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Rafael Devers launches two more home runs as Giants beat Mets, 9-5

Curtis Pashelka, Bay Area News Group on

Published in Baseball

The San Francisco Giants right now are almost expecting Rafael Devers to do something special every time he comes to the plate.

But a few other Giants hitters flexed their muscles on Saturday.

Devers hit two more home runs to continue his torrid two-week stretch, and the normally light-hitting Christian Koss also went deep twice for the first multi-homer game of his career as the Giants earned an impressive 9-5 win over the New York Mets at Citi Field.

Osleivis Basabe and Grant McCray also homered for San Francisco, and starting pitcher Anthony Molina allowed just one hit over five innings as the Giants won for the fourth time in their last seven games.

Facing Mets left-hander Zac Thornton, Devers and Koss both homered in the fifth inning, giving the Giants a 6-2 lead.

Devers also hit a solo homer with one out in the first inning and Koss, who had gone deep just once in 50 games this season before Saturday, deposited a 91-mph fastball from Thornton over the left-center-field wall in the third inning.

Devers now has six homers and seven walks in his last six games. The only other players in Giants history to have such a stretch were Willie Mays in 1958 and Barry Bonds in 2004.

Molina, making his second start and his third appearance in a Giants uniform, continues to make a positive impression on his new team. He retired 10 of the final 11 batters he faced and matched a career high with six strikeouts.

In two appearances with the Giants before Saturday, Molina, acquired from the Braves on Aug. 2 for right-hander Tyler Mahle, was 2-0 with a 2.89 ERA in 9 1/3 innings with seven strikeouts and one walk.

 

Manager Tony Vitello didn’t get to see much of the win in person, as he was ejected in the top of the second inning.

Leading off, Turner Hill grimaced in pain as he appeared to be hit on the right hand by a 91-mph curveball from Thornton. But home plate umpire Jeremie Rehak ruled the pitch went off Hill’s bat instead and called it a foul ball.

The call was challenged by Vitello, but Rehak’s ruling was upheld. Vitello was warned by Rehak not to come onto the field, but he did anyway and was ejected for the sixth time this season — matching the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Don Kelly for most among MLB managers this year — and the third time in the last 11 games.

Hill was OK and stayed in the game.

The story for the Giants, though, continues to be Devers, who now has nine home runs in his last 13 games and 35 for the season.

Devers went 2 for 4 on Saturday with three RBIs and two runs scored and has now driven in 22 runs in his last 13 games.

After going 3 for 4 with 5 RBIs on Friday in a 10-6 Giants loss, Devers entered Saturday hitting .413 (19 for 46) with a .518 on-base percentage and a .935 slugging percentage over his last 12 games.


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