'It's just Wilmer': Flores remains impactful despite Devers addition

SAN FRANCISCO -- Wilmer Flores has served as the Giants’ primary designated hitter for most of this season, but he found himself bumped from that spot following the arrival of star slugger Rafael Devers on Tuesday.

Devers has started at DH in each of his first three games for the Giants, leaving Flores to come off the bench in two of the last three days. Still, Flores continued to show that he can be an impact bat regardless of his role.

The 33-year-old veteran delivered a pinch-hit, go-ahead double in the seventh inning to help the Giants rally for a 2-1 win and avoid a three-game sweep at the hands of the Guardians on Thursday afternoon at Oracle Park.

Flores’ 17th go-ahead RBI of the year -- the most in the Majors -- snapped San Francisco’s four-game losing streak and made a winner out of right-hander Logan Webb, who struck out nine over seven innings of one-run ball to improve to 7-5 with a 2.49 ERA on the season.

“It’s just Wilmer,” Webb said. “He always seems to come up with the big one. He’s been doing it for so long. It’s always a pleasure. I actually saw a podcast, and they were talking about Wilmer. They were like, ‘Just put him on base.’ Any time you’re in a big situation, it’s just the way Wilmer goes. He’s always prepared, always ready for the big moment. Obviously, I love that he did that.”

The Giants trailed, 1-0, before Casey Schmitt singled and Jung Hoo Lee walked to put a pair of runners on with no outs against Cleveland reliever Matt Festa in the bottom of the seventh. After Patrick Bailey laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners, manager Bob Melvin opted to send Flores to pinch-hit for Christian Koss.

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt countered by bringing in another righty, Nic Enright, to face Flores, but the Venezuelan infielder came through with a two-run double down the third-base line, giving San Francisco its first lead of the afternoon.

“It’s just such a great feeling to have him up there, and it’s so hard to do,” Melvin said. “We expect so much out of him. We expect him to come through every time in those situations, and he does almost every time. But it’s really, really difficult to do. … It’s just what he does.”

Flores’ clutch hit snapped the Giants’ 0-for-22 skid with runners in scoring position, giving him a team-high 53 RBIs over 73 games this year.

“It’s always a good feeling when you have those kinds of at-bats,” Flores said. “We’ve been getting on base a lot, which is good, but we’ve just got to keep grinding and try to have good results.”

With Devers currently entrenched at the DH spot, Flores figures to move into more of a platoon role with the left-handed-hitting Dominic Smith at first base, which should strengthen the Giants’ bench moving forward. Still, the club would prefer not to push Flores too much physically by having him play the field regularly, which is part of the reason they asked Devers to start taking grounders at first base this week.

Devers’ refusal to play first base led to the dissolution of his relationship with the Red Sox, who subsequently traded their homegrown star to the Giants in exchange for pitchers Jordan Hicks and Kyle Harrison and prospects James Tibbs III and Jose Bello, but the 28-year-old slugger expressed a willingness to play anywhere now that he’s in San Francisco.

The Giants know it’ll take some time for Devers to get comfortable at first, a position he’s never played professionally, but they’re confident he’ll be able to make a smooth transition there, which would help them get his and Flores’ bats in the starting lineup down the road.

“We’re going to try to get them both in there,” Melvin said. “Once we get Raffy playing some first base, we get Flo back in the DH spot. I don’t want to run Flo out there too much in the field. Until we get Raffy up to speed, it’s going to be kind of half-half, but to be able to [have Flores] come off the bench in those types of situations is really valuable.”

While the addition of Devers will likely cut into his playing time for now, Flores said he was happy to welcome the three-time All-Star into the fold earlier this week.

“Excited,” Flores said. “We got a lot better. Exciting.”

Devers has gone 3-for-11 with a double and two walks over his first three games with the Giants and will now prepare to face off against the Red Sox for the first time in a highly anticipated clash between the two clubs at Oracle Park this weekend.

“We knew when we brought him over here that this was going to happen,” Melvin said. “The reception he’s gotten from our fans has been pretty immense. Whenever you play your old team -- and he’s been there a long time -- there’s probably going to be some emotions for him. Just go out there and do your thing business-wise, get past that series and then move on.”