SAN FRANCISCO -- Giants left-hander Ty Blach said he loved having the chance to circle the bases in the fifth inning Thursday after hitting his first major league home run in San Francisco's 11-2 win over the Oakland A's.

The starting pitcher seemed to enjoy the looks he got from the rest of his club even more because the ball didn't just clear the wall. It rocketed out to center.

"Denard (Span) was in the on-deck circle, and he was like, 'Did you really just do that?'" Blach said after what he said was his first professional homer.

Blach, who gave up just two runs and six hits in eight innings, also brought a huge smile to the face of manager Bruce Bochy, whose club hasn't smiled much en route to a 42-68 record.

"Boch was pretty excited in the dugout," Blach said.

"Yeah, I mean, he smoked it, didn't he?" Bochy said. "I think he stunned us all with how far he hit that. It was the Ty Blach show tonight. Eight innings and a three-run homer. What a game he had. I think we were all just stunned by what happened there."

There hasn't been much good news on the 2017 pitching front for the Giants, but Blach is the exception. The rookie is now 7-7 with a 4.24 ERA, and he is getting deeper into games all the time. He has thrown at least six innings in his past six starts and at least seven innings in his past four.

"He's had some great games," Bochy said. "This kid, you just love his tempo out there. He takes the ball, he goes. He has a great changeup, a curve to mix in with the fastball on both sides. He holds runners, and he handles the bat. He's a nice pitcher to have out there. I think he has been one of the silver-lining things that we've had this year."

There hasn't been much good news on the pitching front for the A's either. Thursday didn't change that. Oakland got Opening Day starter Kendall Graveman back from the disabled list to pitch for the first time since May 19, but his night was brief and rocky.

Six of the first eight batters got hits as San Francisco jumped to a 4-0 lead in the first, a rally that was capped by a two-run double from Jarrett Parker, making his first start since a broken clavicle sidelined him April 15. An inning later, Brandon Belt hit a two-run bomb as part of a three-run outburst, and it was all over except for watching Blach do his thing.

"Of course, it's not the way you want it to go for your first one back," said Graveman, who had been out due to a due to a shoulder injury. "But I can man up and say I'm going to get better and continue to work. The arm feels good; that's not a problem right now. Now I've got to locate and get good movement back. Go to work this week and continue to move forward."

Oakland manager Bob Melvin, who has had all of his starting pitchers on the disabled list at one point or another this season, isn't about to read too much into a pitcher's first start in 11 weeks.

"Sometimes that first start back can be a little out of sorts," Melvin said. "The second inning, his velocity was better. First inning, it looked like his velocity was down a little bit. They were just on him."

A's starters haven't been particularly good all season, in part because there have been so many of them -- a dozen already. The result is a 34-44 record and a 4.61 ERA for the Oakland rotation. The last week, the results deteriorated -- seven games with a 2-3 record and an 8.22 ERA.

Melvin is looking for answers, particularly when someone like the Giants' Parker comes off the disabled list and doubles twice, singles and drives in three runs.

"I look at his numbers and I'm going, 'How?'" Melvin said. "We obviously need to change our scouting report on him or make better pitches."

Parker, for his part, took Thursday as just part of the way things ought to be. He is 11-for-21 lifetime against A's pitching. Graveman just happened to be in the wrong uniform.

"I'm just excited to be back, excited to be a part of it again," Parker said. "I've never missed a significant portion of the season before. Everybody was swinging it well. Ty Blach came out and did well. It's easy to hit when you have a pitcher out there working like that."

NOTES: The teams wound up splitting their four-game, home-and-home series. ... San Francisco 1B Brandon Belt's 18th homer matched his career best. It was his eighth homer in AT&T Park. No other Giants hitter has more than four. ... To get RHP Kendall Graveman on the roster, the A's demoted RHP Daniel Gossett, who threw seven one-run innings one night earlier. ... The Giants will activate RHP Chris Stratton (right calf strain) from the disabled list to start Saturday against Arizona. ... A's LF Khris Davis was back in the lineup Thursday after getting a day off to rest a troublesome hamstring. He went 1-for-4.