– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEW YORK — After Sunday afternoon’s game, Carson Whisenhunt will hope that Frank Sinatra’s famously-crooned words will ring true once more after the lefty hurler clinched a historic moment in New York in what he hopes will be a standout career on the West Coast.
In his second Major League game, Whisenhunt allowed just one earned run and three hits in 5 1/3 innings and earned his first career victory in the Bigs as the Giants throttled the Mets 12-2 inside Citi Field on Sunday afternoon. Rafael Devers gave San Francisco the lead for good with a three-run tie-breaking home run in the third inning, and Casey Schmitt also added a three-run homer as part of a five-run ninth inning.
The top pitching prospect in the Giants system, Whisenhunt was called up at the beginning of the week after numerous injuries to the starting rotation and, more recently, the team’s firesale at Thursday’s trade deadline after the team had gone 3-13 in the last 16. He didn’t factor in the decision in Monday’s loss in Pittsburgh after allowing four runs in five innings during Monday’s loss against the Pirates, and 12 pitches into today, Whisenhunt was behind after Francisco Lindor launched a solo homer to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.
Whisenhunt settled down soon after, returning 11 of the next 12 hitters, with the only baserunner allowed coming on a walk to Francisco Alvarez in the third.
By the end of that stretch, the Giants’ struggling offense had posted seven runs of support against Mets starter Frankie Montas, who once again struggled after New York gave him an early lead. In the fourth, Patrick Bailey drove in a run on a fielder’s choice after Pete Alonso’s throw home was late and allowed Schmitt to score for a 5-1 Giants lead. Heliot Ramos and Rafael Devers soon followed with back-to-back RBI singles and the lead was six.
Jung Hoo Lee went 4-for-4 for the Giants, while Ramos and Devers combined for five hits from the leadoff and No. 2 spots in the order.
All three of Devers’ hits on the day came against Montas, and the former improved to 8-for-17 (.471) with a homer and six RBI all-time against the righty starter.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by New Jersey-based photographer Vinnie Lucia. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 19 pictures in total.
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