Anderson pushes Giants to top NL WC spot

SAN FRANCISCO -- Tyler Anderson had to be happy to be facing anyone other than the D-backs on Wednesday.

After three consecutive -- and tough -- starts against Arizona, Anderson went back to his strengths against a new opponent, rebounding to toss six scoreless innings against the Mariners in a 10-1 decision at Oracle Park to sweep their two-game series and extend their winning streak to five games.

• Box score

“He’s a competitor,” Giants rookie catcher Joey Bart said of Anderson. “I knew it’d be pretty good to face another team and kind of refresh him a little bit. I was glad that he did a great job tonight and went six innings for us. That was awesome.”

The Giants’ balanced offense provided plenty of run support for Anderson, banging out 13 hits, including a three-run home run from Mike Yastrzemski and a pair of RBI singles from Evan Longoria. Bart, Wilmer Flores, Brandon Belt and Alex Dickerson also drove in runs for San Francisco (23-21), which moved one game ahead of the Marlins for the top National League Wild Card spot with 16 games left.

Yastrzemski opened the scoring in the third inning with his ninth home run of the year, crushing a 1-2 fastball from Mariners left-hander Nick Margevicius to McCovey Cove to give the Giants a 3-0 lead. It was Yastrzemski’s eighth home run in a two-strike count this season, the most in the Majors.

“He’s really good. Really good,” Anderson said. “And he hits lefties and righties, which is pretty cool.”

Yastrzemski, who debuted in the Majors last year, now has 30 home runs through his first 151 games with the Giants. The only other Giants to tally 30 home runs through their first 151 career games are Bobby Thomson and Dave Kingman.

Anderson made three consecutive starts against the D-backs over a 13-day span and delivered mixed results, with his first career complete game on Aug. 22 before giving up 11 runs over 8 2/3 innings in his two subsequent outings. Giants manager Gabe Kapler attributed the inconsistency to Anderson’s attempt to overcorrect against a team that drew repeated looks at him.

Anderson agreed, noting that he felt he had to tinker with his gameplan in order to stay effective after missing most of the 2019 season while rehabbing from left knee surgery.

“I ran into myself,” Anderson said. “I pitched well, and then not having pitched a lot over the last year and a half and only have a few starts in there, it just seemed like I wanted to try something different. Like, ‘OK, now I’m going to do this,’ instead of just trusting like, ‘Hey, your stuff is fine, just do what you do.’ I think that was more of a product of not pitching in a while and not trusting myself.”

On Wednesday, Anderson relied primarily on his fastball-changeup combination to stymie the Mariners, who mustered only three hits against the 30-year-old left-hander. Anderson also flashed his elite pickoff move, which he used to remove Dylan Moore from the basepaths in the first inning. He now has four successful pickoffs this year, tied with the Braves’ Max Fried for the most in the Majors.

Seattle generated its best threat in the third after Philip Ervin and J.P. Crawford hit back-to-back singles to put runners on first and third with one out, but Anderson struck out Moore looking on a changeup and then induced a groundout from Kyle Lewis to end the inning.

“I give Anderson a ton of credit,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “That is a funky left-hander. He’s got a lot of moving parts. He threw a lot of good changeups. We knew coming into the game kind of what he was going to do, but deception means a lot in this game. When you’re not used to seeing a game very often, he was a little funky and he pitched a good ballgame."

Anderson retired 11 of his final 12 batters and left with a 10-0 lead after the Giants put together three-run rallies in the fifth and sixth innings. He walked one, struck out four, threw 100 pitches and lowered his ERA to 4.50. Anderson’s turnaround comes at an opportune time, as the Giants are expecting to get Drew Smyly and Jeff Samardzija back from injuries in the near future, which could alter the club’s rotation plans down the stretch.

After winning 15 of their past 20 games, the Giants will now have the opportunity to test themselves against one of the best teams in the NL. They’ll head to San Diego on Thursday to kick off a four-game series against the Padres, who rank second in the NL in winning percentage and fortified their roster with a flurry of moves at the Trade Deadline.

“It’s going to be a big series for us, and we’re pumped up about it,” Bart said. “Hopefully we can carry some of the things we’ve been doing lately into San Diego and win some games.”