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 two 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 over a four-game series for the first time since 1960, six years before they moved to Atlanta.
“I’m still overwhelmed with excitement, man,” said McCray, who finished 2-for-3 with a walk and a pair of RBIs in his second game in the majors. “First big-league hit, first big-league RBI, did a job for my team and got the scoring going. Can’t be more thankful for that.”
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, they finished the day further back of the final National League wild card spot — trailing Atlanta by 3½ games — than when the series began.
“It really was kind of a must-win for us,” said manager Bob Melvin, who felt good about the Giants’ chances when he handed the ball to Webb. “Those are the guys that you want on the mound in those types of games, and he came as advertised.”
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 replay confirmed 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.
“I don’t know how that didn’t get overturned,” Webb said. “I thought they should have called him out in the first place. I think I used that to try to get the hitters out. There were a couple really good hitters coming up, so I was just trying to get a ground ball and go from there.”
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, 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.
A 21-year veteran of the manager’s seat, Melvin couldn’t remember the last time he called for a bunt with the bases loaded.
“It doesn’t happen very often,” he said. “Just based on everything that has transpired, and you have a guy that can handle the bat and bunt like that … we’ve been in that situation a bunch and haven’t scored. So we had to try something different.”
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 stands behind the first-base dugout.
“I just blacked out, honestly,” McCray said. “I rounded second and was just like, ‘This is for real.’ Got it out of the way. Just overwhelmed with excitement.”
The home run guaranteed he will have more on the back of his baseball cards than his father, Rodney, who appeared in 67 games without a homer.
“I already told him,” McCray said, smiling. “I was like, ‘You don’t have a home run in the big leagues and I do!’”
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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