San Francisco – The San Francisco Giants put on a show for their home opener. For the third time in the last four years, they opened at home with a win, this time thanks to a clutch two-RBI single by newly signed Willy Adames in the 11th inning, lifting the Giants to a 10-9 victory over the Seattle Mariners and improving their record to 6-1 to start the season.
“We got a special group of guys over here,” Adames said after the win. “We try to continue to find ways to win and its been great so far. We’re a bunch of dogs and we’re gonna go out there and fight and try to beat the other team. We showed it today.”
Adames’ walk-off marked the 12th home opener walk-off in team history and the sixth since the opening of Oracle Park. San Francisco has recorded walk-off wins in both the 2022 and 2024 home openers. This victory didn’t come easily, as the Giants and Mariners traded blows throughout the game.
”There were a lot of twists and turns,” said Giants manager Bob Melvin. “We did a lot of good things, and we, obviously, didn’t do some things right. We kind of went both ways.
But for an opening day like that, with a packed house, nobody left for one second and it seemed like there was drama every single inning. They put on a good show.”
Adames’ big day didn’t end with the walk-off hit. In the fifth inning, he also robbed Julio Rodríguez of a base hit, leaping high to snag the ball out of midair in a highlight-reel defensive play.
”They were trying to kill me today,” Adames joked. “I was just trying to make the play. I love being in the middle of everything. I have fun with it.”
Rodríguez struck first for the Mariners, launching a solo home run to right field off the Giants other major offseason signing, Justin Verlander, to give Seattle a 1-0 lead with one out in the first inning. Verlander then allowed a single to Cal Raleigh before settling down to retire Randy Arozarena and Jorge Polanco to end the frame.
The Giants answered in the bottom half of the inning. With two outs, Matt Chapman hit an infield RBI single, scoring LaMonte Wade Jr., who had doubled on the first pitch of the inning.
Verlander’s struggles continued, and his outing was cut short after just 65 pitches. He was pulled with one out in the third inning.
“They just made him work really hard and he threw a lot of pitches,” Melvin said. “He’ll tell you it wasn’t his best stuff. He only walked two (batters) but they made him throw a ton of pitches.”
“Got to tip your cap sometimes,” Verlander said. “Cal (Raleigh) gave me a really tough at-bat there, fouled off some tough pitches and worked. a walk. “
San Francisco took a 3-1 lead in the second inning, ripping four straight singles off Mariners starter Luis Castillo. The fourth hit came off the bat of Wade Jr., who drove in Wilmer Flores and Patrick Bailey. Tyler Fitzgerald was thrown out trying to stretch the play to third.
Seattle responded in the third, tying the game at 3-3. Arozarena drew a bases-loaded walk, and Jorge Polanco followed with a line-drive single to center.
With Verlander out of the game, Randy Rodríguez entered in relief and calmed things down. He stopped the bleeding in the third and held Seattle scoreless through the fourth.
The Giants reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the fourth when Jung Hoo Lee singled to center, making it 4-3. Heliot Ramos added an RBI single through the right side, extending the lead to 5-3. But the breathing room didn’t last, Jorge Polanco launched a two-run homer to right after Raleigh walked, tying the game at 5-5.
San Francisco punched back again in the fifth, with Adames ripping an RBI double to left, scoring Wade Jr., who had tripled with two outs. But the Mariners regained the lead in the sixth, 7-6, thanks to a fielder’s choice by Raleigh and another RBI single by Polanco.
Matt Chapman cut the deficit to one with his second home run of the season, making it 8-7 in the bottom of the sixth. Patrick Bailey tied it moments later with a groundout to short that brought home Ramos.
The scoring paused until the top of the 11th, when a wild pitch by Spencer Bivens allowed ghost runner Luke Raley to score, giving the Mariners a 9-8 lead. But in the bottom half, Adames delivered again, lacing a walk-off two-RBI single to seal a thrilling 10-9 Giants victory.
“Good teams find different ways to win ballgames,” Verlander said. “Today was a slugfest and we were able to pull it out that way.”
Verlander added that there’s one more thing about this Giants team that has sparked this strong start to the season so far.
”This team has something special,” he explained. “I think we were kind of overlooked and, it’s early, but you can see that this team is pretty good.”
The Giants will send out Robbie Ray for the second game of their weekend series on Saturday night (6:05 p.m.). Ray had a solid season debut on March 30 in Cincinnati, allowing just three hits, though two were home runs over 5 ⅓ innings in the Giants’ 6-3 win over the Reds, clinching their opening series of the season.
Photo by SFGiants/X
