SAN FRANCISCO — With one bad week, the Giants went from having the fourth-best record in the National League to dropping out of a playoff spot altogether.
The Giants likely aren’t going to be concerned about such things right now. But if they want to try and keep pace with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres in the National League West, they’ll likely have to take care of business against MLB’s also-rans.
Saturday, Evan Longoria, Thairo Estrada, Joc Pederson, and Wilmer Flores all hit home runs and starter Logan Webb lasted six innings to lead the Giants to a 9-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds, the NL’s worst team, before a sellout crowd of 40,115 at Oracle Park.
Flores’ three-run homer in the sixth inning gave the Giants a 9-1 lead, as he now has a team-leading 40 RBIs this season. Flores had 53 RBIs in 139 games last season, and his career-high is 59 in 2015 when he was with the New York Mets.
Darin Ruf and Tommy La Stella also drove in runs as the Giants won for just the second time in the last seven games. They finish the series with the Reds on Sunday and next week, face the Detroit Tigers for two games and the Chicago White Sox for three.
San Francisco won seven of eight games and improved to 37-27 with a 7-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 18. At the time, they were three games back of the first-place Dodgers and 2 1/2 games behind the Padres.
Since then, the Giants lost the series finale with the Pirates at PNC Park, lost three of four games in Atlanta against the Braves, and dropped the series opener with the Reds on Friday.
San Francisco (39-32) entered Saturday 6 1/2 games back of the Dodgers and 5 1/2 back of the Padres. The Giants were also two games back of the Braves for the second wild-card spot in the NL.
Webb threw 97 pitches and allowed two hits and struck out six as he improved to 7-2 this season. In the fourth inning, the Reds (24-47) had runners on first and third with one out, but Webb got Albert Almora Jr. to ground into a comebacker, as Webb began a 1-4-3 double play to end the inning.
