The San Francisco Giants had been stuck in neutral against Arizona all season, but Wednesday night in Phoenix finally gave them the breakthrough they’d been chasing.
Heliot Ramos and Victor Bericoto supplied the power, Trevor McDonald supplied the length, and the Giants walked away with a 6-4 win over the Diamondbacks after dropping the first eight meetings between the teams, including five straight in Phoenix.
McDonald was the steadying force from the start. The right-hander worked six shutout innings and was in control for almost the entire night, allowing just one Arizona hit through six while striking out five. That lone hit came in the fourth, when Ketel Marte opened the inning with a single, then stole second and third before being left there.
Arizona starter Zac Gallen kept pace early, matching McDonald with zeros until Ramos jumped on the first pitch of the fifth inning and sent it over the fence in center field. Jung Hoo Lee followed with a single, and Bericoto widened the gap with a shot to left-center for a 3-0 lead.
Those were the only homers in the game, the sixth of the season for Ramos and the fourth for Bericoto.
The Giants kept stacking runs in the sixth and turned the game into a rout. They scored three more on a Ramos triple and RBI singles from Lee and Drew Cavanaugh, pushing Gallen out after two outs in the inning. He was charged with all six San Francisco runs on seven hits, with one walk and four strikeouts.
McDonald’s night ended after he had retired 18 of the 19 hitters he faced through six innings. From there, the Giants’ bullpen had to survive a late Arizona push.
The Diamondbacks finally made noise in the eighth against Ryan Walker. Pavin Smith drove in a run with a single, Marte followed with a two-run double that also featured a throwing error by Giants shortstop Christian Koss, and Corbin cut the margin to 6-4 with an RBI infield out.
Arizona still had life after that. With the bases empty, Gabriel Moreno singled and moved to third on Koss’s second throwing error of the inning before Dylan Smith struck out Lourdes Gurriel Jr. as the tying run.
Caleb Kilian handled the ninth without any drama, throwing a 1-2-3 inning for his seventh save.
Ramos, Bericoto, Lee and Cavanaugh each finished with two hits for San Francisco, which out-hit Arizona 11-7.
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That matters because the Giants may not be done with the Devers discussion yet. Even with the deadline approaching, any attempt to move him would have to navigate the reality of a deal that can look unwieldy to other clubs, especially for a player who will be in his mid-30s by the end of it. For a team trying to balance present value with future flexibility, Devers remains both an asset and a complication, and it is not hard to see why the market could be more complicated than the name alone suggests. [Read more 🡒]