Giants top A's 5-1 as Bay Bridge Series resumes

OAKLAND - The Giants have one of the highest payrolls in baseball this season, brushing up close to the $197 million luxury tax threshold thanks to an extensive list of bloated contracts.

But as the club started the second half in Oakland, the 5-1 win against the A’s was all about money found instead of money spent.

The Giants are paying pitcher Dereck Rodriguez and utility infielder Pablo Sandoval the major-league minimum, but both turned in efficient performances to lead the team to a series-opening victory.

Rodriguez tossed 6? innings of one-run ball, lowering his season ERA to 2.72 after the Giants signed him to a minor-league free-agent deal this offseason. Though the right-hander had never thrown an inning at Triple-A during six seasons in the Minnesota Twins’ organization, that team’s decision to allow him to walk this offseason has turned into the Giants’ gain.

Though Sandoval was a known commodity when the Boston Red Sox designated him for assignment last summer, the utility infielder has emerged as one of the Giants’ most valuable performers this season. His seventh-inning solo shot extended the Giants’ lead to 3-1 and marked his 14th home run with San Francisco since he rejoined the team last August.

While Boston is on the hook for the remainder of the $95 million contract Sandoval signed through the end of the 2019 season, Sandoval now has as many homers since coming back to the Giants as he hit during his two-plus seasons with the Red Sox.

A third player earning the minimum salary also aided the Giants’ cause, but Ryder Jones was making his 2018 debut after one of the members of the team’s core needed time off.

Brandon Belt was not at the ballpark Friday, as the Giants first baseman spent the day with his wife Haylee, who gave birth to the couple’s second son, August Kyle.

While Belt was welcoming a new member to his family, the Giants welcomed Jones’ familiar face back to theirs.

After needing 18 at-bats to record his first hit with the Giants last season, Jones wasted little time making an impact Friday. His fifth-inning shot off the right-field foul pole broke a 1-1 tie and helped the Giants improve to 51-48.

The Giants’ cheapest players weren’t the only contributors, though, as right fielder Andrew McCutchen, shortstop Brandon Crawford and catcher Buster Posey also delivered RBIs in the win.

After hitting six home runs in June, McCutchen had yet to record an extra-base hit in July until he launched a one-out double off the left-center-field wall in the fourth.

McCutchen’s double was also the first hit of the night for the Giants against A’s starter Edwin Jackson, a right-hander who allowed two earned runs over six innings in his start against San Francisco last Friday.

The Giants’ right fielder advanced to third on a Crawford groundout before Posey laced a two-out single into left-center field to even the score 1-1. After receiving a cortisone injection to heal his ailing hip Sunday, Posey returned to action Friday and reported feeling fresh and healthy heading into the second half.

His 32nd RBI of the season came off a pitcher, in Jackson, who has given him trouble through the years. Posey entered Friday’s game hitting .095 against the A’s starter.

Aside from starting the Giants’ first rally, McCutchen turned in one of his best defensive games of the year.

He made a pair of sliding catches to rob Oakland of hits in the middle innings. Both of McCutchen’s grabs ended 1-2-3 innings for Rodriguez, who settled in nicely after allowing the A’s to take an early lead in the second inning.

McCutchen also added a sacrifice fly as part of a two-run eighth-inning rally that helped the Giants pad their lead against the most explosive late-inning offense in baseball.