Giants bounce back with feel-good win over Pirates after crushing loss
· Yahoo Sports
The San Francisco Giants notched a feel-good 5-4 win in extra-innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night at PNC Park.
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The win ought to put a better taste in the team's mouth after Tuesday's loss in which they erased a five-run deficit in the eighth, but were walked off in the bottom of the ninth when Rafael Devers couldn't snag a tricky throw across the diamond from Osleivis Basabe.
Here are takeaways from the Giants' win:
Bryce Eldridge fastballs:With his grandmother watching him play at the big league level for the first time - several days after his grandfather passed away - Eldridge delivered the go-ahead run with an RBI double smacked the other way in the 10th inning.
Eldridge got to former Giant Camilo Doval's slider, going the other way to score the ghost runner easily from third. In a rookie year shaping up to be one of the most impressive across the National League, Eldridge is showing an impressive approach for someone known for his towering stance and big swing - shortening up when necessary, taking his walks while limiting his chase.
He got the big hit Wednesday off a slider, but he's been fearsome against the four-seam fastball. Statcast estimates he's created 15 runs off the four-seamer, batting .360 with a .686 slugging percentage and .503 weighted on-base average.
Rafael Devers homers:The Giants' season is dead, but Devers is very much alive at the plate. He extended his hit streak to 10 games with a two-hit game that included a solo home run to give the Giants an early 1-0 lead.
Devers has homered in three straight games, Wednesday's shot being his 32nd of the year. Last year, Willy Adames became the first Giant to hit 30 home runs in a season since Barry Bonds hit 45 in 2004; at this pace, Devers could raise the bar again and be the first since Bonds in 2004 to hit 40.
Devers has seven home runs over his last 13 games dating to his Aug. 21 blast against his former team, the Boston Red Sox. It's a stunning show of power considering he had two home runs through his first 36 games this year.
He's the first player in league history to hit two or fewer homers through his first 36 games while still reaching 30 homers before September.
Since hitting his third home run on May 6, Devers is hitting .264 with a .916 OPS and 68 RBIs.
Landen Roupp cutters:Roupp allowed one run over five innings with two hits, two walks and four strikeouts. He carved his place in the rotation with a pretty, biting curveball along with his fastball, but he's earned his keep and survived bumps when able to incorporate secondary pitches - mostly a cutter and changeup.
The cutter, a pitch he started getting more comfortable with last year, came into play against the Pirates' left-hand-heavy lineup.
Of the 75 pitches he threw, 30 were cutters and five of his nine swing-and-misses came off the pitch. That's the most cutters he's thrown in any game of his three-year career; the most he'd thrown was 26 on July 6, when he tossed eight innings of one-run ball against the Toronto Blue Jays.
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