When the seagulls outnumber the fans, it’s time to pack it in.
Such was the case in the 14th inning at AT&T Park, when an avian invasion grabbed hold of the outfield.
Giants center fielder Denard Span spent the better part of Tuesday evening re-positioning himself around the airborne wildlife, and when it came time for Span to make his seventh plate appearance of the evening, he decided he’d seen enough.
“I was ready to go home,” Span said. “Those birds, they were dropping stuff around me. I said you know what? I ain’t got time for this. It’s time to go home, man.”
With a 3-for-7 performance at the plate on Tuesday that included a walkoff single in the bottom of the 14th inning off of Rockies’ reliever Chad Qualls, Span was the hero for a Giants team that has now won back-to-back games for the first time in the month of June.
Span’s 14th inning shot through the right side of the infield plated Giants’ left fielder Gorkys Hernandez, who launched a one-out double over the head of Rockies’ left fielder Ian Desmond. After four hours and 45 minutes, Span sent the few thousand fans left in attendance on Tuesday night home with smiles on their faces.
“I think everybody was ready to go home, but a win like this when you are here until 12:30, it definitely, you go home feeling a lot better and wake up the next day feeling pretty good,” Span said. “You never want to lose 14 inning games, it just zaps the energy out of you even more than you already are tired.”
Span recorded the first Giants’ RBI of the evening with a two-out single in the third inning off of Rockies’ starter Jeff Hoffman, and his late heroics created the perfect bookend for a San Francisco team that notched its first series win in its last eight tries.
“I mean, it definitely makes the team morale feel a little bit better,” Span said. “Just one day at a time, last night, it felt good, it was a good win and tonight also, a come from behind win and we just need to get back to having fun around here.”