Jesus Rodriguez had a chance to end Sunday’s game against Pittsburgh in the 10th inning.
The bases were loaded, Willy Adames had just come through with a 2-out, 2-RBI single to knot the Giants back up with the Pirates at six. All the Bay Area mothers, crowned under their inside-out rally caps and feted with a tote bag stadium giveaway on their special day, crossed their fingers in hope. Rodriguez, who is learning to catch on the fly while trying to fill a defensive hole left by one of the elite defenders in the league, was chosen over Bailey for exactly these types of moments when a disciplined at-bat could make the difference.
The irony is that while Bailey was a liability with a bat, he’ll be remembered forever in San Francisco, not for how he framed a Logan Webb sinker, but for his walk-off inside the park homer, or his walk-off grand slam against the Dodgers. The sub .600 OPS won’t be missed, nor the day-in and day-out lifeless at-bats — but once in a blue moon, Bailey did something truly magical. He just possessed that clutch gene.
Did his replacement? Perhaps an unfair question so early on his career — but a question that was quickly answered all the same when Rodriguez flailed at two sweepers nowhere near the zone. A four pitch see-ya, a couples of swings that looked like a white flag surrendering to an 11th inning. Based on that at-bat, the new catcher looked pretty dang similar to the old. Rodriguez wasn’t Blue Moon Bailey, just normal, really bad at hitting Bailey.
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But this wasn’t the end of the story. A man can not be judged on one at-bat. Rodriguez would be given a second chance after reliever Ryan Borucki and the Giants defense held the Pirates scoreless in the 11th and 12th innings. Right fielder Ryan O’Hearn clanked a Matt Chapman flare near the foul line that went for a double and pushed Heliot Ramos as the winning run to third. The Pirates coaches and right-handed reliever Justin Lawrence elected to walk lefty Drew Gilbert to set up the double play with the bases loaded as well as gain platoon edge against the right-handed Rodriguez.
Made plenty of sense on paper, but Rodriguez, a contact-oriented, bat-first player, wasn’t going to be foiled twice in the same game. Bases loaded, game still tied at 6 runs a piece, with an opportunity to win the game and claim the series — second chances like this don’t come around like that very often.
First pitch, Rodriguez got a 97 MPH sinker right in on the hands. Many hitters wouldn’t have been able to do much with that kind of offering. Pure speculation, maybe hearsay, but I could see Patrick Bailey rolling that pitch right into the defense for an inning-ending double play. Rodriguez was thinking the opposite field the whole way. He kept his hands back and flipped the ball to shallow right where it found grass in front of O’Hearn, allowing Ramos to scamper home (after initially freezing on the fly) and claim the win.
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The Giants played their worst game of the season yesterday. They burnt the pizza. Burnt it real bad — but apparently they didn’t dwell on it too much. They just pivoted, ordered Chinese, then came back to the ballpark on Mother’s Day full of love and appreciation for their mothers and played one of their best.
Or maybe the opposite happened. Maybe the Giants as a team forced themselves to chew through every last bit of charred crust and charcoaled pepperoni that was Saturday’s disastrous flaming pie to make sure they’d never put each other through such a terrible thing again.
Whether they binned it or analyzed it, the strategy worked. The Giants played differently, better, and Sunday’s win was one of their best because it wasn’t a walk in the park. It started out slow against Pittsburgh starter Bubba Chandler. They got put in an early hole because of a walk, and an errant throw from Rodriguez on a stolen base attempt. Eventually the offense got into gear, and ultimately erased a trio of two-run deficits before claiming their first lead of the afternoon on the last pitch. And how did the bats work these comebacks? Not singles. Or not just singles. 7 of their 13 hits went for extra bases. The line-up logged 22 at-bats with runners in scoring position with 7 hits. They walked 5 times and got plunked by pitches twice.
Adames came up with the massive game-tying single in the 10th, but the tying run wouldn’t have been on base if not for a walk by Rafael Devers and a softly hit grounder from Ramos that advanced that runner into scoring position.
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Devers, Ramos, and Chapman all ripped two-strike doubles off reliever Isaac Mattson in the 6th to erase the Pirates second lead of the day. Devers (who settled for another double after just missing the tin roof above Levi’s Landing in the 8th) is hitting .333 in May with a .667 slugging percentage (10-for-30). Matt Chapman’s RBI double was his first extra base hit since April 30th, and his first run batted in since April 18th.
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Luis Arraez’s two out single in the 3rd punched Jung Hoo Lee home and cut into Pittsburgh early lead off Tyler Mahle. Ramos evened the score an inning later by crushing a hanging slider from starter Bubba Chandler into the left field bleachers. The 437 foot blast was his fourth on the year and first since April 25th.
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All in all, key members of the line-up seemed to finally sync up and hit like they’ve been expected to all along. Lee, Devers, Ramos, Adames, and Chapman all had multi-hit games and each of them collected an extra-base knock.
Seeing the heart of the line-up find a pulse was a relief. But the miracle underlying this win was the bullpen performance.
Six different arms maneuvered through the final 6.1 innings after Tyler Mahle (4 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 5.2 IP) left in the 6th. They surrendered just two hits while handing out 7 walks, and somehow managed to avoid complete catastrophe. Every inning felt improvised, teetering on the point of collapse. Every button Tony Vitello pressed seemed to work until it quickly didn’t. The 2-run double by Spencer Horwitz off Joel Peguero felt like a knockout blow at the time. So did Dylan Smith’s wild pitch and the walk to number-9 hitter Henry Davis.
Lefty specialist Ryan Borucki proved to be the closer for the other closers. He locked it down in the 11th after being tasked to manage a runners-at-the-corners, nobody-out mess given to him by recent call-up Dylan Smith. A medley of sinkers and sliders fanned the incredibly intimidating Oneil Cruz (who had homered earlier in the 3rd) before a 3-2 slider got Brandon Lowe to softly line into a double play to end the Pirates’ threat.
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Borucki held strong again through some unfavorable match-ups in the 12th thanks to some clutch glove work from Chapman at third.
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And after bases loaded chances in the 10th and 11th, Jesus Rodriguez finally delivered in the 12th.
Happy mom’s day moms!
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