CHICAGO — Ringing in the White Sox home opener Monday, it was the Giants who threw a party. Call it a Disco-dinger bash.
Rebounding from a season-opening series loss in New York, the Giants launched seven home runs — four in one inning and two from David Villar — while Anthony DeSclafani turned in six sharp frames in a 12-3 win. It even featured a special guest, DeSclafani’s fiery alter ego (Tony D?) who jawed and lunged at a Chicago player, just one of many retired by the San Francisco right-hander in his first start since last June.
DeSclafani’s counterpart, White Sox starter Michael Kopech, proved to be just the medicine San Francisco’s bats needed after being blanked twice in their first three games of the season.
Joc Pederson got the party started in the second inning with a no-doubter to right-center, and he would have had second in his next at-bat if not for Luis Robert’s leaping catch at the center field wall. No worry, though, Pederson was merely setting the stage for the power parade to come.
The Giants would go back-to-back not once, but twice in the fifth inning, with consecutive blasts from Michael Conforto and Thairo Estrada, and then Mike Yastrzemski and David Villar. All the while, the White Sox left in their struggling starter, who was visibly growing more frustrated and flustered with each long ball.
Before yielding to Sean Manaea, as the Giants tag-teamed two of their seven starting pitchers, DeSclafani couldn’t relate to Kopech’s trouble getting outs, but he did show some emotion early that almost emptied the benches on to the field. After Chicago second baseman Andrew Vaughn, a Santa Rosa native, grounded out softly on a 3-0 pitch in the second inning, the Giants starter had to be restrained by first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr.
Vaughn and DeSclafani each exchanged words, though it wasn’t clear who initiated the back-and-forth. Wade put his arm across DeSclafani’s chest and walked him back to the mound, where home plate umpire James Hoye paid him a visit as the dust settled.
It’s possible Vaughn was frustrated that he rolled over with a meager grounder back to the pitcher in a hitter’s count. It came on a well-executed slider, which was emblematic of the rest of DeSclafani’s day. In an encouraging sign for the Giants, who hope to get him back to his 2021 form, DeSclafani allowed little hard contact and located all three of his primary pitches.
The same could not be said for Kopech, who became the first starter since the Reds’ Bill Gullickson on June 25, 1987 at Candlestick Park to serve up five home runs to the Giants (h/t Andrew Baggarly). With the blasts from Conforto, Estrada, Yastrzemski and Villar, the Giants slugged four homers in one inning for the first time since Sept. 18, 2011, at Coors Field. Since moving to San Francisco, the club had never had players go back-to-back twice in an inning.
Conforto’s homer was his first with the Giants, and his first at all since Oct. 2, 2021, before he suffered a shoulder injury that required surgery and cost him all of last season. It got out in a hurry, leaving the bat at 109 mph and on a line-drive trajectory that just cleared the wall in right field.
Villar’s second of the game and Bryce Johnson’s first of his career came in another multi-homer inning, as the Giants piled on in the ninth.
White Sox reliever Jose Ruiz loaded the bases, walking Estrada and Yastrzemski and giving up a single to Wilmer Flores, before serving up a 2-0 fastball that Villar crushed into the left-field seats. It shouldn’t be hard for Johnson to retrieve his first home run ball, as two batters later, he lined a shot into the visitor’s bullpen.
San Francisco finished one dinger shy of matching a single-game franchise record (eight vs. the Milwaukee Braves on April 30, 1961) but will have to settle for the seventh seven-homer game in franchise history, last done July 2, 2002, at Coors Field.
Notable
— Estrada left the game after fouling a pitch off his leg. He remained in the game and drew a walk but was replaced by pinch-runner J.D. Davis.
— Injured outfielders Mitch Haniger (oblique) and Austin Slater (hamstring) will meet the team in San Francisco, though it’s unlikely either is activated in time for Friday’s home opener. Slater is “beginning to feel really good,” manager Gabe Kapler said, while Haniger is “just a little bit behind him.”
— The Giants’ top pitching prospect, 21-year-old left-hander Kyle Harrison, will make his season debut on Tuesday for Triple-A Sacramento. It will be the River Cats’ home opener. While newly signed catcher Gary Sánchez may not be behind the plate for Harrison’s start, he is expected to join Sacramento “in the next couple days,” Kapler said.
