LaMonte Wade Jr., Tristan Beck lift SF Giants to 1-0 victory over Dbacks
The SF Giants defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 1-0 on Thursday afternoon, winning a critical four-game series against a division rival. With the victory, the Giants improved their position atop the National League Wild Card standings and pulled within two games of the Dodgers for the top spot in their division.
SF Giants RHP Tristan Beck delivers a pitch against the Dbacks on August 3, 2023.
D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports
In Giants manager Gabe Kapler's latest bullpen game, veteran lefty Scott Alexander got the start before passing the baton to Tristan Beck (Giants Top 16 Prospect) in the second inning. Beck continued to look like a blossoming arm, holding the Dbacks scoreless across four innings pitched, recording three strikeouts while allowing just two hits and zero walks.
Beck has come a long way in his development over the past year and has only further complicated the Giants' crowd of starting pitching/bulk inning options. A lifelong starter, Beck has consistently provided length out of San Francisco's pen but has also been limited to just 40-60 pitches. He's been incredibly effective in that role, recording a 1.40 ERA over his past 15 appearances (38.2 innings pitched). But given the dearth of Giants starters working deep into games, could Beck be built back up to 80-100 pitches for the stretch run?
Beck also benefitted from some impressive defensive plays behind him, a pair of which were made by second baseman Isan Díaz. With younger infielders like Brett Wisely and Marco Luciano already on the 40-man roster and hitting well at Triple-A, Díaz may be at risk of being designated for assignment if he cannot string some hits together at the plate (he's 1-for-18 with two walks since his call up), but his defensive work may have bought him a bit more time.
While Beck continued to shine, the Giants offense continued to look overmatched at the plate. Dbacks rookie righty Brandon Pfaddt, a consensus top-100 prospect in MLB, entered the day with a 8.20 ERA in eight big-league starts. He has allowed fewer than three runs in a start just twice this season, both times against the Giants. On Thursday, he surrendered just one run on two hits and a walk across seven innings of work.
An optimist might argue the Giants were on the wrong side of batted-ball luck (they had three line drives with an exit velocity north of 100 mph result in outs) against a promising young arm. A cynic would sound an alarm that the Giants have so consistently made pitchers with ERAs north of 5.00 put up Cy Young-caliber lines over the past month.
The Giants have been the worst offense in MLB since June 1st, but they have managed to put up a winning 15-13 record in spite of that issue. Prior to the game on Thursday, Kapler credited the team's collective approach for helping them outperform some underlying stats in the standings.
With the Giants pitching staff teaming up for a shutout, the lineup only needed one run. In the bottom of the fourth, Pfaddt left a 2-2 fastball over the heart of the plate to LaMonte Wade Jr., and the Giants first baseman crushed a 396' home run to right-center field.
The back of the Giants' bullpen has been heavily taxed over the past week, which put Kapler in an interesting situation late in the game. Sean Manaea completed two-thirds of an inning before veteran Luke Jackson went an inning and a third to get through the seventh. Taylor Rogers worked around a hit and a walk in the eighth, setting the stage for closer Camilo Doval to pitch for the fifth time in six days.
The Giants All-Star closer allowed a pair of hard-hit singles, including one off the left-field wall. A fielder's choice put runners on the corners with two outs for left-handed pinch-hitter Jace Peterson, but Doval induced a fly out to left field. He recorded his league-leading 33rd save of the season.
After taking three out of four from the Dbacks, the Giants will enjoy a rare Friday off before heading across the Bay to Oakland for a two-game series against the A's. Neither team has announced a probable starting pitcher for Saturday's game. First pitch at the Coliseum is scheduled for 4:07 PM Pacific.
