SAN FRANCISCO—With this season having slipped away from the San Francisco Giants, the latest piece of evidence being Wednesday night’s 6–4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the struggling club gained a significant victory of another kind.
The Giants announced after the game that veteran third baseman Matt Chapman had agreed to a six-year, $151 million contract for 2025–30, giving up his chance to become a free agent after this season. He will get a $1 million signing bonus, payable next year, and annual salaries of $25 million.
A definite bright spot for San Francisco this season, Chapman is hitting .247 with a team-leading 22 home runs, 69 RBIs, 90 runs scored, and 33 doubles. Chapman, 31, is a four-time Gold Glove winner. He joined the Giants as a free agent in March, agreeing to a contract guaranteeing $54 million over three seasons. That deal gave him the right to opt out after 2024 and 2025. It included a $2 million signing bonus and a $16 million salary for 2024.
The Chapman news was welcome after Arizona’s Zac Gallen pitched six hitless innings for his 50th career victory and the Diamondbacks held on to beat the Giants for a second straight night.
Gallen (11–6) had eight strikeouts, threw 63 of 100 pitches for strikes, and overcame four walks to win for the second time in six starts.
“For the most part, I stuck to my plan,” Gallen said. “I felt like everything was pretty sharp. Feel like I had a pretty good feel for the command for the most part. Even the pitches in the second [inning] that resulted in walks, they were pretty close to where I was trying to go.”
Eugenio Suárez and Pavin Smith hit solo home runs to help the Diamondbacks (79–61) move within five games of the National League West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers. Arizona holds the second National League wild-card spot.
LaMonte Wade Jr. homered into McCovey Cove beyond the right-field arcade and had four RBIs for the Giants. The game drew a season-low crowd of 22,855 to Oracle Park.
Gallen had scuffled for most of a month and had a 4.94 earned-run average over five starts in August before putting the clamps on the Giants. The 29-year-old right-hander pitched himself into two jams but worked his way out each time.
Gallen walked the bases loaded with two outs in the second, then retired Curt Casali on a swinging strikeout. The Giants’ Mike Yastrzemski walked after a lengthy at-bat to lead off the sixth, but Gallen got Heliot Ramos to ground into a double play on the next pitch and struck out Michael Conforto.
“He got very stubborn and did his job,” Diamondbacks Manager Torey Lovullo said. “This is a game of adjustments and once he figured it out, figured out a little of the game plan and what their strategy was, that’s when he got really stubborn and started to pound the zone real well.”
With Gallen’s pitch count getting so high early, Lovullo was clear that he had no intention of allowing the starting pitcher to go much longer than he did.
“He knew that there was no chance of throwing a no-hitter,” Lovullo said. “There’s no way I was going to let him throw 145 pitches to throw a no-hitter. It’ll never happen here.”
The Giants didn’t get their first hit until Gallen was gone. Tyler Fitzgerald singled off reliever Kevin Ginkel leading off the seventh, then scored on Wade’s sixth home run of the season.
Ginkel allowed two runs and retired three batters, A.J. Puk struck out the side in the eighth. Justin Martinez gave up two runs in the ninth before getting Brett Wisely to strike out swinging to end it.
Suárez homered off Giants rookie starter Hayden Birdsong in the second. Suárez also doubled in the eighth, barely missing a home run when the ball stuck on top of the center-field fence.
“Situationally, we weren’t perfect, but we did enough at the right times in the right situations to win the game,” Lovullo said.
Smith ended a two-month home run drought with a solo blast off Spencer Bivens in the fifth.
The Diamondbacks began the game with back-to-back walks off Birdsong, and took the lead on Josh Bell’s one-out RBI single.
Birdsong (3–5) battled control issues and lasted only three innings. He issued a season-high five walks and allowed two runs while throwing 77 pitches.
