SF snaps skid behind sharp Cahill, vets' bats

Trevor Cahill did it to the Angels again.

The veteran right-hander allowed one run on four hits in four innings in the Giants' 8-2 victory at Angel Stadium on Tuesday. The outing was brief, but it was long enough to help his team snap a five-game losing streak.

It’s more than what the Giants were looking for from him, especially when you consider that he missed most of Summer Camp because of a fingernail injury. But it’s exactly what the club needed.

• Box score

Ten hits from an offense that’s been up and down this season didn’t hurt, either. The Giants’ beleaguered bullpen responded by allowing only one run in five stellar innings.

“I’m really proud of the work the bullpen has done the last couple of days,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “Today, just to get a high-quality start from Trevor -- and by the way, we extended Trevor Cahill a little bit today a little bit beyond our comfort zone. … So today was a big stretch and big push and we needed it.”

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Cahill struck out four batters, walked one and induced tons of soft contact. The Angels’ average exit velocity was 83 mph, Cahill’s second-lowest in any start since the beginning of 2019 and fourth-lowest since the start of ‘18.

Overall, Cahill has limited Angels hitters to a .223 batting average against and sports a 2.31 ERA (20 runs in 78 innings pitched) in 14 games (12 starts) in his career against the Halos. He’s 6-3 against his former club, but he did not factor into the decision Tuesday.

Cahill had help at the plate. Giants right fielder Mike Yastrzemski began the game with his first career leadoff home run to give San Francisco an early lead. Angels first baseman Tommy La Stella tied the game at 1 with a solo home run in the bottom half of the frame.

Pablo Sandoval’s two-run home in the second pushed the Giants ahead, and San Francisco tacked on another run on an RBI single by Brandon Belt in the third to make it 4-1. Brandon Crawford’s two-run double in the fifth extended the lead to 6-1. He finished 2-for-5 with two doubles.

Crawford entered Tuesday’s matchup with seven hits in seven games in his past 20 at-bats after managing only seven hits in 41 at-bats in his first 15 games.

“I think the things we worked on, the timing and everything is coming together,” Crawford said. “Getting these last three starts and having more than one at-bat kind of helps to get your timing and stay consistent. The last few days have felt really good.”

The Giants are also seeing positive signs from Sandoval. The veteran infielder entered Tuesday’s game with a 91.3 mph average exit velocity, which would be his highest in any season tracked by Statcast since 2015. His average launch angle is still just 7.1 degrees, which would be his lowest since Statcast starting tracking launch angle in ‘15. The launch angle on his home run? Thirty degrees.

“Pablo’s actually been on the barrel for various portions of this season, and you see him drive the ball, either on a low-line-drive trajectory or a hard ground ball, and just not get rewarded for it because defenses are set up to convert those into outs,” Kapler said. “So we're really hoping that he begins to elevate the ball, and we're starting to see signs of that.”

Up next
Johnny Cueto is on a roll and will take the hill at Oracle Park against the Angels on Wednesday at 6:45 p.m. PT, live on MLB.TV. Cueto gave up two runs over seven innings against the A’s in his longest outing of the season. He threw 104 pitches, his most since Sept. 19, 2017, against the Rockies.