The San Francisco Giants Thairo Estrada belts out a ninth inning grand slam against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field in Phoenix on Fri Jul 2, 2021 (AP News photo)

By Jeremy Kahn

If the San Francisco Giants (51-30) wanted to get out of their recent rut, they needed a change in their lineup and they may have found it in Thairo Estrada.

All the youngster did was go three-for-five, including a 431-foot grand slam in the top of the ninth inning and the Giants put an end to a season-high four-game losing streak with a 11-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks (23-61) at Chase Field. This was the seventh win in eight games for the Giants over the Diamondbacks this season.

The Estrada grand slam broke open a close game, helping Alex Wood to his eighth win of the season for the Giants, who maintained their half-game over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West, after the Dodgers defeated the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park by the final score of 10-5.

Estradas grand slam came with two outs after Buster Posey walked, then Austin Slater grounded into a double play and then the Giants way to break the game wide open began. Brandon Crawford drew a walk, then Wilmer Flores reached on a throwing error by Nick Ahmed that allowed Crawford advance to third base, after a walk to Steven Duggar that loaded the bases, Estrada launched a J.B. Bukauskas pitch deep into the left field seats.

Wood went the required five innings, as he allowed two runs on four hits, walking three and striking out eight before giving way to the bullpen.

It was a tough night for the Diamondbacks pitching staff, as their starter Zach Gallen was forced to leave the game in the top of the third inning with a strained hamstring and then manager Torrey Lovullo was forced to use his bullpen for the rest of the game.

Prior to leaving, Gallen went two innings, allowing three runs on five hits, walking three and struck out three, as he saw his record fall to 1-4 on the season and the Diamondbacks lost for the 25th time in their last 28 games.

Crawford, like Estrada also picked up a three-hit game in four at-bats and scored twice in the big win for the Giants, who continue to have the best record in the National League.

Lamonte Wade, Jr., who was surprisingly sent down to Sacramento a few weeks back continues his hot hitting, as he went 2-for-3 with a run scored and three runs batted in that included his seventh home run of the season.

Wade drove in the first run of the game, as he hit a sacrifice fly that scored Flores and then Mike Yastrzemski drove in the second run of the inning with a single that scored Duggar.

Alex Dickerson then added to the Giants lead, as he hit a solo home run deep into the Phoenix night, as it landed 415 feet away from home plate.

After the Diamondbacks began to cut into the Giants lead, Wade hit a two-run home run to give the Giants a 7-2 lead and they needed those runs, as the Diamondbacks began to comeback.

Edwin Escobar and Pavin Smith each hit solo home runs in the bottom of the eighth inning off of Jimmy Sherfy that saw Jake McGee get up at the end of the inning, as he was getting ready to come on to close the game; however, that all changed when Estrada hit the grand slam the put the game away for the Giants.

NOTES: Buster Posey was officially selected to his seventh All-Star Game. Posey won the fan vote at catcher and has been selected to start the game by the fans for the fifth time in his career (first time since 2017). With five fan elections, he joins Barry Bonds (12 fan selections) as the only players in Giants history to be voted in by the fans at least five times and Posey joins Hall of Famers Johnny Bench (10), Gary Carter (8) and Mike Piazza (11) as the only NL backstops with at least five fan elections.

The Estrada grand slam was the fifth of the season, for the Giants, joining Brandon Belt, Duggar, Mike Tauchman and Yastrzemski.

Since the 2019 season, the Giants are 12-5 in their 17 games at Chase Field against the Diamondbacks and have hit 17 home runs during this time and have also outscored the Diamondbacks 100-71 in those 17 games.

UP NEXT: Sammy Long will go for his second win of the season, as he takes the mound on Saturday night, while the Diamondbacks will start Jake Faria, who is 0-0 on the season.