SAN FRANCISCO — Before Friday’s series opener against the Padres, several Giants hitters took the field for batting practice wearing new gray T-shirts that featured the phrase “Swing of the Day” and depicted star slugger Rafael Devers taking a mighty cut at the plate.
The tops were the work of hitting coaches Hunter Mense and Oscar Bernard, who often play clips to highlight Devers’ offensive handiwork during their pregame hitters meetings.
“I think it’s complimenting Rafi,” manager Tony Vitello said. “I don’t think it’s making fun of him. But there’s been a lot of both going on behind closed doors. It’s been fun seeing him playing the game like a Little Leaguer.”
The T-shirts proved prescient, as Devers went on to deliver the swing of the night in the Giants’ 7-5 loss to the Padres at Oracle Park. Devers continued to swing a hot bat by cranking his ninth career grand slam, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a rocky start from right-hander Anthony Molina, who was tagged for seven runs over three innings in his third appearance for San Francisco.
The Giants were coming off a three-game sweep of the Cardinals and entered Friday with a chance to win four in a row for the first time this season. But their momentum quickly evaporated after the Padres scored two runs against Molina in the second and then added five more in the third to jump out to an early 7-1 lead.
“I think what happened is I was missing the outside strike zone,” Molina said in Spanish. “I wasn’t executing my pitches, so that’s what happened today. I didn’t feel comfortable with my changeup. I was opening myself up and missing a lot with that pitch.”
Still, Devers got the Giants within striking distance in the bottom of the fifth, when he came up with the bases loaded and golfed an 0-1 knuckle curve from former San Francisco teammate Robbie Ray out to right field for his team-leading 36th home run of the year. It was the Giants’ ninth grand slam this season, the most in the Majors.
“That’s the very definition of a basic concept that’s hard to do: Just stay to the ball,” Vitello said. “That is a picture-perfect example we could use in Spring Training. We could use it tomorrow with the team. Younger kids could look at it. … It was pretty impressive.”
Devers, who looked refreshed after getting his first day off of the season on Wednesday, now has 96 RBIs over 147 games this year, the most by a Giant in a single season since Hunter Pence tallied 99 in 2013.
The three-time All-Star later found himself in the middle of another last-ditch rally against Padres closer Mason Miller in the bottom of the ninth. After Nate Furman reached on a two-out walk, Jonah Cox laid down a perfectly executed bunt single to put a pair of runners on for Devers.
Devers drew another walk to load the bases, but Miller managed to strike out Bryce Eldridge looking on a 102.8 mph fastball to end the game.
“I thought the ninth was great, to get back in the fight,” Vitello said. “In a baseball game that’s 7-1, you’re kind of on the outside looking in. You want to be in the thick of things. That’s where we got.”
One other bright spot for the Giants was rookie right-hander Yunior Marte, who replaced Molina in the fourth and fired five scoreless innings in relief to help save San Francisco’s bullpen. Marte, 23, now has a 2.45 ERA with nine strikeouts over 14 2/3 innings in three outings for the Giants since being promoted from Double-A Richmond on Aug. 29.
“With the way we’re doing the starters, we’re kind of down a bullpen guy with the piggyback thing,” Vitello said. “We didn’t know if he’d go tonight, but if he did, we needed him to do a lot for us. He did just that. Again, it’s a series. It can help us. But I think it helps us see who he is and it helps him, too, to keep building confidence. It was a great effort.”