San Francisco Giants' Matt Chapman’s two-homer, eight-RBI afternoon fueled an 18-run explosion at Wrigley Field against Chicago Cubs in the opener win.
After splitting their series with the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday, the San Francisco Giants traveled to the Windy City to open a three-game set against the Chicago Cubs.
The Giants rolled to an 18-3 victory, one of their best offensive performances of the season. Having scored 30 runs over their last two games, the recent surge is certainly an encouraging sign for an offense that has shown signs of coming to life.
San Francisco wasted little time getting on the board as Willy Adames launched a two-run homer to give the Giants an early 2-0 lead.
The offensive outburst came on the heels of one of the Giants' strongest performances of the season on Thursday against Milwaukee, when they collected 20 hits and scored 12 runs. Friday's game largely continued that trend.
The Giants broke the game open in the fourth inning. Matt Chapman delivered a grand slam, and Casey Schmitt followed with a solo home run to extend the lead to 8-0.
Robbie Ray got the start for San Francisco and turned in a solid outing, though his command remained a concern. Ray pitched five scoreless innings, allowing two hits and five walks while striking out four.
He threw 97 pitches, 57 of which were strikes. While he avoided any damage on the scoreboard, the walk total continued a trend that has surfaced in several of his recent starts.
San Francisco added another run in the fifth inning when Chapman hit a sacrifice fly that scored Adames, pushing the lead to 9-0.
The Giants continued to pile on in the sixth. Rafael Devers doubled to score Jonah Cox, and Luis Arraez followed with a sacrifice fly that brought home the Giants' 11th run of the game. Later in the inning, Adames connected on a two-run homer to center field, extending the lead to 13-0.
Through six innings, the Giants had already accumulated 13 hits, further highlighting what has been an impressive start to June for the offense.
The sixth inning was not over, however. Chapman added a three-run homer — his second long ball of the game — to cap a seven-run inning for San Francisco.
Following Ray's outing, the Giants turned to Carson Seymour, who covered the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings. Seymour allowed six hits, three earned runs, one walk, and struck out one while throwing 45 pitches, including 26 strikes.
His performance provided a significant boost for the Giants' bullpen, helping preserve the rest of the relief corps for the remainder of the series.
The Giants added two more runs in the ninth inning. Cox launched the first home run of his major-league career, and Schmitt followed with his second homer of the game.
Dylan Smith took over in the ninth and delivered a clean inning, striking out two of the three batters he faced.
The Giants cruised to an 18-3 victory and will look to continue their momentum on Saturday. Landen Roupp (5-6, 4.22 ERA) is scheduled to start for San Francisco, while Ben Brown (2-2, 1.92 ERA) will take the mound for Chicago.
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