San Francisco – The Giants have been on a tear in recent weeks. Tonight they rallied back from being down two runs to force extra innings and tie the game in the ninth frame. Mike Yastrzemksi’s epic night ended with a walk-off splash to give San Francisco a 7-4 victory over the San Diego Padres.
The Giants recorded their eighth consecuitve win and returned home to win tonight’s game in walk-off fashion. San Francisco won seven of their last games by sweeping their recent six-game road trip at St.Louis and Los Angeles (National League). Tonight, the Giants kicked off their seven-game homestand.
“You see it happening but to watch it unfold means Yaz [Yastrzemski] is right where he needs to be,”said manager Gabe Kapler. “It’s defense, it’s base running, it’s big at-bats, its home runs, it’s walks. He’s doing it all right now.”
It was an unbelievable comeback for San Francisco, down 4-1 in the sixth, Yastrzemski hit his 9th solo homer to make it a 4-2 game. That all changed for the Giants in the ninth. Pinch-hitter Blake Sabol walked to leadoff the frame. Yastrzemski singled on a line drive and a wild pitch allowed Sabol to score to make it a 4-3 game. Luis Matos’ fly ball advanced Yastrzemski to third and Patrick Bailey’s sacrifice fly drove in Yastrzemski to tie the game 4-4 and force extra innings.
“That was one of those plays where it could have ended up dropping in front,” Yastrzemski said. “I just kind of hang out there for a second and make the right read and luckily I got in there just in time. So I was pretty fired up that the game was tied up.
I mean Schmitty walked, so that was incredible. These guys are really really doing a great job of slowing the moment down. Not trying to do too much. These guys are doing great things right now and it’s fun to watch and it’s energizing.”
The Giants owned tenth inning, Joe Pederson started the frame on second. An intentional walk to Thairo Estrada put two on with no outs. Sabol’s sacrifice fly advanced Pederson to 3rd, that setup Yastrzemski’s walk-off homer to end the game 7-4. Yastrzemski finished the night with three hits, three runs and four RBIs on five hits.
Padres Manager Bob Melvin made three pitching changes in the ninth and San Francisco still prevailed. In fact, it’s quite ironic because this was a bullpen game for the Giants when San Francisco’s manager Gabe Kapler replaced their starting pitcher Ryan Walker in the second inning. It was the work of the bullpen that kept San Diego from scoring any runs after the fifth frame.
The Padres got off to a great start, Fernando Tatis Jr. double in the first, stole third and was safe until the Giants challenged the call. After further review the call was overturned but Juan Soto went deep on the first to make it a 1-0 game. By the fourth Ha-Seong Kim cleared the bases with a two-run single before Soto hit his second homer of the game to make it 4-0.
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