The San Francisco Giants will host a big family reunion on Saturday that will feature their game against the Texas Rangers.
The Rangers won an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel 2-0 on Friday to kick off the three-game series, but the focus Saturday will be on the past more than the present at Oracle Park.
The Giants will honor retired three-time All-Star Brandon Crawford before the afternoon game. Texas manager Bruce Bochy, Crawford’s manager with the Giants, will be on hand for the festivities. So will Buster Posey, Crawford’s former teammate, who now runs baseball operations for the Giants.
“This man did so much for us, helping us win championships,” Bochy said of Crawford, who was a member of two of San Francisco’s World Series-winning teams in the 2010s. “Tremendous player, gifted defender, but also clutch hitter. A lot of great memories will go through my head when I see him out there.”
Crawford retired after playing 28 games for the St. Louis Cardinals last season. He played his first 1,654 games for the Giants, who drafted the San Francisco Bay Area product out of UCLA in the fourth round in 2008.
Crawford made his big-league debut on May 27, 2011.
Bochy said he’ll remember much more than the 1,392 hits and 146 homers Crawford accumulated as a member of the Giants.
“He was so creative how he could come up with plays,” the longtime manager said. “There (wasn’t) a play he (didn’t) think he (couldn’t) make — that’s what you loved about him. There’s times he came up with a way to make the play.”
Posey and Crawford were teammates for 10 seasons and on three National League All-Star teams together.
“It was an honor to get to know Brandon as a friend and as a teammate,” Posey said. “Whether it was the clutch moments like the grand slam he hit in the 2014 wild-card game in Pittsburgh, the franchise-record, seven-hit game he recorded in Miami, or the dazzling defensive plays and acrobatic throws he made over and over again, Brandon made his mark in a way few athletes ever do.”
Crawford even has a history against both of Saturday’s scheduled starting pitchers. He had very little luck against Giants left-hander Robbie Ray, who limited the lefty hitter to 3-for-23 (.130) with no homers and 11 strikeouts, while he hit .273 (3-for-11) with no homers and two strikeouts against Rangers right-hander Tyler Mahle.
Facing a lineup that includes Marcus Semien, another former Bay Area standout shortstop with a World Series ring, Ray (3-0, 4.07 ERA) will make his 10th career start against the Rangers. The 33-year-old has a 5-2 record and 3.96 ERA in the nine outings.
Also unbeaten this season, Mahle (3-0, 0.68) has gone just 1-3 with a 6.00 ERA against the Giants in six lifetime starts.
–Field Level Media
