SAN FRANCISCO — Matt Chapman stood on second base and smiled as a ballpark tried to digest a game-altering throw that had hit his helmet and skipped more than 100 feet to the backstop. He held one finger in the air as 30,000 fans alternated cheers and laughter. The grin on his face said it all, but if anything was actually said on the field or in the Giants dugout, the veteran wasn’t going to let it slip.

“I can’t remember,” he said later, smiling. “Maybe I’m concussed.”

When you’re going right, you’re going right, and the Giants finally feel headed back in that direction. They have played solid baseball for five straight games now, winning four of them, and the breaks once again are backing their efforts. 

There were a few of them Wednesday, none bigger than a throw from right field that bounced off Chapman’s helmet as he stood on first base and allowed another two-out run to score in the three-run fifth. When Casey Schmitt followed with a single, Chapman cruised home from second. The Giants kept pouring it on from there, beating the Chicago Cubs 12-3. 

Chapman — who was fine, by the way — was part of the strangest play, but most of the damage came from another man who has played plenty of third base in the big leagues. Rafael Devers homered twice and also had a double, single and walk. He drove in five runs, showing exactly why president of baseball operations Buster Posey jumped the line in June to bring him to San Francisco. 

“This is the guy that everybody is accustomed to seeing,” Chapman said. “It’s not easy to get traded and come in and instantly be yourself. [We’re] seeing him get more comfortable … when he feels good, he’s that dangerous.”

The Giants are a ways away from being officially eliminated from the MLB playoff race, and Chapman reiterated several times Wednesday that the focus is simply “on tomorrow.” But when the attention does fully turn to 2026, the Giants will be reminded that this summer wasn’t a total loss. 

Devers, their big acquisition, is sneaking up on 30 total homers. His 26th went out to dead center at Oracle Park and his 27th was an opposite-field shot, his specialty. When he’s comfortable at the plate, he’s ballpark-proof, the type of player the Giants have sought for years. On Wednesday, Devers became just the third Giant since 2015 to have at least three hits leave the bat at 106 mph or above. 

“He hit it everywhere today,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We know he’s capable of having games like that.”

The same could have been said of the Giants the past two months. They knew this was in them somewhere, but they couldn’t summon a stretch like this until they already were in a deep hole. With 29 games to go, they remain seven games out of a playoff spot. 

Barring a miracle, they’ll look up in the offseason and wonder where this was against the Pittsburgh Pirates right before the trade deadline, or the Washington Nationals, San Diego Padres and Tampa Bay Rays right after. 

But that’s something they don’t want to think about at the moment. For the first time in a long time, they’re having fun. They’re scoring in traditional ways and in hilarious ways. 

“I don’t know if you get an RBI for hitting one off your head,” Chapman said as the victory soundtrack played in the background. “Hopefully …”

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