A night after the Giants’ 530-game sellout streak ended, San Francisco wanted to test its true die hards.
If the fans weren’t packing the house any more, only the fans willing to ride deep into the night with the team would have the opportunity to see the Giants succeed.
Yes, it took 10 innings, but an Eduardo Nunez single wound up sending the remainder of the 39,000-plus fans who stuck it out at AT&T Park home happy, as the Giants secured a walkoff win to even the series against the Cleveland Indians.
“That was exciting, that was exciting,” Nunez said. “I didn’t even think about that. I thought they were going to walk me as soon as Span went to second base.”
Nunez’s RBI single plated pinch runner Kelby Tomlinson, who came on to run for pinch hitter Conor Gillaspie after Gillaspie led off the 10th inning with a double down the right field line. After Gillaspie’s double, Denard Span reached base on a beautifully placed bunt, and stole second to take the force away from Cleveland.
While Nunez didn’t expect to see a pitch to hit, he came through with a short stroke and lined a ball between first and second to lift the Giants to victory.
“He threw me three fastballs,” Nunez said. “I was sitting breaking ball and I was like, man, he wants to lose the game.”
Though it took the Giants an extra frame to notch the win, San Francisco did have a shot to win it in the ninth.
After Indians’ all-world reliever Andrew Miller walked the first two hitters in the bottom of the ninth inning, shortstop Brandon Crawford failed to lay down a bunt and instead worked an at-bat that resulted in an unproductive popout. After Crawford’s at-bat, Cleveland manager Terry Francona turned to closer Cody Allen, who induced a Hunter Pence groundball that traveled about 10 feet. Unfortunately for Allen, it was 10 feet too far for any Indians’ player to scoop up, and the Giants loaded the bases.
While some managers are reluctant to use their closers in tie games on the road, Francona’s decision to call on –and stick with– Allen paid dividends in the short-term. A strikeout and a harmless popout ended the inning, and fans in San Francisco were treated to free baseball.
And in the end, that treat turned out to be a walkoff celebration.
A night after it was San Francisco’s defense that stood in the way of a potential series-opening victory against the Cleveland Indians, a pair of late-game web gems kept the Giants in contention.
With the game tied 1-1 in the seventh,Pence secured one of his best defensive plays of the season, sliding in right field to prevent a Jose Ramirez looper from falling to the outfield grass. Then in the eighth, Crawford snagged a slow bouncer between the pitcher’s mound and second base with his bare hand and fired to first just in time to prevent Brandon Guyer from reaching. Both plays prevented the Indians from putting a leadoff runner on base late in the game, which was crucial for San Francisco considering Cleveland scored the only time the first batter of the inning did reach.
After left-hander Matt Moore showed encouraging signs in a seven-inning stint in his first post-All-Star break start, 26-year-old Ty Blach turned in his best outing in nearly two months against the Indians on Tuesday. Despite throwing just a pair of 1-2-3 innings, Blach lasted seven strong frames and allowed a single earned run on seven hits.
“It makes life a lot easier,” Bochy said, when asked about his starters pitching deep into games. “It’s going to be critical for them to get us deep in the game, get us quality starts, get this thing turned around. It’s going to help keep the bullpen fresh. It’s going to allow you to make the move that you want to make. So hopefully the rest of the season we get a bit more consistent with these quality starts.”
For Blach, Tuesday’s start marked his longest since a complete game shutout in Philadelphia on June 2. Since that outing, Blach had surrendered at least three earned runs in six of his past seven starts, but against Cleveland, he was able to match zeroes against second-year right-hander Mike Clevinger for much of the evening.
“I feel like I’ve been staying on line a little bit better,” Blach said. “I was getting a little bit rotational. I’m getting out over my front side a little bit better, that’s been getting the ball down in the zone, getting some more groundballs, that’s been good for me.”
Clevinger entered Tuesday’s matchup having won each of his past three decisions, and carried that momentum into his outing against the Giants. The 26-year-old right-hander looked like a cross between former Giants’ ace Tim Lincecum –thanks to a herky-jerky windup– and Mets’ hurler Noah Syndergaard –thanks to some luscious flow– and dazzled the hundreds of Indians fans who packed into AT&T Park for the second night in a row.
In his first five innings of work, Clevinger surrendered just two hits to the Giants, including an infield single off the bat of third baseman Eduardo Nunez in the bottom half of the first. A double from Giants’ second baseman Joe Panik was the lone hard hit ball against Clevinger until the sixth, when Nunez shot a laser toward the right center field gap.
Though Guyer needed to race into Triples’ Alley to settle under the ball, he still had plenty of time to dart into the gap and corral Nunez’s flyball before it dropped. However, the ball plopped out of Guyer’s glove and onto the outfield grass, and the Giants had their first runner in scoring position since Blach was at the plate with two outs in the bottom of the second.
After first baseman Brandon Belt struck out for the third time in three at-bats, catcher Buster Posey trickled a broken bat single right back up the box to plate Nunez and tie the game at 1-1. Even though Nunez held up charging around third base, and was nearly gunned down at the plate on a play that shouldn’t have even drawn a throw, a two-base error and the Giants’ third hit of the night was enough to knot the score.
With the game hanging in the balance, Bochy showed supreme confidence in Blach, a rookie, in the top half of the seventh inning. After Blach allowed a pair of two-out singles to give the Indians late life, Bochy visited the mound with Blach sitting on a pitch count of 104. The Giants’ skipper has built a reputation on giving his starters a long leash, and in turn, they have the utmost respect for the man in charge.
“Yeah, that was great,” Blach said of his manager’s confidence. “I felt like I was making good pitches there that inning and just a couple of tough breaks on some pitches there and for them to let me go out there was awesome.”
On Tuesday, Blach proved he was more than deserving of Bochy’s faith, as he induced an inning ending ground out from pinch hitter Carlos Santana to close out the seventh and turn the game over to the Giants’ bullpen, which did a stellar job.