​PHOENIX — The Giants finally started to turn their luck in the fifth inning on Wednesday night. Across the series, San Francisco had been making hard contact against Diamondbacks pitching but hadn’t reaped results in the win column. That changed when Heliot Ramos delivered a towering homer that cleared the deepest part of the park, and Victor Bericoto followed two batters later with a two-run shot of nearly equal impact. Ramos’ 427-foot blast left the bat at 110.4 mph, and Bericoto’s 422-footer left at 102.7 mph. Statcast defines hard contact as anything above 95 mph, and the Giants had 38 such contacts in the series before finally turning them into runs in a 6-4 victory that avoided being swept.
Ramos celebrated Bericoto after their fifth-inning homers, as the scoreboard showed the Giants taking the early lead. The two long balls, along with Jung Hoo Lee’s two 95-plus mph singles and Ramos’ 99.3 mph rocket that tripled home a run, sparked a rally that erased a prior skid in the series. Through the first two losses, San Francisco had produced only six runs and six extra-base hits, even though they squared up eight more pitches than Arizona. Entering the series, the Giants ranked among the lightest-hitting teams in the majors by exit velocity, making hard contact on 37.5% of their balls in play (23rd in the league). In this series, that rate rose to 41.3%, which would have ranked fourth, but their batting average still sat at a disappointing .203—well below their expected rate based on contact quality.
The breakthrough came in a game where Ramos and Bericoto delivered the early firepower, Lee added two singles at 95 mph-plus to put himself on base and score twice, and Ramos followed with a 99.3 mph blast that drove in another run. For four innings, it appeared to be a pitchers’ duel between Zac Gallen of Arizona and Giants’ starter Trevor McDonald. McDonald worked six scoreless innings, striking out five, not issuing a walk, and allowing only one hit—the 107.6 mph scorcher by Ketel Marte.
The Giants’ defense, however, faltered in the bottom of the eighth, threatening to unravel a strong outing from McDonald and a surge of hard contact against Gallen. With the Giants up 6-0, Ryan Walker gave up a leadoff single to Nolan Arenado, moved Arenado to second on a wild pitch, and watched Arenado score on a Pavin Smith knock. The game’s late tension resurfaced when Christian Koss mishandled a grounder, but the story ended with San Francisco hanging on for the win.