CHICAGO — When the Giants rallied for four runs in ninth inning on Wednesday en route to becoming the first team to sweep the Rockies at Coors Field this year, a long list of hitters deserved credit for contributing to the comeback win.
Buster Posey drew a leadoff walk, LaMonte Wade Jr. delivered the two-strike, go-ahead hit with the bases loaded and Evan Longoria padded the lead with a two-out, two-run double. At the end of a 7-4 victory, right-handed reliever Tyler Rogers was credited with the win, which also helps explain how the Giants chased down the Rockies and ultimately won their fourth straight game.
Rogers has pitched in 68 games for the Giants this season and typically appears when the club is tied or ahead in the late innings, but since the All-Star break, manager Gabe Kapler has been willing to use Rogers and other rested high-leverage arms when his team is trailing by a run.
Considering how often the Giants need Rogers and Jake McGee to close out wins, Kapler doesn’t always have the luxury of his top arms readily available to pitch in a game the club is losing. But in many of the Giants’ come-from-behind victories, the back end of the team’s bullpen has been able to keep the offense within striking distance, which is exactly what happened on Wednesday.
With the Giants trailing 4-3 on Wednesday, Kapler sent one of his more trusted lefties, Tony Watson, to the mound in the seventh inning before asking Rogers to enter and keep the deficit at one in the eighth inning. Kapler’s aggressive decision to deploy top relievers with the Giants trailing was made possible in part by the team winning a pair of blowouts to open the series, but also because the manager knew they would have a built in day of rest with Thursday’s off day.
Instead of going to the middle or bottom of the bullpen depth chart and hoping some of the Giants’ less reliable relievers would keep the game close, Kapler followed the same formula he used on August 21 in a 6-5 win against the A’s. After the Giants closed a 6-3 deficit to 6-5 in the seventh inning of that game, Kapler brought in right-hander Dominic Leone for the bottom of the seventh before Rogers pitched the eighth against a tough Oakland squad with several quality late-inning relief options.
After Leone and Rogers posted scoreless frames, Wade followed an Austin Slater walk by drilling a go-ahead, two-run home run in the ninth inning off Oakland closer Lou Trivino.
The next day, Leone took the ball in the seventh inning with the Giants trailing by a run and earned the win after Donovan Solano yanked a go-ahead, two-run home run down the left field line in the eighth. Leone’s scoreless inning behind starter Logan Webb gave Rogers and McGee a chance to close out a series victory.
Those back-to-back wins over the A’s wouldn’t have been possible without late heroics from the Giants’ offense, but the lineup was also given the opportunity to do late damage thanks to a bullpen that kept the club close.
Throughout the 2021 season, there are other examples of Kapler and his coaching staff sending its best relievers out to the mound in games the Giants are losing. The strategy hasn’t always paid off, but there are a handful of games including the club’s 5-4 win on August 5 against the Diamondbacks that featured a four-run comeback when the Giants could have thrown in the towel early and saved their best relievers for the next high-leverage opportunity.
Deciding when to chase down wins isn’t always easy, but if the Giants win the National League West by a game or two, the club probably won’t regret asking a little bit more from its top arms in the dog days of the summer.