Giants pulled off rare feat in power-packed series win vs. A's originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Duane Kuiper was thrilled to return to the broadcast booth last weekend for two games against the Colorado Rockies, but the action on the field didn't quite let him get back into a groove. Kuiper called two games and the Giants, who have spent just about the entire season first or second in MLB in homers, didn't go deep once.
They more than made up for that this past weekend.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
The memorable blows were the two over the weekend by LaMonte Wade Jr. and Donovan Solano to turn deficits into wins over the Athletics. With their pinch-hit blasts, Wade and Solano helped the Giants accomplish an MLB first, but they were far from alone in clearing the wall. There were a lot of "outta here" moments.
The Giants scored nine runs in three games in Oakland and all nine came via the long ball. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this was just the third time since the Giants moved to San Francisco that they scored at least five runs in a three-game series and they all came from homers.
The San Francisco Giants first did this in 1968, when they scored five runs on homers while taking two of three from the St. Louis Cardinals. Four of the five runs came on a pair of two-run homers by Willie Mays. In 2018, the Giants scored five runs while losing two of three to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Oracle Park. In that case, being homer-dependent wasn't a good thing.
RELATED: Posey's resurgence doesn't surprise ex-teammate Romo
It was quite a different story this weekend in Oakland. The Giants got a solo homer from Mike Yastrzemski on Friday night and then four on Saturday, with Wade's epic blast following homers by Kris Bryant, Brandon Belt and Darin Ruf. Solano accounted for all the scoring Sunday.
With the powerful weekend, the Giants stayed atop the MLB leaderboard with 187 homers. They're one ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays, who have the advantage of playing with a DH throughout the season.
