‘We’re fighting … for each other’: SF Giants walk off Padres on Yastrzemski’s splash hit
The Giants extended their winning streak to eight games with a come-from-behind 7-4 win over the Padres on Monday.
SAN FRANCISCO — By now, you should know not to count out these San Francisco Giants until the 27th and final out. Because, look, they did it again.
Silenced for six innings Monday night by longtime nemesis Michael Wacha, trailing the Padres by two runs entering the ninth inning, the Giants manufactured yet another come-from-behind win, extending their season-best winning streak to eight games, walking off their division rivals in improbable fashion.
Mike Yastrzemski, who homered once already in the sixth and scored the tying run in the bottom of the ninth, launched a walk-off splash hit in the bottom of the 10th to beat the Padres, 7-4. Yastrzemski, less than a week removed from another game-winning home run in St. Louis, emphatically dropped his bat and watch the ball sail into McCovey Cove — the counter in right field now reads 102 — before being mobbed by his teammates at home plate.
“That was probably the first time I’ve actually enjoyed it a little bit,” Yastrzemski said of the feeling of his heroics.
Camilo Doval pitched a scoreless top of the 10th, stranding the automatic runner, to set up the game-winning rally in the bottom half and earn the win. Although Keaton Winn, who took down five innings in relief in his first-ever game at Oracle Park, had just as much of a claim.
“I’ve heard stories about the nightclub in here,” Winn said of the clubhouse afterward, which featured the usual fog machine and bumping playlist. “That was really cool to get to experience, especially off that walk-off splash. That was so cool.”
The Giants, who had mustered two runs on a pair of solo home runs through the first eight innings, rallied for two runs to tie the game in the ninth. Yastrzemski raced home to score the tying run on a shallow sac fly, his outstretched hand barely beating Juan Soto’s throw to the plate, after Blake Sabol led off the inning with a walk and came around to score on a wild pitch from Luis Garcia, who walked two batters, allowed one hit and recorded only one out.
Despite nine straight wins away from Oracle Park, the Giants’ win Monday night to kick off a seven-game home stand against NL West opponents was only their fourth win in their past 10 games at home. They won for the fourth time this season when trailing after eight innings, including the second time this week, both times featuring late heroics from Yastrzemski.
“Right now, we’re fighting. It doesn’t feel like we’re grinding, if that makes sense,” Yastrzemski said. “We’re grinding out wins, but it doesn’t feel like we’re getting beaten down in the process. It feels like we’re kind of lifting each other up though the process. It feels like we’re trying to do it for each other.”
The walk-off homer was preceded by a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt by Blake Sabol, while fellow rookie Casey Schmitt drew a walk — only his second in 135 MLB plate appearances — to give Joc Pederson a chance to win it in the ninth, both of which drew praise afterward.
Manager Gabe Kapler called out Schmitt’s at-bat as “tremendous” and Sabol’s bunt, which moved runners out of double play risk and into scoring position, “fantastic.”
“Schmitty walked,” Yastrzemski joked, “so that was incredible.”
A sensational defensive play by another rookie, catcher Patrick Bailey, in the first inning proved just a crucial to the outcome.
Bailey added Fernando Tatis Jr. to his list of base-stealing victims, just before Soto launched the first of his two home runs. Effectively taking a run off the board, Bailey caught Tatis trying for third with a quick transfer and an excellent tag by David Villar, only the second time in 13 attempts that Tatis had been caught on the base paths.
Bailey’s pop time on the play was 1.44 seconds, tied for the fourth-best by a catcher on a throw to third this season and a tick better than his time (1.46) when he nabbed Mookie Betts, another uber-efficient base-stealer, trying to steal third over the weekend.
Kapler called the play “one of those big momentum moments.”
“Whenever you’re at the top of their lineup and things are starting to happen, innings can spiral out of control. When you get an out on the bases because Pat Bailey’s back there and getting rid of the ball like he is and putting throws on the bag and David Villar’s in a good position to make a great tag, it can shut down some of that momentum.”
Bailey also contributed the Giants’ first and one of only four hits off Wacha, lining a single to right field in the second inning. The play allowed Brandon Crawford, who reached on a walk, to advance to third — the Giants’ only runner in scoring position for the first eight innings.
After exploding for 29 runs in three games at Dodger Stadium — a franchise record — the Giants’ bats were silenced by Wacha, who is enjoying a late-career renaissance this season but is no stranger to success against San Francisco.
Holding the Giants to a pair of solo home runs, Wacha only slightly raised his ERA this season to 2.90, tied for fourth in the National League, and his career ERA against the Giants to 1.64, the lowest of any pitchers in the majors with at least seven starts against them since 1913.
A wall-scraper from David Villar got the Giants on the board in the bottom of the fifth, before Yastrzemski added the first of two homers the following inning.
In their first bullpen game without John Brebbia, their usual opener and leader in appearances last season, the Giants spread out the work and the runs. The Padres opened a 4-0 lead after the top of the fifth, with a pair of solo home runs from Soto and a two-RBI single from Ha-Seong Kim.
Rookie Ryan Walker warmed up to Brebbia’s self-deprecating song of choice (“The Opener” by Kid Quill) but immediately ran into trouble, serving up the first of Soto’s two home runs. Jakob Junis surrendered the next two runs on a two-strike single to Kim in the fourth. And Winn, making his Oracle Park debut, was given a rough introduction by Soto, who homered for the second time on the first pitch the 25-year-old rookie threw in his home ballpark.
Winn went on to throw 59 more pitches and completed five innings of work, allowing only two more hits and striking four, in his second MLB appearance.
“It kind of gives you the belief that he could be a durable starting pitcher in this league for a long time,” Kapler said. “It was a ton of strikes right from the outset. … The split looked great. The fastball had good life and velocity on it. He got some challenged swings from some very good hitters.”
Winn credited the first-pitch homer to Soto for allowing him to settle in over the ensuing five innings.
“All my nerves just disappeared when that happened,” he said.
Luis Matos, also playing his first game in front of the home fans, contributed a crucial sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth, allowing Yastrzemski to tag up from second and putting him in position to score the tying run on the next fly ball, a not-that-deep line drive to left from Bailey.
“Even Matos’ at-bat, to execute something to be productive where he hit a fly ball deep enough to make sure I could get to third,” Yastrzemski said. “Between him, Sabol, Casey, those guys — Villar had a great game — these guys are all doing great stuff right now. It’s fun to watch and it’s energizing.”
