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WEST SACRAMENTO — Without realizing it, the Giants had three extra home games tacked onto their 2025 schedule — albeit in a minor league ballpark along the Sacramento River, 90 minutes northeast of San Francisco.
The Giants beat the A’s 7-2 Saturday night, and a sellout crowd of 12,298 loved every minute of it. Indeed, a great majority of the fans were rooting for the Giants even though Sutter Health Park is the interim home of the vagabond A’s.
“I thought we were playing at home today,” shortstop Willy Adames said.
Giants fans filled the place for Friday’s opener, too, but there was virtually nothing to cheer for because the Giants’ pitching, defense, and offense bordered on awful. It was a different buzz Saturday because Matt Chapman returned from the injured list and Logan Webb returned to his roots.
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Webb was plenty familiar with the ballpark. He grew up in nearby Rocklin attending many Sacramento River Cats games back when they were an A’s affiliate. He pitched a Triple-A game in 2019 before he got called up to the majors.
Saturday, he was the main attraction and received loud cheers every time he struck out a batter, and when he exited after 6 ⅔ solid innings, fans gave him a roaring standing ovation as he walked to the dugout.
“I wish I had given a wave or something,” Webb said. “It’s always awkward in those moments, I don’t know why. But I feel the love from the Sacramento crowd.”
An A’s fan as a kid, Webb usually found himself in the minority among classmates and teammates because he was in Giants country. All these years later, he beat his childhood team by surrendering two runs and seven hits, a nice bounce-back performance after the A’s beat up on Justin Verlander Friday.
The A’s haven’t drawn well despite the tiny ballpark, which is only temporary as owner John Fisher anticipates better days in Las Vegas. Counting Friday and Saturday, the A’s have sold out just six of 44 home dates.
“The Giants have proud fans,” Webb said. “I was one of the other ones for the other team. I remember being outnumbered by a lot. There are a lot of Giants fans, especially here.”
Chapman played for the first time since June 8, having missed 23 games with a hand injury, and reached base three times. He singled, walked, and was drilled by a Luis Severino first-inning pitch, which infuriated the Giants because they waited so long for the third baseman’s return and because the plunking came two batters after Severino drilled Heliot Ramos.
For Ramos, it was the 11th time this season he was hit by a pitch, this time on the top of his left hand. For Chapman, it was his first plate appearance in a month, and he looked at Severino with a “come on, man” glare, in no mood to miss any more time anytime soon.
“We didn’t particularly like that,” manager Bob Melvin said.
The Giants didn’t retaliate, though Webb seemed to throw brushback pitches to Brent Rooker and Jacob Wilson. More than that, they responded the best way possible with Adames hitting a two-out, two-strike, two-run single up the middle.
“You have to take advantage of that opportunity. You obviously don’t like your guys to get hit,” Adames said. “Somebody’s got to do it, got to bring them in. It feels good when you can do that.”
Two innings later, Adames hit another two-out, two-strike, two-run single. Ramos homered in the fifth, and a third Giant was hit by a pitch in the seventh. Dominic Smith took one off the shoulder, courtesy of A’s lefty Sean Newcomb. Again, the Giants responded by scoring runs — Patrick Bailey followed with a double, and Brett Wisely hit a two-run double, giving the Giants a 7-1 lead.
The A’s scored a second run in the sixth and loaded the bases with two outs before Webb induced Tyler Soderstrom to hit into an inning-ending double play. In the seventh, with more traffic on the bases, reliable Randy Rodriguez bailed out Webb by getting the final out and stranding a pair.
When All-Star rosters are filled out Sunday afternoon, Webb will be chosen for the National League team, and the Giants hope he’s not their only pitcher rewarded. Robbie Ray, who threw a complete game Thursday in Arizona and is 9-3 with a 2.68 ERA, is a solid candidate. So are Rodriguez, a setup man who has a sterling 0.71 ERA, and submarine reliever Tyler Rogers, who threw a scoreless eighth to lower his ERA to 1.70.
On the subject of the bullpen, the Giants received bad news when their top lefty reliever, Erik Miller, was diagnosed with a sprained elbow and went on the injured list shortly before the first pitch. An initial MRI apparently showed no serious structural damage and lefty Scott Alexander replaced him on the 26-man roster.
Earlier in the day, pitcher Mason Black was optioned and replaced by Tristan Beck, and infielder Sergio Alcántara was designated for assignment to clear space for Chapman.
Chapman returned to the roster almost a week earlier than expected and batted cleanup behind Rafael Devers
“It feels like how we’re supposed to do things,” Adames said. “All of a sudden, we’ve got all our energy back.”