SAN FRANCISCO—Matt Chapman hit his team-leading 20th home run, rookie left-hander Kyle Harrison pitched six strong innings, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago White Sox 5–3 on Monday night.
Harrison (7–5) allowed one run and five hits, striking out five and walking two as the Giants limited their opponent to three runs or fewer for the fifth straight game.
“[My fastball] definitely had a little more life, and I was throwing it with a little more confidence,” Harrison said. “Definitely was a lot better today, able to establish it up in the zone. I was really happy with how the fastball was playing.”
San Francisco moved within 3 1/2 games of the idle Atlanta Braves for the final National League wild-card spot.
The White Sox lost for the 29th time in their past 32 games.
“Just wasn’t our night,” Chicago interim Manager Grady Sizemore said. “I thought we had good at-bats all night. We were putting pressure on, getting guys on. Just got to keep working, got to keep executing.”
Luis Robert Jr. put the White Sox ahead with an RBI single in the fifth, snapping the team’s 21-inning scoreless streak.
San Francisco responded with four runs on five consecutive hits off Chicago starter Jonathan Cannon in the bottom of the inning.
Curt Casali’s run-scoring single tied the game, Tyler Fitzgerald followed with an RBI double, and LaMonte Wade Jr. added an infield single to plate another run. Heliot Ramos tacked on a fourth run with a sacrifice fly.
“It was a tremendous feeling for me,” Casali said. “I needed one of those. I haven’t hit the ball hard very much lately, and to be able to have a plan and execute a plan personally was really nice for me. And then the boys kept tacking on after that.”
Chapman’s homer to left in the sixth wrapped up the scoring for the Giants.
“We didn’t do much until later in the game, which has kind of been a trend here recently,” San Francisco Manager Bob Melvin said. “Put together a crooked number in the fifth that ended up being enough, but I’m glad we scored at least one more because it got a little tighter.”
Cannon (2–7) allowed five runs and eight hits, with four strikeouts and a walk, in six innings, snapping a streak of four straight starts allowing three runs or fewer.
Miguel Vargas hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth, and Gavin Sheets followed with an RBI single to cut the Giants’ lead to 5–3.
Chicago put runners on second and third with two outs in the ninth, but Jordan Hicks got Korey Lee to fly out to center field for his first save of the season.
