San Francisco Giants starter Sammy Long will get the start Tue Aug 24, 2021 against the New York Mets at Citi Field in Flushing NY for the first of three games (photo from knbr.com file)

By Morris Phillips

San Francisco Giants pitcher Logan Webb said he wasn’t surprised a bit after Donovan Solano hit a hit a go ahead home run in the top of the eighth inning to help defeat the Oakland A’s on Sunday 2-1. Solano in the eighth was pinch hitting for LaMonte Wade Jr who had hit a pinch hit game winning home run against the A’s on Saturday.

Solano in Sunday’s eighth inning thought back to Wade’s Saturday afternoon at bat and got a little charged up in an opportunity situation. “I just happened to look at my stats and saw that I had only 28 RBIs and I was like, OK, it would be nice for me to get up to 30” said Solano. The home run was Solano’s sixth home run of the season.

The Giants have been doing pretty well with pinch hit home runs Solano’s was the team’s 14th of the season. On Sunday Austin Slater who has two pinch home runs in his own right this season, Slater as a pinch hitter in Sunday’s game walked with two outs and later would score after Solano’s two run homer.

Giants manager Gabe Kapler shared some of the credit to Slater for his patience at the plate going from a 1-2 count to a base on balls. “Donovan is going to get all the credit and glory for the homer, which he should, but don’t sleep on how huge that at bat from Austin Slater was” said Kapler

The pinch hit home run has become such a epidemic with San Francisco hitters that even the home run from Wade Jr on Saturday and the home run from Solano on Sunday marks the second time in San Francisco history since 1961 that the Giants have hit into go ahead pinch home runs.

Wade nor Solano had never hit a pinch hit home run until their weekend series with the A’s. The home run by Solano tied the 2001 Giants for pinch home runs and the most since the 1974 Giants. The Giants 187 home runs for the 2021 season leads all Major League teams. The nine runs by the Giants were home runs off A’s pitching to help take two out three from the A’s.

The Giants open a three game series against the New York Mets starting on Tuesday night at Citi Field in Flushing. The Giants will start Sammy Long (1-1 ERA 5.72) who will go up against the New York Mets righty Tylor Megill (1-2 ERA 3.21) a 4:10pm (PDT) first pitch.