SAN DIEGO — The play ended in a chorus of boos, fans pelting objects onto the field and John Brebbia standing on the mound waiting to throw the next pitch. Somehow, some way, the red-bearded fellow was still preserving a lead.
For fans who have tuned in all season and might have forgotten: that is what stellar defense can do. It can change the tide of the game so quickly, so dramatically that it provokes visceral reactions from a sold-out ballpark.
The decibel level inside Petco Park hardly changed as the Monday night crowd of 40,686 shifted from raucously cheering Ha-Seong Kim’s game-tying double off Brebbia to vociferously jeering as crew chief Larry Vanover announced over the loudspeakers that Gabe Kapler’s highest-stakes challenge this season had been ruled successful.
The perfectly executed relay from Luis González, in the furthest reaches of the left-field corner, to shortstop Brandon Crawford and, finally, to catcher Joey Bart preserved one of Alex Wood’s strongest starts of the season and paved the way to a 1-0 win over the Padres in the opener of this three-game series.
“Looks like we won tonight’s game with some defense,” a smiling Kapler said afterward.
Bart laid the tag on Brandon Drury and immediately signaled toward the Giants dugout to challenge the call when home plate umpire Sean Barber initially ruled Drury safe. Freeze frames in the replay — it was that close — showed Bart applying the tag as Drury’s hand hovered over home plate.
While Kapler said the Giants’ replay room showed Drury was “clearly” out, neither Crawford nor even Bart — the one confident enough to motion to the dugout to challenge the play — thought the safe call would be overturned.
“I thought it was going to be too close,” Bart said. “When I watched (Drury) round third, I didn’t think we had a play. But then I thought twice. Well, it’s Craw, he’ll throw a bullet in here, and that’s what he did.”
“As the play was developing, I didn’t think we’d have enough time,” Crawford said. “When I saw how far down the line he was, I didn’t have time to take an extra step or anything. I just threw it. Joey made one of the best picks and tags I think I’ve seen from a catcher.”
The play came on the first batter Brebbia faced after relieving Wood, who blanked the Padres for 6⅓ innings in his fourth-longest start of the season.
“What a friggin’ pick by Joey. It doesn’t get any better than that. … Plays like that transcends more than that moment,” said Wood, who was watching from the railing of the dugout. “Who knows what happens if that guy’s safe? It’s a tied game with a runner on third and one out. You don’t know what could happen.”
The win was the Giants’ first in 12 games against the National League West — snapping a franchise-long losing streak to divisional opponents — gave them their first three-game winning streak since the All-Star break and pulled them within 5.5 games of San Diego in the NL wild card race.
Camilo Doval shut the door in the ninth by retiring Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Josh Bell in order, including a 102.9 mph fastball past Bell for the final out of the game, the fastest strikeout pitch by a Giant in the Statcast era.
“When I struck out Josh Bell, I turned around to see the speed gun,” Doval said through Spanish-language translator Erwin Higueros. “I asked myself, I hope this is correct.”
Scoreboard for the Soto era in San Diego: Giants 1, Padres 0.
After the Padres were swept by the Dodgers this past weekend, their new slugger declared: “Don’t be surprised if you see all these guys going off next series.” Fact check: questionable, at least in Monday’s opener.
Wood limited San Diego to three hits before leaving the game with one out in the seventh. One of those knocks snuck past J.D. Davis at third base on a check swing by Soto. The other was a 338-foot single by Machado. And the third, a solid line drive to left by Brandon Drury with one down in the seventh, brought Kapler out with the hook.
The Giants had no shortage of scoring opportunities, despite the pretty line put up by Padres starter Blake Snell (eight strikeouts, one run allowed in 5⅔ innings). While Wood didn’t allow a Padre to advance past first base, the Giants had runners in scoring position with no outs twice in the first four innings.
Thairo Estrada delivered the only run out of the two prime chances with a sac fly in the fourth that followed three straight line-drive singles to lead off the inning. Evan Longoria, in his first game back from the injured list, started the rally and scored on Estrada’s sac fly.
Estrada also lined a single to center, stole second base and advanced to third on a wild pitch in the ninth. But the potential insurance run was left standing 90 feet away, as one of eight runners the Giants stranded Monday.
Bart, with a single and a walk, joined Estrada as the only Giants to reach base multiple times and extended his hitting streak to a season-high five games. Since returning from Triple-A last month, Bart has raised his average from .156 to .214.
“Joey’s been contributing in a lot of different ways pretty consistently now for a bit,” Kapler said. “It’s more and more encouraging everyday.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com