By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Kelby Tomlinson sure knows how to come through in the clutch when needed for the San Francisco Giants.

Tomlinson hit a walk-off single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning, helping the Giants to a 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals before a crowd of 41,577, the 390th consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

This was the Giants fifth walk-off victory of the season, and their first since Matt Duffy singled in the bottom of the ninth inning to defeat the Miami Marlins on May 10

In his 21 games since being recalled, Tomlinson is hitting a robust .363 going 20-for-54 at the plate. He became the 15th Giants player, and sixth since the team moved to San Francisco in 1958 to hit a grand slam for his initial home run in the major leagues.

With the victory, the Giants remain 2.5 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the race for the National League Western Division title. The Dodgers in a way helped the Giants, as they are hosting the Chicago Cubs this weekend at Dodger Stadium. With the loss, the Giants move within 4.5 of the Cubs for that second Wild Card spot in the National League.

It was the second consecutive day that Tomlinson came up with a big hit for the Giants.

In the bottom of the eighth inning in Thursday’s victory over the Cubs, Tomlinson hit his first career home run, a grand slam that gave the Giants their final four runs in a 9-1 victory.

If it is a Friday night, then Marlon Byrd must be hitting a big home run for the Giants.

Byrd gave the Giants an early 4-0 lead, as he hit a grand slam in the bottom of the third inning with his grand slam off of Cardinals ace Michael Wacha.

This was the second consecutive Friday that Byrd hit a home run on the sixth day of the week, as he hit a three-run home run in his Giants debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on August 21. This was Byrd’s third home run since joining the team, and his 22nd overall on the season.

Prior to the at-bat where Byrd hit his grand slam off of Wacha, Byrd was 0-for-18 including the postseason against the Cardinals right-hander.

After allowing just one hit in six innings in his first start following a stint on the disabled list on Saturday against the Pirates at PNC Park, Mike Leake showed the AT&T Park fans why the Giants acquired him for minor leaguer Stephen Johnson. Leake went six and one-third innings, allowing four runs on six hits, walking one and striking out four.

Leake went through the Cardinals lineup unscathed the first time through, but the second time was a totally different story.

Matt Carpenter got the Cardinals first hit of the night, then Tommy Pham walked and after a Jhonny Peralta force out, Yadier Molina singled in Carpenter with the Cardinals first run of the evening. Kolten Wong then hit a ground ball to Kelby Tomlinson for a sure double play; however Ehire Adrainza was unable to turn the twin killing, as he bobbled the ball.

Stephen Piscotty, who went to Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton and then to Stanford got the Cardinals within one run with one swing of the bat. Piscotty’s line drive was just out of the reach of Nori Aoki in leftfield and rolled to the wall to score Carpenter and Wong.

The Cardinals manufactured a run in the top of the sixth inning, as Pham singled and then advanced an additional 90 feet on back-to-back flyouts to Byrd in right field and then scored on Leake’s second wild pitch of the game.

After a tough third inning that saw Wacha allow four runs on three hits, the right-hander regrouped and allowed only two hits over his final three innings of work.

Wacha went six innings, allowing those four runs (none of them were earned), on six hits, walking two and striking out two.

NOTES: Prior to the game, the Giants placed Matt Cain on the 15-day disabled list (retroactive to August 26) with elbow nerve irritation. Chris Heston, who was sent to Triple-A Sacramento on Saturday will take Cain’s spot in the rotation on Sunday against Cardinals lefthander Jaime Garcia.

Ryan Vogelsong will take to the hill on Saturday afternoon for the Giants, while Lance Lynn will take the ball for the Cardinals.

With Minor League Baseball coming to a conclusion, the playoffs are going on and the Dominican Summer League Giants won their semifinal game vs. the Dominican Summer League Yankees 3-2 to advance to the championship game that will be played on Saturday afternoon.