinals to tie the game at 3 in the top half of the inning.
San Francisco benefitted from St. Louis’ sloppy play, capitalizing on two of the Cardinals’ three errors for a pair of runs.
Casey Schmitt doubled off the wall in the second inning and scored when center fielder Victor Scott II couldn’t cleanly field Jung Hoo Lee’s gapper a batter later, opening a 1-0 lead, and right fielder Jordan Walker dropped a routine fly ball from Christian Koss to lead off the fourth, allowing the Giants to claim a 3-2 lead without getting a hit.
No assistance was needed for Devers to reach the water leading off the third inning against Sonny Gray.
Devers worked the count to 3-0 and wasted little time once he got a pitch in the strike zone, turning on a high-and-tight fastball that left the bat at 108.3 mph. It was a moonshot, the 43-degree launch angle matching Devers’ blast off Kyle Freeland in Colorado for the steepest of his career and trailing only Wilmer Flores’ 46-degree skyscraper against Atlanta.
When it finally landed, a few feet beyond the walkway, it was quickly scooped up by a kayaker who dove into the water after it. Officially measured at 376 feet, the homer was Devers’ 34th of the season and his 19th since the Giants traded for him on June 15.
Devers is batting below .200 since the start of September, having cooled off somewhat since his power surge with Willy Adames that almost played the Giants back into the playoff race, but the homer was his 15th since August 1. Only two players in the National League have left the yard more often in that span: Kyle Schwarber and Juan Soto.
Up next
The Giants have one more off day Thursday before they play three more games and then have a winter full of them. They begin their final series of the season Friday night against the Colorado Rockies, with RHP Trevor McDonald (0-0, 3.38) on the mound, followed by Justin Verlander (3-11, 3.88) and Logan Webb (14-11, 3.30) to wrap up the weekend.
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