SAN FRANCISCO -- The most famous rookie on the field when the Philadelphia Phillies faced the Washington Nationals on Oct. 2, 2012, was Bryce Harper, but he wasn't the best one that day.
Darin Ruf batted fifth for the Phillies, and he showed off the kind of power that led to jaw-dropping statistics in the minors earlier in the season and ultimately a September call-up. Ruf hit two homers that day, but both were solo shots, and it wasn't enough. He had to wait a decade for his second multi-homer game in the big leagues, and again, it wasn't enough.
Ruf kept the Giants afloat in the early innings of their return to Oracle Park on Friday night, but they finally went down in the 10th, losing 8-7 to the San Diego Padres. That wasted Ruf's best all-around game as a Giant.
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Ruf homered in the third to cut a three-run deficit, and then hit a two-run shot in the fifth that tied the score. He also made a sliding catch in left to save a run, and in the ninth inning, he raced around from second and slid in just ahead of Jurickson Profar's throw home, again tying the score as Oracle Park roared. The Padres bounced back, though.
Manny Machado hit a go-ahead double in the 10th, and Profar's single off Camilo Doval's toe proved to be the difference. Ruf was two spots away when the final out was recorded, but the game still was another big step in the right direction.
Ruf was hitting just .177 with no homers through the end of April, but the Giants were patient and he never lost his confidence. The numbers they expected, and the production that puts him in the heart of the order, have come flooding through in May.
Ruf entered the day with a .482 on-base percentage in the month, the best in MLB. His two-homer day included a couple of late walks and three runs.
San Francisco Giants
"I just need to continue to have good at-bats, and as long as that's your focus, you hope good results will follow," he said. "Tonight, they were there for me."
The Giants used Ruf in the heart of their lineup all of April in part because that's been the plan since the end of last season, and in part because they needed to, even as he struggled to find his usual power stroke. But they're whole now, and Ruf finding his stride would be huge for a Giants lineup that still hasn't seemed to fully click, even if they have scored more runs than most.
A game like this was something Giants manager Gabe Kapler always knew was coming, even when the batting average was on the interstate.
"Obviously he's gotten some really good results over the last couple of weeks and has really sort of been climbing on his surface stats," Kapler said, "But it's pretty much the same quality at-bats that we've seen all season long, that we saw in spring training, that we saw in 2021 and that we saw in 2020."
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Those good at-bats are why the Giants have been so thrilled with Ruf since he signed with them before the 2020 season. At that point, he was long removed from those Phillies years, but the power stroke that got him to the big leagues has remained. The memories have, too.
Asked if he remembers much from his first two-homer game, Ruf smiled.
"Yeah. September call-up with Philly against the Nationals," he said. "One was Tyler Clippard, and one was [Tom] Gorzelanny."