SF Giants hit halfway mark in first place, Thairo Estrada hits grand slam in first start

PHOENIX — Be honest. You didn’t expect this. It wasn’t realistic.

No one outside the offices and home clubhouse at 24 Willie Mays Plaza gave the Giants a fighting chance of leading the National League West at any point during the 2021 season, much less with half the schedule in the books.

The Giants, manager Gabe Kapler and the longest-tenured veterans such as Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford insist the club had every reason to believe they’d be atop the division, but most of the baseball world figured the club was ticketed for mediocrity.

After securing an 11-4 victory over the Diamondbacks at Chase Field on Friday, the Giants closed out the first half of their schedule with a 51-30 record that ties the 1971 club for the third-best mark through 81 games in the franchise’s San Francisco-era history.

The 1993 Giants won 53 of their first 81 and the 1962 team won 52, yet Kapler’s 2021 club has been nearly as efficient by winning at a pace that leaves them a half game ahead of the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.

How have the Giants bucked the odds? Performances like the ones the club received from Thairo Estrada and LaMonte Wade Jr. on Friday night help tell the story.

Wade, considered a fringe outfielder in the Twins organization prior to this season, was acquired in an offseason trade that sent reliever Shaun Anderson to Minnesota. Anderson has already been designated for assignment while Wade went 2-for-3 with a walk, a tape measure home run and a diving catch to rob a base hit over at first base, a position he played sparingly in the minors.

The Maryland product entered the year as the Giants’ fifth or sixth option at first base, but has filled in admirably for injured starter Brandon Belt and given the club quality plate appearances as the leadoff hitter. He’s also showed off previously untapped power as his seventh home run of the season, a 427-foot blast in the eighth inning, came in his 118th plate appearance of the year.

Wade’s majestic shot to the right field bleachers was impressive, but it fell a yard and change shy of the 431-foot grand slam Estrada launched to put the game out of reach in the ninth inning on Friday.

“Dude can play,” starter Alex Wood said of Estrada. “I was talking about it in the clubhouse even before the grand slam. Got a great swing, good approach, hasn’t chased much out of the zone and I know he can play all over the field so he’s going to be a great addition to our team.”

The Giants entered Friday’s game on an 0-for-25 stretch with runners in scoring position that dated back to the ninth inning of Sunday’s loss to the A’s, but fared much better against the Diamondbacks thanks in part to productive at-bats from Estrada.

“He had great at-bats throughout and I think he struck that nice balance with focus and intensity at the plate, but also relaxation and patience,” Kapler said.

In his first start for the Giants this season, the former Yankees prospect drilled a single to load the bases in the second inning before yanking a 3-2 pitch down the left field line for a RBI double in the fifth. Estrada’s first hit set up a sacrifice fly from Wilmer Flores that plated the Giants’ first run of the game while his second made the D’backs pay for an egregious mistake.

With two outs and Steven Duggar standing on second base, Arizona chose to pitch to Estrada in lieu of walking him to face Wood, who entered the game 0-for-19 with 16 strikeouts on the season. The decision played into the Giants favor as Estrada, who came up from Triple-A when utility man Mauricio Dubón was demoted, picked up his first RBI for the club.

“I think the key to everything is just to be patient, to continue working, to be optimistic and to be ready when that opportunity comes and when that opportunity comes, just to embrace it,” Estrada said through Spanish language interpreter Erwin Higueros.

A few innings later, after three Giants players drew walks, Estrada stepped up and sent the fifth home run of his career halfway up the seats beyond the left field wall.

“One of the main things winning does, when you have a club that’s winning like we’ve done to the halfway point, when you get guys that come up and down or a new guy that comes in, I’m not going to call it pressure, but you’ve got to gain some momentum early,” Wood said.

After posting a 1.93 ERA and racking up five wins in his first seven starts with the Giants, Wood began to lose his feel for his slider, which was a dominant pitch for him early in the season. In five starts from May 27-June 19, Wood’s ERA climbed to 4.09 as he gave up at least four runs in each outing.

The left-hander appeared much more comfortable in his most recent outing against the A’s and on Friday against the D’backs, Wood’s slider was once again his best pitch. Wood only completed five innings, but struck out eight batters for the second consecutive game and exited with the Giants ahead 5-2.

With his pitch count on the rise and his sinker command inconsistent, Wood turned to his slider to strike out Asdrúbal Cabrera, who represented the tying run, to end the fifth inning and put a bow on his night.

Right-hander Jimmie Sherfy gave up a pair of runs on solo home runs in the eighth inning, but Zack Littell was able to close out a win that brought an end to the Giants’ longest losing skid of the season at four games.