MINNEAPOLIS — The good times kept rolling Tuesday for the San Francisco Giants, who won for the seventh time in eight games, beating the Twins, 4-3.
Alex Cobb overcame a pair of home runs, and Michael Conforto provided a crucial one of his own in the seventh inning as San Francisco (24-24) evened its record, pulling to .500 for the first time since the sixth game of the season. Camilo Doval closed it out for his National League-leading 13th save.
The pitching matchup pitted Cobb, the National League ERA leader, against the hurler with the lowest ERA in the American League, Minnesota’s Sonny Gray.
While Gray was the only starter to emerge still holding the crown, the Giants chased him in the sixth inning and took the lead against the Twins’ bullpen.
Besides the two home runs — a two-run shot in the first inning from Byron Buxton and a fifth-inning solo shot off the bat of Michael A. Taylor — Cobb was efficient and completed seven innings while allowing only the three runs on the two long balls. His ERA rose from 1.94 to 2.17, second in the NL, trailing only Atlanta’s Bryce Elder (2.06).
The Giants climbed out of an early 3-0 hole, scoring the final four runs of the game with two each in the sixth and seventh innings.
Conforto golfed the go-ahead homer over the left-field wall, scoring Thairo Estrada, who led off the seventh with a double, and delivering the Giants a decisive 4-3 lead. All left fielder Willi Castro could do was give a feeble leap as the ball sailed just over the wall, landing in the gap before the first row of seats.
The homer was Conforto’s second in as many games. Six of his team-leading 10 home runs have come in 12 games since May 11.
Conforto’s batting average (.221) and OPS (.733) climbed to their highest points since the third week of April after a 2-for-4 performance Tuesday. He also doubled in the sixth, sandwiched between bases on balls to J.D. Davis and Mitch Haniger, Gray’s only free passes of the game.
The Twins bullpen nearly walked a highwire act in the sixth, after the Giants loaded the bases with nobody out and forced Gray out of the game. Pinch-hitting, Casey Schmitt popped out to shallow center and Wilmer Flores struck out. But rookie catcher Patrick Bailey watched four straight pitches below the strike zone, and fellow rookie Bryce Johnson displayed the same plate discipline with a five-pitch walk. The third and fourth walks of the inning forced in two runs, pulling the Giants within 3-2.
With the two runs credited to Gray, his ERA rose from 1.64 to 1.82 but remained the best in the AL.
With Conforto’s homer and Cobb rebounding from the two he allowed, the Giants reached their magic formula: They improved to 22-9 when scoring at least four runs and 16-3 when allowing three or fewer.
San Francisco will have Anthony DeSclafani (3-3, 3.09) on the mound against Joe Ryan (6-1, 2.25) of San Anselmo in Wednesday’s series finale (10:10 a.m. PT) as the Giants look to take two out of three from the AL Central leaders and raise their record over .500 for the first time this season.
