Flores goes deep twice as Giants win opener in Texas

ARLINGTON -- Wilmer Flores was the Giants’ best hitter last season, but he struggled to produce while receiving sporadic playing time over the first two-plus months of the 2024 campaign.

With LaMonte Wade Jr. expected to miss at least another three weeks with a left hamstring strain, Flores is getting a chance to step into a regular role at first base and finally settle into a better rhythm at the plate.

Flores continued to show signs of an offensive turnaround by homering twice in the Giants’ 5-2 win over Bruce Bochy’s Rangers in Friday night’s series opener at Globe Life Field.

Two days after crushing a grand slam against the D-backs, Flores kept his power surge going by launching solo shots in his first two at-bats against Texas right-hander Michael Lorenzen. Flores’ ninth career multihomer game – and his first since July 18, 2023, at Cincinnati – gave the Giants a 2-0 lead, though the Rangers erased the deficit by scoring a pair of runs against Logan Webb in the bottom of the fifth.

Still, the Giants went ahead for good behind Michael Conforto's two-run, tiebreaking shot off David Robertson in the seventh. It was Conforto’s eighth homer of the season and his first since returning from the injured list on Monday.

“We really have a lot of guys who have the ability to hit some home runs,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We’ve gone on some stretches where we haven’t. We’ve probably played our best baseball when we have hit some home runs. It makes a big difference when you can put a couple of runs on the board in a close game like that.”

The three blasts were enough to back Webb, who earned the win after holding the Rangers to two runs on five hits over seven innings. The 27-year-old right-hander walked none and struck out six while lowering his ERA to 2.92 over a Major League-leading 86 1/3 innings this year.

“I thought to start the game that was probably the best stuff I’ve had all year,” Webb said. “As the game went on I felt like I was missing a little bit more arm-side, but I can’t be nitpicky. I felt really good. There was a lot of stuff we’ve been working on that looked pretty good today.”

The same could be said for Flores. The 32-year-old veteran batted .284 with an .863 OPS and a team-high 23 home runs in 2023, but he opened this year without an everyday role following the arrival of Jorge Soler, who became the Giants’ primary designated hitter after signing a three-year, $42 million deal over the offseason.

With Wade and third baseman Matt Chapman holding down the corner infield spots, Flores ended up drawing most of his starts at first base against left-handed pitching early on.

Flores started only 37 of the Giants’ first 64 games and entered Wednesday batting .211 with a .573 OPS and one home run, his lowest marks since his rookie season with the Mets in 2013. The most concerning aspect of his slow start was his struggle to make quality contact, as he recorded the second-lowest average exit velocity (82.8 mph) in the Majors and ranked in the bottom 4% in hard-hit rate (24.8%) this season.

Still, the Giants have been encouraged by his ability to impact the ball on this road trip. His three homers in the last two games have had exit velocities of 107.1 mph, 99.7 mph and 105.5 mph, a sign that his swing is trending in the right direction.

“In batting practice, it’s been much better, too,” Melvin said. “It seems like he’s been better positioned to extend. Sometimes he catches the ball a little deep and it doesn’t come off the bat as well. But he’s been working on getting the bat head out there and getting extended and in a good position to drive the ball.”

Flores, for his part, said he’s tried not to change too much other than being a little more aggressive at the plate.

“You know things are coming,” Flores said. “Whenever things are going bad, you’ve got to be patient and keep working. I don’t allow myself to go crazy about baseball.”

His teammates, though, are more than happy to go crazy over him.

“Wilmer’s just another guy that can take a game over,” Conforto said. “He’s a guy that’s been around a lot. We all have seen what he can do. We all respect him so much just for how consistent he is, the kind of teammate he is, what he can do at the plate, obviously. He’s just such a steady, steady influence for us.

“It’s always great when we can get him going. He’s really going to be a big piece of the success that we have, as well.”