The San Francisco Giants hope to unleash one of those good problems on the visiting Toronto Blue Jays for a second consecutive game Tuesday night as the clubs continue their interleague series.
The Giants put up double-figure runs for the eighth time this season in the series opener, riding two homers and a triple from Heliot Ramos to a 10-1 triumph on Monday.
Ramos, who appeared to be the Giants’ left fielder of the future when he finished the 2025 season with a bang, has shifted over to right field of late with the promotion of hot-hitting Victor Bericoto.
With Jung Hoo Lee hitting over .300, Casey Schmitt producing 17 home runs, Drew Gilbert coming off a four-hit game Sunday and Harrison Bader recovering from plantar fasciitis, Giants manager Tony Vitello suddenly finds himself with an embarrassment of riches in his outfield.
Ramos, who has hit .313 with four homers and eight RBIs in eight games since returning from a strained right quad, said he believes the Giants are on the verge of something big offensively.
“At the end of the season last year, you saw what we can do,” he said in an on-field television interview following the game on Monday. “We have the hitters here. This is our first full season together. This is something we saw coming as a team.”
Bericoto had two hits, scored twice and drove in two runs, while Lee added a single, walk and run scored in the Giants outfield on Monday on a night when Schmitt, who plays both infield and outfield, manned third base in the absence of injured Matt Chapman.
Gilbert was given the night off.
The Giants’ outfielders might get an opportunity to pad their offensive stats against the Toronto bullpen on Tuesday, as the Blue Jays left the ballpark on Monday uncertain who their starting pitcher would be in the rematch. The team had not announced a starter as of Tuesday morning.
Toronto used Spencer Miles (4-1, 2.83 ERA) and Patrick Corbin (2-4, 5.11) after an opener in this slot in the rotation last week.
Seeking to duplicate the effort of teammate Landen Roupp, who gave up one run on three hits in eight innings in the series opener, right-hander Trevor McDonald (3-6, 4.42) is scheduled to get the ball for the Giants.
The 25-year-old is coming off the best performance of his big-league career, when he shut down the Arizona Diamondbacks on one hit over six scoreless innings in a 6-4 road win last Wednesday.
McDonald has never faced the Blue Jays.
He has never gone head-to-head with Toronto rookie third baseman Kazuma Okamoto, who was the lone bright spot for the Blue Jays in the series opener with a solo homer for the Blue Jays’ only run.
The blast deep into the left-field bleachers was his 20th of the season, a milestone reached so far by just one other rookie at the major-league level this year — Munetaka Murakami. Those two, plus Shohei Ohtani, are the only three Japanese-born players to hit 20 homers in their rookie campaigns.
Ohtani hit 22 for the Los Angeles Angels in 2018.
Okamoto made it clear last week he’s just getting started.
“I still think I could be even better, just knowing myself,” he told reporters. “Obviously (I) came over here to the major leagues to test myself and challenge myself. But knowing my abilities, I think I’ve got another gear.”
–Field Level Media
