SAN FRANCISCO — The first one, apparently, wasn’t sweet enough. Juan Soto needed a do-over.
There was no topping his second bat flip, which hung in the air and twirled for seemingly however many rotations it took for the baseball sent rocketing off of it to find the sea of fans on top of the brick wall in right field.
The Yankees’ flamboyant superstar’s second home run of the afternoon sent shockwaves through the sold-out crowd at a sun-drenched Oracle Park, which had been under the reasonable impression until Soto’s ninth-inning blast that they would be heading home happy.
The Bronx Bombers are inevitable, even against Camilo Doval.
The Giants’ closer was tagged for four runs — Soto providing a pair — and was handed his second blown save of the season in a 7-5 loss that the Giants led by two entering the final frame. After taking two of three from the best team in the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies, to begin the homestand, the Giants were swept over three games by the team with the best record in baseball and finished the six-game stretch at 2-4.
“I felt good with Doval,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Anytime he’s in the game we feel good. He’s had a couple of tough ones this year, but especially in those save situations, those are the ones that inspire him. … I’ll take him against anybody. They just got him today.”
Called on to protect a 5-3 advantage, Doval was uncharacteristically hittable, allowing a leadoff single to the Yankees’ No. 8 hitter, Gleyber Torres, to begin the inning and four total hits — to go with two walks, a more typical sign something was off — before he was replaced by Taylor Rogers, who needed one pitch to record the final out.
“I don’t know if he was more predictable today; it seemed like he threw a few more heaters,” Melvin said. “They’re good. But so is he. He just didn’t get it done today.”
The four hits, the final coming on a ground-rule double from Giancarlo Stanton that scored Judge, were more than Doval had allowed in any of his 189 previous career appearances, negating the Giants’ best offensive performance since the first game of the homestand.
“I think I would say there is a first time for everything, and today was not my day,” Doval said through Spanish-language interpreter Erwin Higueros.
Of the approach to Soto, whose 1.031 OPS trails only his teammate, Aaron Judge, Doval said, “He’s a great hitter. I missed my spot. And when you miss against a great hitter, that’s the result that you will see.”
After Anthony Volpe tripled home the first run of the inning, Soto whacked the second pitch he saw, a 97 mph cutter down the middle, at 108.2 mph off the bat and watched it sail 398 feet before sending his bat airborne, too, toward the visitors’ dugout.
Soto also blasted a first-inning solo shot off Giants starter Blake Snell, who later left with a leg injury. Soto’s shot off Snellwas even more of a no-doubter, traveling 430 feet over the brick wall beyond Triples Alley. In all, Soto, Judge and Stanton combined to torch the Giants for five home runs and 13 RBIs while batting .400 (12-for-30) over the three-game series.
“We played well today,” Melvin said. “You look at the way they played the first two games (outscoring the Giants 13-5), and all of a sudden they’re ahead 1-0 again? I thought we responded well. And then all of sudden it’s tied again, and now we respond again. I thought we played well today. Just didn’t shut it down in the ninth.”
Both of the Giants’ tie-breaking knocks were provided by Heliot Ramos, who homered and supplied a two-RBI single after supplanting a slumping Luis Matos in the leadoff spot. Every member of the starting lineup reached base at least once, including three hits from Jorge Soler and two from Casey Schmitt, who added a homer for the second consecutive game.
The five runs were the most the Giants had scored in a game since their eight spot Monday in the first game of the homestand. They had mustered seven total runs in the four games since, representing a brief step back from the progress their bats had made over the past month.
The well-rounded offensive output looked as though it was going to help them withstand another short start from Snell, who departed after 4⅔ innings with tightness in his left groin. The 31-year-old left-hander will undergo imaging Thursday, but Melvin said another stint on the injured list looks to be inevitable.
Snell missed a month earlier this season with a similar strain in the same leg, which he uses to push off with and said “is kind of everything with who I am.” He winced as he released his 99th and final pitch, which sailed high and wide of the strike zone to put Stanton on to load the bases with two outs in the fourth. That prompted Melvin, pitching coach Bryan Price and trainer Dave Groeschner to hustle out of the dugout.
“I use my back leg a lot,” Snell said. “It’s gotta be something with that. It’s groin, back leg, as I drive. We’ll look at it. But definitely got to add something strengthening wise that I haven’t been doing that can get the muscle even more prepared for 100 pitches per game, more than that. … This has happened probably four or five times over the last three or four years. So what I’m doing, I’ve got to change something or add something.”
Prior to his exit, Snell had limited the Yankees to one run — the no-doubter from Soto — and struck out seven while keeping opposing batters off balance with a mid-90s fastball and a big breaking curveball. Those two pitches accounted for 10 of the 14 swings and misses recorded by the left-hander.
Melvin called on fellow lefty Erik Miller, who surrendered a double to the first batter he faced, Alex Verdugo, that allowed two more runs to score, both credited to Snell, who still lowered his ERA to 9.51 from 10.42.
“It’s frustrating. I felt really good, even in that situation,” Snell said. “A lot of good stuff’s been happening the last couple weeks where I was like, ‘OK, it’s coming.’ … So I was really excited for what was to come. We’ll get there. It sucks that this happened, but it happened. We’ll face it head on and attack it and get back.”
Notable
The three runs driven in by Ramos were a career-high.
Up next
The Giants’ charter flight was scheduled to depart shortly after the final out for Phoenix, where they will begin a two-city trek through the southwest with three games against the defending National League-champion Diamondbacks, before three more against Bruce Bochy’s Texas Rangers, the defending World Series champs.
The loss of Snell only further complicates their pitching plans, which were hazy to begin with. Their relievers threw 128 innings in May, 13 more than the next-closest team, and the Giants plan to employ a bullpen game of some sort in their first game in Arizona, with Spencer Howard expected to take down bulk innings.
