SAN FRANCISCO — The out-of-town scoreboard at Oracle Park is directly in front of the home dugout. If you’re leaning on the rail, as just about all of the Giants do at some point during a game, you literally cannot miss it. When they looked out at Logan Webb on Monday night, the New York Mets-Philadelphia Phillies score was directly behind him.
The Giants are well aware of what’s going on around the rest of Major League Baseball every night, but if they have started to think big, they’re doing a pretty good job of hiding it.
On the first night back home, they hit a season-high five homers and beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 11-5. Across the country, the Mets got shut out in Philadelphia. With 18 to go, the Giants are just three games back, although the deficit in the wild-card race essentially is four since the Mets hold the tiebreaker.
But they’re not talking about any of that.
“I think you guys talk about it more than we do,” catcher Patrick Bailey said, smiling.
Webb gave a version of the same answer. Like Matt Chapman on the last homestand, he insisted that the focus is on winning every day and not thinking about anything other than that. And that actually is pretty believable.
You don’t go on a run like this without having the proper mindset, and right now, there isn’t a group that is having more fun or playing more relaxed than the Giants. It was a party in the dugout for most of Monday’s game, particularly in the sixth, when a five-run rally gave Webb his 14th win and pushed the Giants back to two games above .500. In the middle of it all, rookie outfielder Drew Gilbert started biting left-hander Robbie Ray.
“We’re just enjoying it,” Webb said. “That’s obviously easy to say when we’re scoring a lot of runs, but the whole energy — every game is a blast. We’ve got to keep positive energy.”
That’s easy to do when you’re hitting multiple homers, and the Giants right now are taking advantage of the warmest stretch at Oracle Park this season. Balls are flying, and for the second time in the last two weeks, they hit at least four homers at home. For the fourth time in the last six home games, they scored double-digit runs. What exactly is going on here?
“If we knew,” Bailey said, “we’d do it all year.”
Sometimes it’s better not to ask questions and simply enjoy the ride, and the Giants are playing like a group that might be pushing longer than anyone expected. They didn’t just pick up a game on the Mets on…