Matt Chapman homered for the second consecutive game, LaMonte Wade Jr. hit a tiebreaking shot in the sixth inning and Robbie Ray bounced back from a shaky outing to earn the win as the Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds 8-2 on Sunday.
Tyler Fitzgerald added two hits, including his 11th home run, to help the Giants to their first series win on the road since early July. Michael Conforto chipped in with three hits and two RBI.
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The Giants (56-57) have won eight of their last 11 games.
Chapman, San Francisco’s hottest hitter over the past two weeks, connected for a two-run home run after nearly taking himself out of the game earlier in the day when he fouled a ball hard off his left shin during his first at-bat.
Wade, batting on top of the Giants’ lineup as manager Bob Melvin searches for a consistent leadoff hitter, hit his first home run since July 2. He also singled in the eighth and ninth.
San Francisco Giants
Ray (2-1) and four relievers made it hold up. Ray allowed three hits over five innings while notching a season-high nine strikeouts with one walk.
Ryan Walker, Erik Miller, Tyler Rogers and Spencer Bivens combined for four scoreless innings, allowing just one hit while closing it out.
The Giants played without center fielder Heliot Ramos, who sat out nursing a sore thumb that he aggravated a day earlier.
Here are the takeaways from Sunday’s game:
Ray's Day
The Reds got to Ray for a couple of hard-hit home runs but otherwise couldn’t get much going off the Giants’ starting pitcher.
Making his third start since coming off the Injured List, Ray had a season-high nine strikeouts. He was especially sharp with his off-speed pitches, getting 15 of his 18 swing-and-misses from his slider and curveball.
Ray’s best moment of the game came in the fifth inning after center fielder Mike Yastrzemski narrowly missed making a diving catch. The Reds got a runner to third base with one out but the Giants’ lefty calmy pitched out of the jam by getting swinging strikeouts of Luke Maile and Jonathan India.
Chapman On A Roll
With two more hits Sunday, Chapman continues to be a shining light in a Giants’ lineup that has been underwhelming for most of the season.
San Francisco’s clean-up hitter went deep for the second consecutive day at Great American Ball Park, clubbing his team-leading 17th home run in the fourth inning. The two-run blast off Reds starter Carson Spiers went 421 feet and had an exit velocity of 109.1 mph.
It’s the first time Chapman has homered in consecutive games since connecting in three straight against the Pittsburgh Pirates in May. The 17 home runs also are equal to the total he hit for the Toronto Blue Jays during the 2023 MLB season.
Over his last 11 games, Chapman is batting .390 (16-for-41) with four doubles, four homers, eight RBI and 10 runs scored.
The Gold Glove third baseman also came up with the game’s biggest defensive play when he made a barehanded grab of TJ Friedl’s slow infield roller and threw to first for the final out of the sixth inning. San Francisco had just taken the lead in the top of the inning, and the Reds had the tying run at third before Chapman’s defensive gem.
Breaking It Open
The Giants’ inconsistent offense woke up big time in the eighth inning, scoring five runs to break the game wide open.
San Francisco batted around and had five hits with two walks in the inning. Fitzgerald’s home run and Conforto’s two-run double were the biggest blows, while Jerar Encarnacion chipped in with an RBI double.
The five runs in the one inning were equal to or more than the Giants had scored in their previous seven games.
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