Jorge Soler contributed a three-run home run to a nine-run fourth inning, Spencer Bivens recorded a win in his major-league debut and the San Francisco Giants overcame another injury to their starting staff to beat the Los Angeles Angels 13-6 on Sunday afternoon.
The victory came after the Giants had to scratch scheduled starter Kyle Harrison, who sprained his right ankle working out in the team’s weight room on Saturday. He was placed on the 15-day injured list.
Bivens (1-0), a veteran of 177 minor-league games, was summoned from Triple-A Sacramento and took over after emergency opener Erik Miller had allowed a run in the top of the first.
Nolan Schanuel hit the 29-year-old’s fifth big-league pitch for a solo home run, his eighth of the year, before the right-hander completed three innings without allowing another hit. He struck out four and didn’t walk a batter, and was the pitcher of record when the Giants exploded in the fourth.
Down 2-0 after two shutout innings by Angels opener Ben Joyce, the Giants got even against bulk-innings reliever Jose Suarez (1-2) on Thairo Estrada’s two-run double, then went ahead for good when Brett Wisely delivered a two-run, two-bagger of his own.
Suarez was replaced by Hunter Strickland, but the hosts weren’t done. Matt Chapman had an RBI single and Soler bombed his three-run shot to left-center, his eighth homer of the season, making it 8-2.
An error and RBI single by pinch-hitter Austin Slater, batting for the second time in the inning, added a ninth run.
Suarez was charged with five runs on five hits in one-plus innings. He walked one and did not strike out anyone.
Slater padded the lead with a solo homer, his first, in the seventh, before the Giants completed their scoring with a three-run eighth that ended with Angels designated hitter Luis Guillorme on the mound. Soler capped a season-best, four-RBI day with a ground-rule double before Guillorme, making his fifth major-league appearance and beginning the day with a 13.50 career ERA, faced three batters and retired them all on ground balls.
The Angels, who had won the first two games of the series, cut into the final margin with a four-run ninth that included a two-run double by Michael Stefanic.
Soler finished with three runs to complement his two hits and four RBIs for the Giants, while Wisely had two hits and three RBIs. Slater went 2-for-2 with two runs and two RBIs off the bench, Estrada, Heliot Ramos and Patrick Bailey also had two hits each, and Wilmer Flores scored twice.
–Field Level Media