SAN FRANCISCO — It took a walk-off home run from Patrick Bailey in extra innings on Sunday for the Giants to salvage one win in their three-game series against their former manager’s new club.
The Giants got a masterful performance from Logan Webb, but it was almost all wasted as manager Gabe Kapler pulled his starter with two outs in the ninth inning only for Camilo Doval to allow the Rangers to tie the game and take the lead in the 10th, before Bailey blasted a two-run walk-off homer over the Chevron sign in left field.
The Giants won for only the second time in their past eight games, 3-2, snapping a four-game losing streak and avoiding a sweep at the hands of Bruce Bochy and the Rangers.
“That,” Kapler said, “would’ve been a pretty heart-wrenching loss.”
Bailey’s walk-off homer was the youngest by a Giants player since a 22-year-old Pablo Sandoval did it against the Nationals in 2009.
“Watching it, I was hoping it would get over the fence,” Bailey said. “I wasn’t sure. It was kind of a low line drive. We have that little car that peeks over the fence, so I was hoping it was hooking enough to stay away from that. When it went over, it was probably the coolest feeling I’ve had so far.”
While it was Bailey’s first walk-off of his career, it was only the latest example of him coming up in the clutch. He helped deliver a win at Citi Field with a ninth-inning homer and sealed a win over the D-backs by back-picking to first to record the final out on the base paths.
“It’s fantastic, but it’s not surprising,” Kapler said of the 24-year-old’s heroics. “Since he got to the big-league level, all he’s done is come up in big moments, make big plays and do a really good job of leading our pitching staff.”
On Sunday, Bailey helped Webb navigate 8⅔ shutout innings, outdueling Rangers right-hander Dane Dunning.
The Giants were one out away from winning in regulation — and Webb one out away from his second complete-game shutout — when Kapler emerged from the dugout to a chorus of boos from the sunny afternoon crowd of 35,648. Those quickly turned to cheers as Webb walked off the mound and reversed to another round of voracious boos as Kapler returned to the dugout.
“There were a lot of boos, and then there were a lot of cheers,” Webb said. “Myself out there, I wasn’t booing Kap. You give the ball to the best closer in baseball, I totally understood it. I wasn’t mad about it. I was more mad at myself for giving up that base hit.”
The Rangers’ tying run scored from second base on an infield single from the first batter Doval faced in the ninth inning and, after San Francisco came up empty again in the bottom half, plated the go-ahead run on a balk from Doval in the top of the 10th.
In the ninth, Rangers right fielder J.P. Martinez lined Webb’s 107th pitch of the game into right-center field and hustled into second base.
Rather than give Webb another batter, Kapler turned to Doval, who induced a soft-hopper from Ezequiel Duran into the hole between shortstop and third base. Ranging to his right, Crawford gloved the ball with Martinez running aggressively to third base. Crawford could have eaten the throw and given Doval a shot at the next batter, but he instead heaved it to first, allowing Martinez to round third and score standing up.
Kapler said the decision to pull Webb was “super challenging” but that he viewed it less as “taking the ball from Logan” and more “giving the ball to Doval.”
“I’ll always trust Logan in that situation. But I trust Doval in the same way,” Kapler said. “I had a lot of trust that Doval was going to come in and get a swing and miss or a soft ground ball like the one he got. He got it, it didn’t work out. It’s part of baseball.”
Kapler said he didn’t fault Crawford for trying to make the game-winning play.
“He doesn’t know where the runner is in space,” Kapler said. “He’s going after the baseball. The play at first base was close enough that in his brain he’s recording that out. If he knew exactly where the runner was, maybe he comes up and eats it. But under the circumstances, I trust him to make that decision.”
Before Bailey’s blast, Michael Conforto provided the Giants’ only offense with a solo shot in the second inning. It was his second in as many games, giving him as many homers in the past two games as he had in the previous two months. Adding a single in the fourth, Conforto recorded consecutive multi-hit games for the third time this season — and the first time since the final two games of May.
For the 21st time in his past 34 starts, the Giants failed to provide Webb more than two runs before he exited the game.
After starting a 1-4-3 double play to get out of a two-on, one-out jam in the fourth, Webb retired 15 of the final 18 Rangers he faced. Using his changeup on 63% of his pitches, Kapler said Webb was “putting it wherever he wanted it” while Bailey said it was “probably the best pitch in baseball.”
“It’s just unfortunate that I wasn’t able to finish it in that moment,” Webb said. “I looked up at the clock. I was trying to get under 2 hours. That was really all I cared about.”
Conforto’s second-inning shot to straightaway center was all the Giants could muster against Dunning, who sliced through San Francisco’s flailing lineup like butter.
Dunning, averaging only 6.34 K/9 entering Sunday, fanned a career-high 12 Giants, including three straight to end their best scoring chance besides the two home runs.
After Bailey led off the fourth with a poke into left field, Conforto laced a sharply hit grounder under the glove of first baseman Nathaniel Lowe for his second hit of the game, giving the Giants runners at the corners with nobody out. But J.D. Davis proceeded to swing at two pitches out of the strike zone and then watched strike three down the middle, and Blake Sabol and Heliot Ramos followed with two more strikeouts.
Bailey’s walk-off homer was their first hit in 11 chances with runners in scoring position, stranding nine men on base.
“Conforto getting going is huge for us,” Kapler said. “We’re relying on one bat, maybe two bats, in any given game. To have several of them going at the same time is really what’s going to propel us to lots of victories. Obviously today we had multiple opportunities to do damage and not have that close of a game and we weren’t able to capitalize on that.”
Stealing a win Sunday was all the more important given the Giants’ recent struggles and the difficult road ahead.
The Tampa Bay Rays (71-49) visit Oracle Park for three games beginning Monday, then the Giants make their final trip to the Eastern time zone for a series against the MLB-best Atlanta Braves (75-41) and a critical wild-card showdown with the Philadelphia Phillies (65-53). They won’t get a respite from teams in playoff contention until they host the Rockies beginning Sept. 8.
“Collectively as a group, we’ve just got to start playing a little bit better,” Webb said. “It’s been a tough stretch for us. Hopefully this win boosts our spirits a little bit and we can get back to playing a good brand of baseball and go out there and get some wins.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com