Daniel Susac did not wait long to make his first major league start matter. The San Francisco rookie catcher went 3 for 3 with a walk on Thursday night, singled in his first two big league at-bats off David Peterson and later reached again as the Giants beat the New York Mets 7-2 in San Francisco.
The Giants needed the offense. They finished with 13 hits, with Rafael Devers homering and Casey Schmitt going 3 for 3 with a walk and an RBI. San Francisco scored three times with two outs in the bottom of the first, a burst that flipped an early deficit into a lead the Mets never recovered from.
Susac was making his first start after serving as a defensive replacement in San Diego on Wednesday, and he did it on a night when the Giants changed nothing else in the lineup until he came in for Patrick Bailey. San Francisco had used the same nine starters in each of its first six games before Thursday, so his arrival was one of the few obvious changes in a run-heavy win.
Bo Bichette gave New York a 1-0 lead with an RBI double off Robbie Ray in the first inning, and Mark Vientos added a homer in the second. But the Giants answered immediately. Luis Arraez tripled off the right-field wall to bring in Heliot Ramos, Matt Chapman followed with a double down the right-field line to score Arraez, and Chapman came home when David Peterson dropped Vientos’ throw to first on Jung Hoo Lee’s grounder. Peterson was charged with an error on the play.
Ray settled down after the opening frame and allowed two runs and three hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked three, enough to keep San Francisco in position while the lineup kept adding. Schmitt singled in a run off Sean Manaea in the fifth, and Devers added a solo homer against Manaea in the sixth.
Peterson was tagged for six runs, five earned, and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings. He struck out five and walked two. Blade Tidwell then worked three scoreless innings to earn his first big league save, but by then the game had already slipped away from New York.
For Susac, the night belonged to the bat. For the Giants, it was another win built on depth and early pressure, and it left the Mets with their third straight loss. The teams were scheduled to meet again Friday night in San Francisco, with right-hander Nolan McLean set for New York and right-hander Tyler Mahle lined up for the Giants.
