Trending upward, Ruf smacks pair of homers

SAN FRANCISCO -- Darin Ruf was involved in everything that went right for the Giants on Friday night.

It wasn’t enough in an 8-7 extra-inning loss to the Padres, but Ruf’s offensive revival continues to be encouraging for San Francisco.

Drawing the start in left field against Padres lefty Sean Manaea, Ruf homered in consecutive at-bats against Manaea, drove in three runs and reached base four times in five plate appearances.

“Obviously he’s had some really good results over the course of the last couple weeks,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “He’s sort of been climbing with his surface stats, but pretty much it’s the same quality at-bats that we’ve seen all season long, that we saw in Spring Training, that we saw in 2021 and that we saw in 2020.”

Over his past 18 games, Ruf is 21-for-55 (.382) with 13 RBIs. That’s quite a rebound from the 1-for-18 funk he was in before this hot streak.

The Giants will take it. Although they rank third in the Majors in runs, they’re still looking for consistent production up and down the lineup. Ruf, a right-handed hitter, has been trending upward offensively for a while now.

In a crowded San Francisco outfield, that’s making it easy to find him playing time.

“I just need to continue to have good at-bats, and as long as that’s your focus, you hope results will follow,” Ruf said. “Tonight they were there for me.”

The Giants trailed 4-1 in the third when Ruf, hitting second in the order, smacked a two-run shot to left off a 1-1 sinker from Manaea. Two innings later, he jumped on a 1-0 changeup and sent another pitch rocketing over the left-field wall to tie it.

Ruf entered the night just 1-for-7 lifetime against Manaea with three strikeouts. After going down swinging in the first, he made some adjustments.

“Especially after my first at-bat, [when] he just attacked me with heaters and I was late,” Ruf said. “I knew he’d stick to that plan, at least in the second at-bat. And then in the third at-bat, I figured at some point he might try to change speeds a little bit. Luckily [the changeup] was a good pitch to hit.”

The Giants trailed 6-4 in the ninth when Wilmer Flores blooped a two-run single to left field to tie it. But Ruf was in the middle of that rally, too, drawing a two-out walk off Luis García to keep the inning alive.

Although he isn’t particularly known for his defense, Ruf added a sliding catch on Trent Grisham’s fly ball to end the top of the fourth and save a run against Giants starter Jakob Junis.

“Ruf made a great play coming in and sliding and catching that, especially with a guy on second base,” Junis said. “That’s huge.”

But it’s with the bat that Ruf makes his biggest impact for San Francisco.

His previous two-homer game in the Majors before Friday?

Oct. 2, 2012, when Ruf was a rookie for the Philadelphia Phillies. It happened nearly a decade ago, but Ruf recalled the moment like it was yesterday.

He knew the homers came off Tyler Clippard and Tom Gorzelanny.

“Luckily, I’m still here,” Ruf said with a smile.

As long as he swings the bat the way he is now, Ruf won’t be going anywhere.