𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

SAN FRANCISCO — Giants manager Tony Vitello had just finished discussing the particulars of Friday night’s 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates — one of the team’s more complete efforts of the season, which included a home run from Rafael Devers, a stubborn six innings from Robby Ray, a slew of solid defensive plays and a hit from every spot in the lineup except one — when he was asked to reflect on whether his disappointing team might be preparing to turn a corner.

His mind flashed to Tim Robbins, a lightning storm and an aerial camera shot in “The Shawshank Redemption.” And when a thought enters Vitello’s mind, it’s already halfway to his voice box.

“Shawshank’s a pretty good movie,” Vitello said. “Sometimes you got to, you know … Andy Dufresne had to swim through a lot of poo to come out on the other side and see the sunshine. So maybe that’s us.”

The first month of the Giants’ season sure seemed like wading through excrement. If you want a little more analysis inspired by “The Shawshank Redemption,” it didn’t help that the Giants’ highest-paid hitters were producing like they were swinging diminutive rock hammers. Time and pressure might suffice if you’ve got a decade to dig a tunnel. A nine-inning game tends to go a little swifter. If you’re not taking enough damaging swings, there’s no hope of escape.

Hope is a dangerous thing. It can drive a man insane. Hope is also a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.

How realistic are the Giants’ hopes? Well, give them this much. The Great Reawakening of Devers might be the most hopeful sign yet that the Giants can rebound from their awful start and make something of this season.

The slugging first baseman hit a home run for the second consecutive game. He extended his hitting streak to eight games, during which he’s batting .346/.387/.654 with six RBIs. His solo homer in the second inning was a majestic shot to center field that equalized the homer Ray gave up to Marcell Ozuna in the top of the inning. Devers also singled and scored the tiebreaking run in the fourth.

Devers wasn’t the Giants’ only April underachiever to provide a murmur in the box score. Willy Adames posted his first multi-hit game since April 17 and had a third hit taken away when Pirates left fielder Bryan Reynolds caught his drive at the top of the wall. Matt Chapman was the only member of the starting lineup who didn’t get a hit, but he deftly started a double play to get Ray out of the first inning and made a shrewd decision on the basepaths following a busted two-out gamble.

Chapman tried to go from first to third on Heliot Ramos’ single to center, figuring that Oneil Cruz’s throw to the plate would sail over the cutoff man’s head. When the throw was cut off, and Chapman saw he’d be out easily at third, he slammed on the brakes and dragged out the play long enough to ensure that Devers crossed the plate and that the run would count.

It was an unsuccessful gamble. But you can’t accuse Chapman of being obtuse.

Now for the dangerous side of hope: The Giants once again failed to draw a walk. They haven’t drawn a walk in three consecutive games — something that hasn’t happened to them since April 11-13, 2009. It’s hard to imagine the Giants achieving a sustainable offense while they continue to rank last in the league in walks.

Then again, you can’t work a walk when opposing pitchers keep pumping strikes with no fear. That’s how most teams have been attacking the Giants. So it stands to reason that any offensive turnaround will begin with the Giants hitting their way out of it and then forcing the league to adjust.

“When you’re struggling, you blink and it’s 0-2,” Adames said. “But things are going to start changing.”

They’d better. Entering Friday night, the trio of Devers, Chapman and Adames had combined for seven home runs. They were on pace to hit 30 between the three of them. Given that woeful lack of impact, the Giants might have felt fortunate to be no worse than 14-23.

Willy Adames and Rafael Devers are beginning to shake off their slow starts. (Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)

Adames has stepped to the plate with 70 runners on base. He’s driven in three of them. His 4.3 percent success rate is the lowest in the major leagues among 182 batters with as many RBI opportunities.

When Adames got off to a similarly slow start last year, the team was winning in spite of him. This year, there’s been no solace and no place to hide.

“I know how I’ll always finish, because I work hard and do my stuff,” said Adames, who rebounded last year to become the Giants’ first 30-home run hitter since Barry Bonds in 2004. “But when it’s the whole team, that’s when it’s difficult. Because when you’re not winning, it’s not fun.”

The Giants’ clubhouse was in agreement: It’ll be more fun for everyone when Devers starts making a daily impact again.

“He’s the biggest force on this team,” Adames said.

“When he gets going, we start rolling,” Ray said. “If he’s feeling good in the box, he can carry a team.”

“You could see it coming,” Vitello said. “There were some knocks in Tampa (last weekend) and maybe even some better swings a little bit before that. Since that period, to me, the foul balls, the takes, the swings, the balls barreled up, have all been really good.”

It hasn’t been all bad for the Giants over the first quarter of the season. Ramos, who threw out a runner at third base and made a leaping catch at the wall, has improved from last year’s abysmal defensive showing in left field. Jung Hoo Lee, who made a running catch in foul ground, has been a defensive star while taking to right field. Center fielder Harrison Bader is on the mend from his hamstring ailment and should be back in the lineup soon. Catcher Daniel Susac, who provided an offensive spark, hit two home runs in a rehab game at Triple-A Sacramento Thursday night and could return sometime on the next road trip.

Luis Arraez continues to deliver results as well. He returned to the lineup after missing two games with a thumb injury and lined a two-run single in the seventh — a cushion that right-hander Caleb Kilian needed when he allowed the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth. The Giants signed Arraez because they felt his contact skills, along with Lee’s, would complement the production they expected from the middle of the lineup. When that production failed to materialize, the impact of those contact hitters was minimized.

If the Giants’ lineup really is beginning to heat up, the timing couldn’t be better. After they get done with the Pirates and play four games at Dodger Stadium, the schedule finally appears to soften up: six road games against the Athletics and Arizona Diamondbacks, then a homestand with the Chicago White Sox and Diamondbacks, followed by a road trip that begins at Colorado’s Coors Field.

The Giants’ performance, not the schedule, is responsible for their terrible start. But a tough schedule hasn’t done them any favors. Consider the state of the American League, which is wallowing in mediocrity and features just two teams — the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays — that are more than two games over .500. Then consider that the Giants have a 1-8 interleague record. Two of their three AL opponents thus far? The Yankees and Rays.

Are we back to hope being a good thing?

“I think we’re better than who we’ve been,” Vitello said. “That’s not even really going out on a limb. … I think it’s a good club, and it doesn’t need to be one magic night that does it. It doesn’t have to be any special play we run or anything like that. We just got to keep our nose down and choose to be confident showing up to the park every day.

“If you have a couple walk-off wins in a row, or you have a bunch of games where you beat the hell out of somebody, it’s kind of easy to come back into the locker room and be confident. It’s not as easy this way. But maybe we distance ourselves from the first month of the season, and it provides confidence that we’ve got some scar tissue to us and we know what it looks like when it really gets tough.”

It was at this point that Vitello cited Andy Dufresne’s cinematic crawl to freedom through a sewer pipe. Maybe it’s true. Maybe the Giants have come through the worst of their season. And if not, well, the weather in Zihuatanejo is pretty much perfect in October.