SF Giants give Pirates taste of their own medicine in dramatic comeback win
PITTSBURGH — Consider them even.
If the Giants lost a game they should have won to open their series with the Pirates, they enjoyed a reversal of fortune Wednesday evening.
This time, it was the Pirates who built a five-run lead against Blake Snell and watched it slip away as their relievers provided little relief and their fielders forgot how to field. In a game they had little business winning, the Giants prevailed in extra innings, 9-5, for their ninth come-from-behind win of the season.
Down to their final out in the ninth inning, LaMonte Wade Jr. drove home Luis Matos with his third hit of the game to tie the score at 5, and after failing to score their automatic runner in extra innings the previous night, they piled on with four runs in the top of the 10th.
“This was a really big game for us,” manager Bob Melvin said. “If we come back and don’t win that game, it’s almost like losing another really, really, really tough game. So when (Wade’s) at-bat comes up there and we’ve got a chance to tie the game, you’ve feel pretty good about it. He’s very calm in those at-bats. He’s knows what he wants to do and he knows what he’s looking for and he never alters his game plan, so that was a huge hit.”
To go along with his three hits, Wade drew three walks, becoming the first Giants player to reach base six times in one game since he did it last June in Colorado. In the most important moment, he lived up to his “Late Night” moniker.
“It’s a great feeling know that’s his moment, knowing that he has a good reputation,” Matos said through Spanish-language interpreter Erwin Higueros. “I knew that when I got to second base it was going to be his moment.”
Matos was able to score on Wade’s line drive to right field thanks to Bryan Reynolds’ error in left field, as he bobbled his base hit, allowing Matos to hustle to second. He extended the inning with a two-strike liner that Reynolds cut off but didn’t field cleanly.
“My whole intention during that at-bat and when I hit the ball, I was going to go to second, regardless,” Matos said. “So when he fumbled the ball, it just made it easier for me.”
Added Wade, “That doesn’t happen if Matos doesn’t get to second base.”
It was Reynolds, the former Giants farmhand, who had been set up to play the hero for Pittsburgh before his defensive misplay.
After Snell loaded the bases in the fourth inning and was forced from the game, Reynolds unloaded them with one swing of the bat off Sean Hjelle, who was called on to relieve Snell with one out and one run already in. Prevailing in a seven-pitch battle, Reynolds’ grand slam halfway up the right field grandstands opened a 5-0 Pittsburgh lead.
Four of the runs were charged to Snell, whose previous three starts were so poor that the performance lowered his ERA, to 11.40 from 11.57.
Besides battling a blister in his foot, though, Snell and Melvin both came away from his 3⅓ innings with more positive takeaways than his first three.
“Results-wise, fans will be upset … I felt good today, so it’s frustrating not doing what I know I should have done,” Snell said. “But I like where I’m at. I’m confident. I feel good about how the ball’s coming out. … I’ll be getting better.”
“They made Blake throw some pitches, but his stuff was a lot better today,” Melvin said. “Unfortunately I had to go get him in the middle of the inning and that didn’t work out, but I thought his stuff was way better. … (His) velo was a little bit higher. The breaking balls were sharper; he was throwing strikes with them. He just got a little bit tired. But it looked different to me, in terms of the quality of the stuff.”
The grand slam allowed by Hjelle was the first home run served up by the 6-foot-11 reliever since April 24, a span of nine appearances and 12⅓ innings over which he had a 1.46 ERA.
Once Hjelle escaped the nightmare fourth inning, though, he and four other Giants relievers combined to hold the Pirates scoreless for the next six frames.
From the final out of the fourth inning on, the Giants’ bullpen retired 18 Pirates in a row with contributions from Randy Rodriguez (2 IP, 4 K), Tyler Rogers (1 IP, 1K), Ryan Walker (1 IP, 1 K) and Camilo Doval (1 IP, 1 K), who broke the streak with an inconsequential two-out walk in the 10th.
The relief effort kept the Giants in the game as they scratched two runs back on Matt Chapman’s seventh home run of the season — his third in the past 10 games — and another on an RBI single from Jorge Soler. Driving home Patrick Bailey from second, Soler’s fifth-inning line drive into left field was only his sixth hit of the season in 32 at-bats with runners in scoring position and he later added another to pad their advantage in extra innings.
For contrast, the comeback was made possible by Aroldis Chapman, who faced three batters after relieving Pirates starter Jared Jones to start the eighth inning and walked them all. Cutting the deficit to a single run heading into the ninth, Wade, the recipient of the first free pass, came around to score when Joey Bart, the Pirates’ catcher, opted to go for the easy out at first base on a dribbler from Soler in front of the plate.
“We felt like we should’ve done a little more damage that inning, too,” Melvin said of the bases-loaded, no outs opportunity that resulted in one run. “But we did just enough to now we’re bringing Tyler (Rogers) into the game, which was a little different than what we might have done.”
San Francisco’s win also made it easier to forget Snell’s suboptimal return to the starting rotation, a departure from the dominance displayed in two rehab outings against minor-league hitters and more of the same from the three starts he made against major-league competition before a monthlong stint on the injured list with an adductor strain.
After striking out 17 and issuing only one walk over nine hitless rehab innings, Snell walked four Pirates, hit a batter and unleashed a wild pitch that put a runner in scoring position. He faced 20 batters and fell behind in the count against half of them, running three-ball counts to nine hitters, including the four he walked.
“The bullpen was really good before the game,” Snell said. “First inning was good. I just feel like it’s coming out effortlessly. My adjustments are a lot quicker. And being able to repeat things is a lot better. Today, the last couple innings were not good. But I understand why.”
His start began by firing three straight fastballs outside the strike zone to the Pirates’ leadoff man, Andrew McCutchen, though he eventually recovered to record the first of his five strikeouts. It came to an end when he spiked a curveball into McCutchen’s back foot in the fourth.
The hit batter forced in the Pirates’ first run of the game after Snell loaded the bases with a pair of walks and an infield single that he failed to field, giving way to a barehanded attempt from third baseman Matt Chapman that arrived late to first base. A batter later, Reynolds cleared the bases.
“I should’ve got that,” Snell said. “He said I got it, but it was right there. I should have gotten it. That’s on me, for sure.”
The comeback ensured the Giants won for the first time with their prized free-agent addition on the mound, though Walker earned the win in relief.
“It was fun to see the boys come through, especially after yesterday,” Snell said. “To see that happen to us and show a little bit of resiliency there and make it happen, that was awesome. We’ve just got to keep winning.”
Notable
RHP Nick Avila was optioned to Double-A Richmond in a corresponding move when the Giants activated Snell. Like Blake Sabol a day earlier, Avila was sent down two levels to keep him nearby in case he is needed again while the team is on the East Coast, in the likely event Snell heads on the paternity list after his start.
His girlfriend, Haeley Mar, is expected to give birth to their first child by the end of the month.
Up next
RHP Mason Black (0-1, 7.70) is expected to take down bulk innings in a bullpen game against RHP Paul Skenes (1-0, 2.70), the Pirates’ flamethrowing rookie sensation, with first pitch of Thursday’s series finale scheduled for 9:35 a.m. PT, airing out-of-market on MLB Network.