SAN FRANCISCO -- Have a night, Wilmer Flores.
Flores launched three home runs -- including a grand slam off lefty JP Sears -- and drove in a career-high eight runs to power the Giants to a 9-1 rout of the A’s in Friday night’s series opener at Oracle Park.
Flores put San Francisco on the board with his seventh career grand slam in the third inning and then broke the game open with a three-run shot off right-hander Michel Otañez in the sixth. He capped his banner night with another solo shot off Anthony Maldonado in the eighth, securing his first career three-homer game.
"Pretty cool day,” said Flores, who called the performance his favorite of his 13-year career. “I’m not trying to hit homers, but when it happens, it’s kind of cool. I’ve always thought about hitting three homers, but it doesn’t happen often. I think I’ve hit two in games, but hitting three -- a lot of things have to go right for you, and it did.”
After knocking in each of the Giants’ first eight runs on Friday, Flores is now tied with Yankees superstar Aaron Judge for the MLB lead with 41 RBIs. Flores is the first Giants player to collect at least 40 RBIs through the team’s first 45 games since Barry Bonds in 2001 (45) and the first to go deep three times in a single game since Joc Pederson on May 24, 2022.
"He’s a true professional,” said right-hander Logan Webb, who fired eight innings of one-run ball to lower his ERA to 2.42 over 10 starts this year. “He’s my favorite player. It’s fun to watch him every day.”
Flores is batting .266 with a .786 OPS and a team-high 10 home runs over 44 games this season, but he’s been especially dangerous in RBI situations, hitting .395 (17-for-43) with five home runs with runners in scoring position.
"He’s been in the league for [13] years now, and he’s had every situation that has ever arisen thrown at him,” outfielder Mike Yastrzemski said recently. “He knows what he has to do in those moments. He’s most likely failed in all of those moments -- probably more than he’s succeeded -- but the succeeding is all coming later on after all that failure. You have a guy who’s been through everything who goes in and just takes what can feel like a really big moment and just turns it into another at-bat, giving him the better chance to do something really special.”
The Giants entered Friday just 2-10 against left-handed starters this season, but they managed to get the best of Sears thanks to Flores’ first big swing in the third. Patrick Bailey singled and Tyler Fitzgerald and Heliot Ramos drew back-to-back walks to load the bases with no outs for Flores, who then won a 10-pitch at-bat by lining a 91.7 mph fastball from Sears out to left field for a grand slam.
His other two long balls also came on fastballs, helping the Giants pick up their first win against a left-handed starter since they toppled the Yankees’ Carlos Rodón on April 13.
"I finally got ready for fastballs today,” Flores said. “Before that grand slam, I was kind of late on the fastball in my first at-bat. I made the adjustment and kind of used my lower half there.”
Flores’ ability to consistently deliver for the Giants has been all the more remarkable considering his exit velocities typically don’t jump off the page. Flores’ grand slam came off his bat at 106.8 mph, making it his hardest-hit ball of the season, but he entered Friday with an average exit velocity of 84.9 mph, which ranked in the second percentile in the Majors this year.
"He uses what he needs to use,” manager Bob Melvin said. “You’re probably not going to be going into the glove [by the Coca-Cola bottle] out there, but they get over the wall, and he finds the barrel. I don’t think that’s ever been an issue for him. I don’t think he really cares too much about that.”
For Flores, the most important thing is that he’s finding ways to contribute and bounce back from his career-worst season in 2024, when he batted only .206 with a .595 OPS and four home runs while dealing with a right knee injury that eventually led to season-ending surgery last August.
“It means a lot, especially because every year I start slow,” Flores said. “April is not usually my month, and it kind of felt good to have a good April. I feel like I have a lot to give still to the game. I’m glad I’m helping this team.”