Lineup balance paying off as Giants solve Cardinals' lefties

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's no secret that the Giants have struggled against left-handed pitching early in 2023. Now on the tail end of a stretch of 10 lefty starters in 16 games, the club believes it's beginning to turn the page on that chapter of the season.

Entering the day ranked last in the Majors with a .587 OPS against lefties, the Giants made just enough noise vs. Cardinals southpaw Steven Matz to win their fifth straight game, 7-3, Wednesday night at Oracle Park. San Francisco picked up its second series win of the season -- and its first since taking two of three from the White Sox in Chicago from April 3-6.

Four of the Giants' seven runs were charged to Cardinals lefties -- Matz and reliever Zack Thompson -- and the team isn't particularly surprised that the lineup is beginning to break through its early funk. Now that Austin Slater and Mitch Haniger are back in action after being activated from the injured list Monday, manager Gabe Kapler has the ability to construct lineups with an eye on optimizing platoon matchups.

Though Slater and Haniger have played in just two games apiece, the right-handed-hitting outfielders are already making an impact. Slater drove in the game-tying run and picked up back-to-back two-hit games, while Haniger recorded his first knock as a Giant and scored the go-ahead run on a Jordan Hicks wild pitch in the fifth inning.

"It's obviously encouraging because it doesn't always work out that way," Kapler said. "Sometimes you don't get the results right away, and it can be sort of a waiting game for everything to jell and click.

"But also not surprising that it has [worked out]. … To have those guys contributing is just not a surprise to us. The fact that it happened right away is kind of the icing."

While the Giants' right-handed reinforcements played a key role on Wednesday night, one of the biggest knocks against Matz came off the bat of a fellow lefty -- one who wasn't even supposed to be in the lineup that night.

LaMonte Wade Jr., who started in place of Mike Yastrzemski (left side tightness), helped get the Giants back in the game after Anthony DeSclafani surrendered a pair of solo home runs to Paul Goldschmidt. Wade took Matz deep to right-center to lead off an eventual two-run fourth inning that evened the tally, setting the table for San Francisco to take the lead in the fifth.

It was Wade's first big league home run off a lefty. Prior to Wednesday, all 30 of his career homers had come against right-handers.

"One thing I always know about guys like LaMonte and Joc [Pederson], even against left-handed pitching, is they're going to see some pitches," Kapler said. "They have the chance to draw a walk. They're both strong and powerful enough to hit a home run once in a while. You always know that that possibility is there, and today it came together for LaMonte."

Wade, who drove in another run on a stand-up triple in the eighth, wasn't alone in seeing the ball well on Wednesday night. Thairo Estrada, Michael Conforto and Blake Sabol also picked up multiple hits, while Wilmer Flores' two-run homer provided some extra insurance in the seventh inning.

While the bats were hot, DeSclafani was pretty satisfied with his bounce-back outing -- "other than Goldy just completely owning me," he said. DeSclafani was the last Giants pitcher to lose a game, dropping Friday's game to the Mets 7-0, and his third quality start of the season extended San Francisco's winning run.

A lot can change in one turn of the rotation. San Francisco was 6-13 after DeSclafani's last start, and the team has begun to put the pieces together since then, averaging 5.6 runs scored per game while averaging just three allowed over the past five games.

Sure, the Giants have faced the hot-and-cold Mets and the scuffling Cardinals during their winning streak, but they're working from the same blueprint no matter who's in the opposing dugout -- a sentiment that Wade summed up quite aptly with regard to his own approach at the plate.

"When you're seeing it well," he said, "I don't think it really matters which hand they're throwing it out of."