Giants ride power surge to doubleheader sweep over Braves

ATLANTA — So homer-happy were the Giants on Wednesday that even Luis Arraez got in on the power party aided by the balmy conditions in the Braves’ bandbox. 

The contact-hitting second baseman put one over the wall for only the third time this season — his first in any setting besides the hitter’s paradise that is the A’s temporary home — and that was only the beginning of a historic homer barrage on their way to a doubleheader sweep.

“I didn’t know there was any elevation here, so I guess the ball flies here a little bit,” said first baseman Bryce Eldridge, who came away with his seventh homer of the season in his first game at Truist Park.

No kidding.

The Giants hit three home runs on their way to a 7-2 win in the early game. They slugged that many in the second inning alone of the nightcap. Final score: 7-5.

“It was a good day at the ballpark for us,” manager Tony Vitello said, complimenting his team for improving from its first doubleheader of the season, when they lost both games to the Phillies.

“I think if you look at the last time we did this, it serves as a little bit of practice for this year’s team. We’ve gone through a day like today. … No matter what your circumstances are, you’ve got to make them the best that you can.”

The rare homer from Arraez came with two outs in the second, finding a landing spot in The Chophouse in right field, after Willy Adames lined one over the left-field wall to lead off the frame.

Arraez stood in the batter’s box for a moment and stared toward his teammates in the third-base dugout.

“We were giving him crap in the dugout because he pimped it,” Adames laughed. “When he knows, he knows. When he hits it, he hits it.”

Eldridge immediately followed Arraez with a shot to center, giving the Giants three in an inning for the first time this season and their second set of back-to-back homers of the day.

Jung Hoo Lee and Rafael Devers provided back-to-back blasts in the first game.

Devers was contained to the field of play in the second game but used it like a pinball machine to record his MLB-leading 23rd and 24th doubles of the season, including one he snuck down the left-field line in the first that drove in Arraez and opened a 1-0 lead.

Arraez finished with a season-high four RBIs, poking a two-run single in front of Mike Yastrzemski in left field to pad the Giants’ lead in the top of the ninth.

The Giants had manufactured three runs before play was suspended in the first game Tuesday night. From the time they resumed play Wednesday afternoon, the Giants’ six home runs were responsible for eight of the 12 runs they scored the rest of the day.

On the topic of homering in bunches, nobody clumps them together like Adames, who also went deep in the first game. Five different Giants homered on the day, but only Adames did so twice.

The last time Adames homered, he also hit two in one day. In between the multi-homer games, however, the shortstop managed just one single with 11 strikeouts in 31 at-bats. Of his last five hits, four have gone over the fence.

“I don’t feel the best right now,” Adames acknowledged. “I’ve had some good contact, but not results. Obviously when you get some [results], it feels great. … Hopefully I can get hot and end the first half the way I want to.”

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The Braves, on the other hand, weren’t able to do much of anything against Carson Whisenhunt, called up from Triple-A to make a spot start in the second game of the twin bill.

“I thought he was outstanding,” Vitello said. “He put on a clinic for how to handle traffic because there weren’t very many moments where it was easy, or he just breezed.”

Nonetheless, Whisenhunt limited Atlanta to two runs on six hits and two walks over five-plus innings in his first start of the season. Both of Whisenhunt’s walks came in his first two frames, and he settled down to retire 11 of 12 until allowing the first three batters of the sixth to reach base.

“Felt really good,” said Whisenhunt, who arrived as the 27th man for the doubleheader on about four hours of sleep and will rejoin to Triple-A Sacramento on Friday. “Obviously not the best it could have been, but for what I had to work with there, I felt pretty solid.”

It wasn’t enough to earn a permanent spot in the major-league rotation, but it made Vitello a believer that Whisenhunt, who struggled in five starts last year, will be back at some point.

“I just think he’s got the ability to be at this level,” Vitello said.

With 6 ⅓ scoreless innings from Robbie Ray in the first game and strong work from their relievers, Giants pitchers held Atlanta to two runs over the first 16 innings they played Wednesday.

Matt Gage, in his return from the injured list, wasn’t able to finish the job, recording only one out in the ninth, surrendering a two-run homer to Mauricio Dubon and handing the game over to Tristan Beck with two on and the tying run at the plate.

Caleb Kilian, their closer, was not available for the sudden save situation after Vitello used him to record the final two outs of their five-run win earlier in the day.

What it means

The Braves began this series with the best record in the majors, 17 ½ games ahead of the Giants, with a 3.32 staff ERA that trailed only the Yankees for the best in MLB.

None of that seemed to matter to the Giants, who unloaded against a bullpen game and a rookie making his sixth big-league start, JR Ritchie. In a roundabout way, San Francisco has reeled off three wins in a row. The Giants haven’t won four games in a row all season.

Who’s hot

The power strokes of the Giants’ hitters, who look like a completely transformed group from the one that ranked last in the majors in home runs through the first week of May.

San Francisco became the last team to reach 20 home runs on May 4. Since then, they’re tied with the Nationals for the most in the majors, with 59 after slugging six more Wednesday.

And consider this: Their 122 wRC+ in that span leads the league, meaning the offensive awakening hasn’t just been a product of the long ball, nor is it merely a result of favorable foes.

Who’s not

Just about everyone has participated in the Giants’ power surge.

But not catcher Daniel Susac.

Susac started behind the plate in the first game of the double header and went hitless in four chances, bringing the Rule 5 pick over 100 plate appearances without a homer.

Susac continues to be a reliable receiver and singles hitter, but just six of his 26 hits this season have gone for extra bases. Since returning from the injured list May 15, Susac is batting .221 with a .550 OPS, putting his OPS on the verge of dropping below .700 for the first time this year.

Up next

With more rain in the forecast for Thursday, the teams have discussed moving up the start time of the series finale from 7:15 p.m. ET. For now, that’s when Braves starter Martin Perez will toe the rubber, opposed by Landen Roupp in his first start since Pride Night in San Francisco.