SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants got timely hits, a standout effort from starting pitcher Jordan Hicks and even stole their first bases of the season Wednesday in a 7-1 getaway day win over the Washington Nationals at Oracle Park.
The win prevented a series sweep before a crowd of 25,558 and completed a 3-3 homestand, with the Giants (5-8) taking Thursday off in Florida before three-game sets against Tampa Bay and Miami. The Nationals fell to 5-7.
Tyler Fitzgerald, starting in center field in place of the resting Jung Hoo Lee, went 3-for-3 including a double, and had a pair of stolen bases, the first of the season for the Giants.
Hicks gave up just one run in six innings, with Joey Gallo hitting a solo home run leading off the second, his third of the season. Now 2-0, Hicks gave up four hits with two walks and two strikeouts and recorded ground ball double plays in the fourth and fifth inning.
Although his control wasn’t pinpoint — he lost one pitcher over the catcher’s head, threw one behind Jacob Young, and bounced a splitter four feet in front of the plate — Hicks is relying on his two-seam fastball (or sinker) when in trouble.
It was the sinker that registered both double plays in a game that was completed in a tidy two hours and seven minutes.
“I’ve always been confident I could (use the sinker) because it induces so much early contact,” Hicks said. “It has that late action where it kind of looks like it’s in one spot and at the last second it misses that barrel.”
Giants manager Bob Melvin credited Hicks’ attitude about the change in roles as being part of his success.
“He’s had really, really good starts, every one of them,” Melvin said. “It’s more just the mindset than anything else. What’s impressed me the most is his mix of pitches he uses now.
“He’s got a slider, a sweeper, a split. His velocity will go anywhere from 92 to 100, which is very tough for a hitter. And his pitch counts are always very much under control because of the sinker.”
A converted reliever who shows no signs of going back to the bullpen, Hicks threw 79 pitches, 51 of which were strikes, and has given up two earned runs in 18 innings over three starts. Ryan Walker pitched a scoreless seventh, Landon Roupp did the same in the eighth and Erik Miller finished it off in the ninth.
Hicks got into trouble in the second with a walk to Jesse Winker — during which trainer Dave Groeschner and Melvin checked on him to see if something was amiss — and a pitch-clock violation walk to Gallo. He then retired Eddie Rosario on a fly to left and Trey Lipscomb on a 1-4-3 double play.
“I don’t want my mom worried or anything,” Hicks said. “I told ‘em how I feel, I was really trying to get them off the mound so I could lock back in. It was nothing serious at all.”
The Giants’ third stolen base of the game led to a run in the sixth and a 6-1 lead. Matt Chapman opened with a single, stole second, went to third on a fly to center by Thairo Estrada, and scored on a single to center by Nick Ahmed.
It wasn’t over, however, as Fitzgerald’s third hit chased Corbin, and pinch hitter Lamonte Wade Jr. hit a cue-shot infield single that scored Ahmed, with Fitzgerald cut down at the plate for the third out to put the Giants up 7-1.
The lead was 5-1 after the fifth on a sacrifice fly from Wilmer Flores and a two-out run-scoring single by Michael Conforto.
Ahmed started it with an infield single that Corbin couldn’t handle, with Fitzgerald slicing a triple to right to put runners at second and third. Flores’ fly to deep center scored Ahmed, and Conforto dumped a single to right to bring home Fitzgerald.
The Giants had only scored 10 runs (in five games) on the homestand before scoring three times with two out against Corbin in the second on an RBI triple by Ahmed, a run-scoring single by Fitzgerald, and a run-scoring infield single by Austin Slater.
Not only that, but Fitzgerald swiped both second and third before he scored — the first two stolen bases of the season for the Giants. Slater even tried to make it three steals but was thrown out by Drew Millas to end the inning.
On the first, he was picked off by Corbin but made it to second safely.
“I’d heard that a few times in the last couple of days,” Fitzgerald said about the Giants’ goose egg when it came to stolen bases. “It wasn’t one of my best reads — he had me picked off and I was able to beat it out.”
It was a prescient move by Melvin to play Fitzgerald and sit Lee, who had come in reaching safely in five of his nine plate appearances in the series.
“He’s got the best speed on our team and he needs to play too,” Melvin said. “It’s good he got a really good game under his belt both on the field, on the bases, at the plate. You pick the best matchups you can for your bench players and he had a nice day.”
Attendance for the three-game Washington series was 75,520 after the Giants drew 120,728 in an opening series sellout against the San Diego Padres.
