SAN FRANCISCO — The first hit of Grant McCray’s major-league career won’t be remembered for how hard it was struck or how far it traveled. The bunt single didn’t didn’t make it beyond the dirt in front of home plate and would have been more accurately measured in inches than the 2 feet estimated by Statcast.
McCray’s first career hit helped the Giants score the only run they would need Thursday afternoon behind Logan Webb, but his second had to feel even more satisfying.
Launching the first home run of his career and the Giants’ second of the sixth inning, the 23-year-old center fielder padded the Giants’ lead in an eventual 6-0 win to avoid being swept by the Braves at home over a four-game series for the first time since they were based in Milwaukee.
Reaching base three times, McCray helped the Giants snap a four-game losing streak and even their record back to .500, at 62-62. Still, after dropping the first three games of the series to the Braves, they finished the day further back of the final National League wild card spot — 3½ games — than when the series began.
Walking off the mound to a standing ovation from the 29,319 on hand one out shy of completing eight shutout innings, Webb pitched with the determination of an ace trying to single-handedly will his team to a win and eventually October. He struck out seven, walked one and allowed four hits over 7⅔ scoreless innings.
The only trouble Webb ran into came in the fourth inning and was hardly of his own doing. He stared down the NL’s second-most prodigious power hitter this season, Marcell Ozuna, with runners on first and second and nobody out after Casey Schmitt bobbled Matt Chapman’s throw on a potential double-play grounder.
Webb raised his arms in disbelief and let out an expletive when umpires ruled and replay upheld that Schmitt hadn’t secured the ball enough to even retire the lead runner. But he was out of the inning just two batters later, carefully attacking Ozuna and Matt Olson with 15 pitches — not one above the belt. Ozuna took a knee-high sinker for strike three, and Olson lined the ninth pitch of his at-bat — a changeup below the strike zone — right to Mark Canha, who stepped on first for an unassisted double play.
The Giants hadn’t scored more than four runs in any of the first six games of their home stand, but they understood if they could scratch across just one it could be enough with Webb’s recent streak of dominance, lowering his ERA over his past four starts to a minuscule 0.61 (2 ER, 29⅓ IP).
After they loaded the bases to start the second inning against Max Fried and Curt Casali struck out, bringing up their rookie No. 9 hitter with one out, manager Bob Melvin was determined to get at least one run out of the situation. He asked McCray to lay down a bunt, which dribbled so closely in front of home plate that Jerar Encarnacion would have been forced out had Travis d’Arnaud been able to hang on to the flip from Fried but instead opened a 1-0 lead.
McCray drew a four-pitch walk in his second trip to the plate, then in the sixth displayed the raw power that produced 53 home runs in 437 minor-league games. After Schmitt lined a two-run shot that extended the Giants’ lead to 4-0, McCray made it 5-0 two batters later with a 414-foot solo shot into the visitors’ bullpen.
The speedy young outfielder had made it halfway to second base before he slowed his pace to a trot, slapped his hands in celebration and, as he crossed home plate, made a heart with his hands and held it up to his family in the stand behind the first-base dugout.
Up next
After a day off Friday — their first in 14 days — the Giants head across the Bay Bridge for their final series at the Oakland Coliseum. RHP Hayden Birdsong (3-2, 5.40) is scheduled to oppose RHP Osvaldo Bido (3-3, 3.92) on Saturday (4:07 p.m.) before LHP Blake Snell (2-3, 3.91) and LHP JP Sears (10-8, 4.32) face off in their final meeting Sunday afternoon.
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