Get Morning Report and other email newsletters

Get Morning Report and other email newsletters

SAN FRANCISCO — Two months ago, the Giants would have considered their rally over, kaput and done with if faced with the same situation that presented itself Monday night. There were two runners on base, one out and Joey Bart was stepping to the plate.

On Monday, after a demotion to Triple-A, an overhaul of his swing and a “vote of confidence” from the Giants front office, the at-bat ended in two RBIs and Bart’s third hit of the night. No longer is Bart a “black hole” — the words used by former catcher Curt Casali — nor struggling to put together “competitive” at-bats, the criticism once leveled by manager Gabe Kapler.

The two-RBI single ultimately held little significance to the 6-1 final score Monday night — beyond tacking on the final of six runs against Madison Bumgarner in his third start back at Oracle Park with the D-backs — but Bart’s emergence could mean the world for a team gasping for its postseason life.

“It’s a pretty comfortable, pretty confident look at this point,” Kapler said of Bart after his 3-for-4, two-RBI performance Monday. “What it means is we have a threat at the bottom of the lineup, somebody that can drive the baseball, keep the line moving and is really grinding out at-bats right now. … Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but now it’s starting to get a little consistent. It’s very encouraging.”

After completing their first three-game sweep since June this weekend, the Giants kept the good times rolling Monday against the D-backs to extend their winning streak to four games, also the longest they have gone without a loss since sweeping the Dodgers and taking two from the Royals in the middle of June.

They have won seven of their past nine games, but their hot stretch still leaves them only a game above .500 and 5.5 out of playoff position, after San Diego was shut out in Miami.

Asked recently what gives him hope that this squad can make up that ground in the little time left — 47 games remain after Monday — Kapler pointed to his club’s first clean bill of health all season.

Injuries to Evan Longoria, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, Tommy La Stella and others have hampered the Giants’ ability to perform up to the potential of the roster as it was constructed this offseason, even if other faults — poor defense from the National League’s oldest group of position players, regression from the majors’ best bullpen last season — could have been predicted.

Now, the Giants are healthy. And they have a catcher they can count on. Will it be enough?

“We don’t go if Joey doesn’t go,” said starter Alex Cobb, who earned the win and lowered his ERA to 3.99.

Bart had already gained universal respect within the clubhouse for how he handled the pitching staff and carried himself amid his struggles to start the season. His resurgence garnered team-wide praise Monday night.

“Everybody on the team knows the tools are there. To see him start clicking, it’s just fun,” Cobb said. “He’s had more than half a season of constant struggles. And you would never know it in the clubhouse, in the dugout, behind the plate. … It’s almost like, well deserved, you battled through all this and now you need to go enjoy the positive results you’re getting”

Cobb offered a reminder of what the Giants have had all season with another strong outing from a starting pitcher. The only damage he allowed over six innings came on Christian Walker’s 461-foot moonshot in his final frame.

Longoria, starting at third base for the first time since returning from a hamstring injury, went first-pitch swinging against Bumgarner in the fourth inning and sent a two-run shot to left field that got the Giants on the board.

It will be Bart’s line that sticks out in the box score, though.

In addition to his RBI single in the sixth, Bart reached base two more times.

He extended his hitting streak to a season-long seven games with a beautiful bunt in his first at-bat that he beat out without a throw. His next trip to the plate ended with him standing on second base after lifting a high fly ball that bounced off the brick wall in right field, giving Bart a double and his fifth multi-hit game on his current streak.

With his third hit, Bart raised his batting average since the start of his hitting streak over .500. After striking out in his final at-bat, Bart finished Monday night with 14 hits in 28 at-bats (.500) over his past seven games. Since returning from Triple-A last month, Bart has raised his batting line from .156/.296/.300 to .233/.318/.409.

“I looked up at the scoreboard and Joey Bart’s got a .730 OPS,” Kapler said. “I don’t know where that ranks in the league among catchers, but it’s not bad.”

Bart doesn’t have enough plate appearances to qualify for the official leaderboard, but among catchers with at least as many at-bats as Bart, his .727 OPS ranks 13th in the majors.

As for the bunt? It was so well executed, hugging the cut of the grass as it rolled down the third-base line before glancing off the bag as Bart chugged into first on the opposite side of the diamond, that it garnered national praise across social media. It was the product of some pregame intel from third-base coach Mark Hallberg, who also coaches bunting.

Remember, this came off the bat of a guy who not even two weeks ago said he hadn’t squared up once — let alone gotten one down — since he was an amateur. So, yes, Bart has proven he can improve.

“(Hallberg) came to me earlier in the day and said if this situation comes about, the third baseman has his heels on the grass, you might have a good opportunity to get a free hit,” Bart said. “I wasn’t really thinking about it until I got up to the box and looked and I saw that. I was like, whatever, I’m just gonna try it. I got lucky again.”

Nothing more satisfying than the perfect bunt. 😍 pic.twitter.com/715rZNKQAI

(via @MLB)pic.twitter.com/zcForqwaov

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

Get Morning Report and other email newsletters