Giants bats show signs of life in first win this season over Diamondbacks

PHOENIX — Finally, the Giants’ luck started to turn in the fifth inning Wednesday night.All series, San Francisco batters had consistently made hard contact against Diamondbacks pitchers but had little to show for it — nothing at all, if we’re talking about wins and losses.But then, Heliot Ramos launched a missile that cleared the wall in the deepest part of the park, and Victor Bericoto followed two batters later with a two-run shot nearly as ferocious.Ramos’ home run traveled 427 feet and jumped off his bat at 110.4 mph; Bericoto’s blast was a 422-footer with an exit velocity of 102.7 mph.Statcast defines hard contact as anything above 95 mph, something the Giants did 38 times over the course of the series but only began to see the payoff in a 6-4 win to avoid being swept.Their bashing had produced only six runs and six extra-base hits in two losses in the first two games, fewer than Arizona on both accounts despite squaring up eight more pitches.Entering the series, the Giants were among the lightest-hitting teams in the majors by exit velocity, making hard contact on only 37.5% of their balls in play, 23rd out of 30 teams.This series, that rate jumped to 41.3%, which would rank fourth.That had resulted in only a .203 team batting average through their first two losses, more than 50 points lower than their expected rate based on the quality of contact.But in the win, their first over the Diamondbacks in nine games this season, those seeds began to blossom.

Ramos and Bericoto contributed two no-doubters that got the Giants on the board against Zac Gallen, Jung Hoo Lee laced a pair of 95-plus singles that put him on base to score twice and Ramos tripled him home on another 99.3 mph rocket to right field.For four innings, it looked like a pitcher’s duel was in store between Gallen and the Giants’ starter, Trevor McDonald.But only one side held up their end of the bargain.The Diamondbacks struggled to make much contact at all in McDonald’s stronge...