SAN FRANCISCO - Pablo Sandoval was a bundle of confidence as first pitch approached Wednesday. As he walked out of the clubhouse, he pointed out to a couple of reporters that he had two career homers against Felix Hernandez. Later, he dripped some of that swag on Andrew McCutchen.
"I'm not gonna lie," McCutchen said after a 10-1 win over the Mariners. "He called it. He said he would hit a homer."
Gorkys Hernandez didn't call it. He couldn't. First of all, he had never before faced King Felix. But of more importance, Hernandez led Major League Baseball last season with 348 plate appearances without a home run. Asked if he had any premonitions when Bruce Bochy tapped him as a late replacement for the hurting Hunter Pence, Hernandez laughed.
"No," he said. "No."
Still, Hernandez was in the middle of all that went right for the Giants on Wednesday. He represented three phases in which they excelled.
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His homer was the first of four, with Brandon Belt, Pablo Sandoval (splash hit) and Brandon Crawford later getting on the board for the first time this year. (Joe Panik did not hit a home run.) The latter three came in the same frame, marking the first time since 2007 that the Giants hit three homers in an inning at AT&T Park.
Hernandez took his shot in the second, smoking a hanging slider from Hernandez. He said he added 10 pounds of muscle in the offseason after the homer-less season, and he is benefiting from having a healthy wrist. A year ago, he dealt with hamate issues that required surgery.
"Last year I felt pain a lot," Hernandez said. "This year I don't feel anything."
Hernandez also was part of what might have been the best defensive Giants outfield - Gregor Blanco was in left, Andrew McCutchen in right - in years, and the infield matched that group in the win. Hernandez, playing center, chased down a liner to left-center in the third and with two outs McCutchen went a long way into Triples Alley to glove a Kyle Seager liner that would have been at least a two-run double. A year ago, both of those balls drop.
"A big ballpark like here, the ball hangs up long enough that you can go catch up to those balls," McCutchen said. "If they hit it high enough, you have a chance to run it down. It's about always having that mentality of not giving up on the ball."
McCutchen has another thing on his mind, too. He is batting .083 through six games and a couple of hard-hit balls Wednesday found gloves.
"If you ain't getting hits," he said, "You've got to try to take them away."
Hernandez and Blanco did that elsewhere in the outfield and the infield was spectacular, too. In addition to his homer, Crawford had a slick-and-quick throw to first in the fifth to nail the speedy Dee Gordon. Belt dug that one out of the dirt. When Jean Segura followed with a single, Johnny Cueto picked him off.
Cueto got an easy win on a day when the Giants led 4-0 after two and 9-0 after five. Sandoval's splash hit was the big swing in the fifth, and he and Hernandez represented the final positive from the demolition of the Mariners.
They are both bench players, and Bruce Bochy wanted them to stay involved early. He'll need them at some point, perhaps for extended stretches, and this was a positive start. While Hernandez is more of an emergency starter, Bochy said he'll try to keep Sandoval involved. For the most part, though, the energetic Panda will be the top bat off the bench.
"I'm going to have to start him occasionally to keep him sharp," Bochy said. "But I've talked to Pablo about this and he's good with it. He's bringing it every game."
