Brandon Belt’s 2 homers lead SF Giants to NY Mets 8-0

I’ve been writing to McCovey Chronicles for a few years now, and I’m pretty sure every shutout win I’ve covered during that time has featured a quip about how when you score points and don’t allow them, you earn. generally, and hey, maybe a team should hire a smart guy like me and pay me a nice salary for such advanced ideas and knowledge.

I’m going to avoid doing that today, and instead I’m just going to tell you how I did it, which manages to have the same effect but somehow uses three times as many words.

Mission accomplished?

The San Francisco Giants beat the New York Mets by scoring a lot of points (8, in particular) and allowing very few (0, in particular).

They jumped early, scoring once in the first and twice in the second to get behind the wheel of the game. They added at the halfway point, with a place of four in the fourth to completely kick the Mets out of the car. They followed up with a race in the eighth round to make donuts in front of the Mets because why not? Arrogance is happiness – that’s the saying, right?

There have been home runs, as it has become the Giants’ specialty, which I’m still not used to. The Giants lost in their quest to add Giancarlo Stanton first, then Bryce Harper (with Shohei Ohtani thrown somewhere in there as well), and then quickly become baseball’s lovable dork team isn’t a story arc that I would have proposed with, but I guess that’s why they only trust me to tell the story in retrospect.

Brandon Belt had two home runs, which is always exciting because A) multi-homer games are exciting, and B) literally every home run Belt has ever hit is cause for celebration in my neck of the woods (and since you all currently live in my part of the country, that means we can party; don’t worry, it’s an open bar and we eat well).

Let’s take a look at them, because my favorite thing to do after watching a good Giants game is to immediately review the best games. I really wish movies had this feature.

Let’s admire this absolute unity of an outta here.

The second happened immediately after LaMonte Wade Jr. smashed a home run. Back-to-back circuits are a joy for everyone (except the Mets), so let’s watch them together.

Although we didn’t know it at the time, it was a moving performance by Belt, mourning the loss of his grandmother.

I’m not kidding with a sad situation, but I too played a sports game on the day my grandmother died. Let’s just say that I hope I have other talents because I didn’t honor her as well as Belt.

Sandwiched between Belt’s mammoth homer and Belt’s homer Wade was a two-point Bondian shot from Mike Yastrzemski.

Yaz has been battling something fierce this month, hitting just 10-55 with 2 homers, 2 doubles, 4 walks and 16 strikeouts before the game. So seeing him have not only a home run but a HOME RUN (although it was a 1-5 day overall) was a happy show.

It was enough races for a bad pitching day, but thanks to Sammy Long, it wasn’t a bad pitching day. In fact, it was a very good pitch day.

“Dominant” is probably not the right term for Long. He needed 92 pitches to pass 5.1 innings, threw 61 strokes and had only 9 puffs all day. But the Mets seemed utterly incapable of damaging Long’s pitches, and he allowed just 3 hits and 1 walks, with 4 strikeouts.

The swing strike numbers might not represent dominance, but the eye test certainly gave you reason to think the Giants might have found something special here.

It wasn’t just strawberry shortcake and brandy. Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford both left the game early with minor injuries, although we can hope the Giants were very careful with a strong lead.

It was the first in a 16-day streak in which the Giants play every day. Hopefully for health and more 8-0 wins.

And maybe some Dodgers futility, if we get greedy.