San Francisco Giants Willy Adames takes a look at his home run ball’s flight against the St Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium in St Louis on Fri Aug 5, 2025 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

Every single player on the San Francisco Giant’s (72-69) roster had hits in their 8-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals (70-72) in game one of their three game series Friday. Jung Hoo Lee had four hits and Patrick Bailey with three hits and on top of that the Giants also hit two more home runs in the first inning off the bats of Rafael Devers and Willy Adames. They finished the game with 18 hits.

The Giants continue to improve their play now three games over .500 although they have something like an 11% chance of making the playoffs and are four games back for the last Wild Card spot.

This current turnaround unfortunately came a bit too late because right now they are playing lights out. The Cardinals were also in the hunt but their chances have also diminished. The Giants are playing crazy good baseball right now but despite that according to FanGraphs they have almost a 5% chance to make the playoff.

Depending who you believe whether it be 5 % or 11%, the odds are not in the Giants favor. What a shame they could not have turned the season around earlier but it is what it is. All that is out of their control right now and their playing the best ball that they can and let the chips fall where they may.

While it will probably turn out badly, they have to be very proud of the way they are playing right now. The Giants took the first game of this three game series. Giants starter Carson Seymour pitched five innings allowed two hits, one run, one walk and two strikeouts.

The Giants’ Devers and Adames made sure that streak would live another day. Devers hit the first of two home runs in the first inning, a solo shot to center for a 1-0 lead. Adames followed that hit with a home run of his own for a 2-0 lead, another solo to center keeping center fielder Victor Scott II busy watching the ball fly into the stands. It was a great start for San Francisco, not so much for the Cardinals.

San Francisco Giants took the 2-0 lead into the fourth inning where they unleashed a barrage of runs taking a 6-0 lead. Drew Gilbert drove in the first run hitting a sacrifice driving Jung Hoo Lee home taking a 3-0 lead.

Patrick Bailey and Devers both hit singles in the inning driving in two more runs. Casey Schmitt and Patrick Bailey both scored runs on those hits and the Giants were looking great with a 5-0 lead. They would tack one more run on when Adames grounded into a fielders choice driving in Heliot Ramos and San Francisco had a 6-0 lead going into the bottom of the fifth inning.

St. Louis pitcher Michael McGreevy had a rough time in the four innings he pitched. He gave up nine hits, six earned runs, one walks and only three strikeouts. He was relieved in the fifth inning by Gordon Graceffo.

The Cardinals finally made it up on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth inning. They scored a single run off a Scott II single driving in Jimmy Crooks but St. Louis had a whole lot more work to do in this game trailing 1-6.

The Giants took the 6-1 lead into the top of the seventh inning. Matt Chapman started off the inning with a single followed by a Jung Hoo Lee triple allowing Chapman to score and the hits just kept on coming. Now leading 7-1, Casey Schmitt singled driving in Lee for an 8-1 tally with no outs. Gilbert fouled out and Ramos hit into a double play to end the inning and this game went into the bottom of the seventh inning.

San Francisco’s Tristan Beck took over on the mound in the bottom of the seventh inning. San Francisco starting pitcher Carson Seymour had a great showing going five innings allowing only two hits, one earned run, one walk with two strikeouts. He was relieved in the sixth inning by Matt Gage before Beck took over in the seventh. Beck got the Giants out of the inning and it was on to the eighth.

With two outs in the eighth inning that Giants were threatening to add to their score loading the bases with Schmitt at the plate. Unfortunately Schmitt struck out and San Francisco had missed a great opportunity put more runs on the board.

The Cardinals hit a solo home run in the eighth inning cutting the Giants lead to 8-2 but they were three outs away from losing the game in the ninth inning. Jimmy Crooks struck out swinging, Thomas Saggese flied out and Jordan Walker struck for the third out and that was the ball game with the Giants taking game one 8-2.

San Francisco finished the game with 18 hits. while the Cardinals had only five. There was some great offensive play going on for the Giants in this game. Beck finished the three final innings only allowing two hits and one run.

The two teams will meet up Saturday night in game two with first pitch scheduled for 4:15 PM. Justin Verlander will be on the mound for the Giants with a 3-10 win/loss record and a 4.29 ERA. The Cardinals Andre Pallante will start in game two with a 6-13 win/loss record and a 5.38 ERA.