Devers slugs first Splash Hit, SF Giants avoid sweep against Cardinals

SAN FRANCISCO The Giants hope there will plenty of splash hits over the lesson 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 - win over the St Louis Cardinals that allowed the Giants to stave off a sweep as well as their nd loss which would assure a losing record for the seventh time in nine seasons for another night It was only a matter of time manager Bob Melvin stated of Devers who left without speaking to reporters 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 result the go-ahead run in the eighth after Jose Butt allowed the Cardinals to tie the encounter at 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 mph It was a moonshot the -degree launch angle matching Devers blast off Kyle Freeland in Colorado for the steepest of his career and trailing only Wilmer Flores -degree skyscraper against Atlanta among the Giants this season Related Articles SF Giants shut down Robbie Ray after really good first full season back from surgery Kurtenbach If SF Giants want to compete for titles they ll move on from Bob Melvin SF Giants eliminated from postseason contention with crushing loss to Cardinals SF Giants discuss implementation of robo umps coming to MLB in Robot umpires approved for MLB in as part of challenge system When it at last landed a limited feet beyond the walkway it was fleetly scooped up by a kayaker who dove into the water after it Officially measured at feet the homer was Devers th of the season and his th since the Giants traded for him on June Devers is batting below 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 th since August Only two players in the National League have left the yard more often in that span Kyle Schwarber and Juan Soto I had a hard time believing he wasn t going to get one in the water before we left Melvin disclosed So - count got a good pitch to hit took a healthy hack Put a smile on his face 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 - on the mound followed by Justin Verlander - and Logan Webb - to wrap up the weekend