Wind-aided home runs, Adrian Houser's pitching help Giants rout A's
WEST SACRAMENTO - Howling wind and bright sun were the MVPs of Sunday's series finale at Sutter Health Park, with at least six runs directly the result of the conditions.
The San Francisco Giants' first run came on Luis Arraez's wind-blown homer to right in the third, and the A's first run off Adrian Houser caused by a sun-ball to short that was pushed sideways a dozen feet. San Francisco pulled away in an eight-run eighth inning that featured Harrison Bader's grand slam - complete with a wind boost - and a series of A's defensive flubs. The Giants hammered Sacramento 10-1 to take the series two games to one; by the end of the day, the A's had position player Carlos Cortes on the mound.
Bader's gusty break to right Sunday was only fair: The night before, also with the bases loaded, he hammered a ball to left that the wind knocked back 2 feet at the fence, according to Weather Applied Metrics, and also sent whistling 20 feet to the right to a more spacious part of the park as he slammed his helmet to the ground. Sunday's ball gained 7 feet with the wind and went 18 feet to the right, carrying it out.
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Poetic justice? Wind-aided justice? "One thousand percent," Giants manager Tony Vitello said. "I think it evened out."
"Everybody's joking about that," Bader said. "‘It goes to show that you're always just one swing away and sometimes you've got to play the elements a little bit. Not that I necessarily was trying to do that, but hey, listen, it was just a good swing that I really am happy that I put out there for my teammates.'
Giants 10, A's 1
San Francisco
AB
R
H
BI
BB
SO
Avg.
Totals
40
10
12
9
4
4
Bader cf
4
2
1
4
1
0
.153
Arraez 2b
4
2
3
1
1
0
.328
Schmitt dh
5
1
2
0
0
0
.297
Devers 1b
5
1
1
1
0
0
.246
Adames ss
5
2
1
0
0
0
.234
Susac c
4
0
1
1
1
1
.387
Chapman 3b
4
1
2
1
1
1
.223
Gilbert rf-lf
5
0
0
0
0
1
.220
Haase lf
2
0
0
0
0
1
.273
a-Lee ph-rf
2
1
1
1
0
0
.266
Athletics
AB
R
H
BI
BB
SO
Avg.
Totals
30
1
5
1
5
6
Kurtz 1b
1
0
0
0
3
1
.269
Cortes rf-p
4
0
2
1
0
1
.346
Rooker dh
4
0
0
0
0
1
.196
Thomas rf
0
0
0
0
0
0
.345
Soderstrom lf
3
0
0
0
1
0
.195
McNeil 2b
2
0
0
0
1
0
.274
b-Williams ph-ss
1
0
0
0
0
0
.000
Gelof 3b
4
0
1
0
0
0
.247
Butler cf
4
0
0
0
0
2
.171
Heim c
4
0
1
0
0
1
.067
Hernaiz ss-2b
3
1
1
0
0
0
.268
San Francisco
001
100
080_10
12
0
Athletics
000
010
000_1
5
3
a-grounded out for Haase in the 7th. b-lined out for McNeil in the 8th.
E: Gelof 2 (3), Butler (1). LOB: San Francisco 7, Athletics 7. 2B: Chapman 2 (11), Cortes (8). HR: Arraez (2), off Springs; Bader (4), off Suarez. RBIs: Arraez (16), Chapman (16), Devers (19), Susac (6), Lee (17), Bader 4 (9), Cortes (16). SB: Gelof (3).
Runners left in scoring position: San Francisco 4 (Gilbert 3, Adames); Athletics 3 (Butler, Rooker 2). RISP: San Francisco 6 for 13; Athletics 1 for 3.
Runners moved up: Susac. GIDP: Gilbert, Hernaiz, McNeil.
DP: San Francisco 2 (Arraez, Adames, Devers; Devers, Adames, Devers); 1 (Gelof, Hernaiz, Kurtz).
San Francisco
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
NP
ERA
Houser, W, 2-4
6
4
1
1
5
3
93
5.25
Hentges, H, 1
1
0
0
0
0
2
10
0.00
Winn
1
1
0
0
0
1
18
2.33
Peguero
1
0
0
0
0
0
12
1.42
Athletics
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
NP
ERA
Springs, L, 3-4
6
5
2
1
1
3
92
3.93
Sterner
1
0
0
0
0
0
23
4.03
Medina
0
3
5
2
1
0
20
2.70
Suarez
1
3
3
3
1
1
21
13.50
Cortes
1
1
0
0
1
0
18
0.00
Medina pitched to 5 batters in the 8th
Inherited runners-scored: Suarez 3-3. IBB: off Suarez (Chapman).
ABS Challenge: Springs (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Butler (Strike-Confirmed); Springs (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Houser (Ball-Confirmed); Cortes (Strike-Confirmed).
Pitch timer violations: Suarez (pitcher).
Umpires: Home, Steven Jaschinski; First, Jansen Visconti; Second, Alex Tosi; Third, Cory Blaser.
T: 2:45. A: 12,541 (14,014).
Bader had been trying to go that way if he got the pitch to do so, knowing the conditions were more favorable, but A's starter Jeffrey Springs, a lefty, kept the ball inside exactly for that reason. "They're aware of what we're trying to do," Bader said, "So just trying to back the ball up and just stay super short over there" to right.
He's the first Giants' leadoff man to hit a grand slam since Andres Torres on March 30, 2011, at St. Louis.
Arraez's drive looked like a routine fly ball off the bat and Cortes initially camped in front of the track - then watched the ball keep sailing. The wind, gale-force much of the day, pushed it 37 feet out and also took it 16 feet to the right. Vitello said that the best hitters "sniff out" where to put a wind-aided ball sometimes, and "I'll be danged if Luis Arraez didn't sniff it out."
The rest of San Francisco's runs came in more traditional fashion, with Matt Chapman driving in a two-out run in the fourth with his second double in two games (then he added another in the ninth) and, in the eighth, an RBI single from Rafael Devers, with another run scoring on the play after Lawrence Butler's bobble in center, one of three A's errors Sunday. (Devers was the player most negatively impacted by the wind - his flyball to left in the first was pushed in 109 feet and 76 feet to the right.)
With Adrian Houser, a groundball pitcher, on the mound, the Giants rolled the dice a bit with catcher Eric Haase in left field; he has made 40 starts there in his big-league career, so it's not unfamiliar, but there are better options for the spot on a day with gusts that reached over 30 mph. Balls hit Haase's way: zero, but Drew Gilbert, stationed there after the sixth, made a terrific diving play on the line to rob Tyler Soderstrom of an extra-base hit in the eighth.
The infield did get plenty of work, and every member of the group made at least one impressive play. Arraez dove for a Soderstrom grounder in the fourth inning and threw from one knee to get the out. Shortstop Willy Adames dove for a ball Jonah Heim smacked up the middle that also skipped off the mound, got up and nailed Heim at first.
Devers snared Jeff McNeil's slicing liner at first, turned and made a throw to second to get Soderstom and complete the double play in the sixth, and that same inning, Chapman chased a swirling pop-up into foul ground and had to reach back over his head to retire Butler.
"That was super difficult," Houser said. "I don't think people realize that ball was about 10-15 rows deep into the stands and then it came all the way back. Being able to keep an eye on that and make that catch right there, it's big time, looking straight up in the air."
Chapman had been determined to snag the next wind-ball after not rescuing the one Adames couldn't see in the fifth off Cortes' bat, which was blown in 58 feet plus 50 feet to the right.
"Cortes puts the ball in play and you know it's a tough sun-ball and communication's tough because the wind was loud," Vitello said. "But I'll tell you what, Chappy came in more determined to make a play on a crazy pop-up, said it, and it's like one of those things you speak into existence."
Houser hasn't allowed more than three runs in each of his past four starts, putting up a 2.82 ERA, and he has given up no more than two over the three most recent outings. He did issue five walks Sunday, but three of those were to Nick Kurtz, a left-handed hitter with power and a team-high 29 RBIs.
The wind was a bit of a trial for Houser, too, at times, even as a groundball pitcher - in a Stu Miller redux, he was knocked off balance in his delivery a few times, he said. But he's from Oklahoma - he has pitched with the winds sweeping down the plain.
"Springtime in Oklahoma, you've got a strong south wind, north wind," Houser said. "It's all over the place."
Vitello said he thought the A's actually had an unfair advantage with Houser on the mound, given his familiarity with the conditions, and of the blasts of wind in general, he said, "I think just it makes everything crazy. You saw some things that wouldn't normally happen and it's kind of fun. There was a little extra buzz in the crowd before the game and then every time a ball was hit, just because it was kind of an erratic environment."
The Giants took the series two games to one after splitting four games at Los Angeles to start the trip, which continues in Arizona the next three days.
"What I told the guys is just keep stacking good days on top of good days," Houser said. "Take it one day at a time and get on roll."
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This story was originally published May 17, 2026 at 7:14 PM.