By Morris Phillips

Professional baseball players are no different than anyone else: If you’re about to embark on a business trip plane ride out of town, after a bullish day at work, but yearning to bathe in momentary contentment, occasionally, you have to walk, not run.

The Giants avoided being swept at home by the Blue Jays on Wednesday afternoon by getting the very most out of what’s often considered the least, a walk. In this case, with the bases loaded in the 13^th inning to end 4 ½ hours of baseball, avoiding a 2-5 finish to a frustrating home stand, giving it just a bit more significance which manager Bruce Bochy captured.

“Especially having the lead like that, we coughed it up, that would have been a tough one to lose, and get swept, to hit the road on, and (we) kept fighting.”

“I’ll take the walk.”

Still early in a marathon of a season, the Blue Jays and Giants, both 18-18, leave San Francisco in entirely different moods. For the Giants, a lighthearted jaunt to Phoenix to see the Diamondbacks. For the Jays, a longer, slightly quieter flight to Dallas for a weekend with the Rangers.

“The guys played a good game out there,” Toronto’s John Gibbons said. “We came back to tie it against a good pitching staff, we battled our asses off. We came up short.”

Gibbons most regrets the comfortable path his team allowed the Giants in the 13^th. With reliever Ryan Tepera pitching, Brandon Belt was hit by a pitch, then Denard Span’s bunt was poorly handled allowing Belt to take second, and Span first. Tepera’s wild pitch allowed both runner’s to move up, and prompted Toronto to walk the bases full, ahead of Matty Duffy’s line out to first, and a four-pitch walk to Buster Posey to end it.

“I mean, you get to a point where you’re almost four-and-a-half hours in, it doesn’t really matter,” Posey said in jest.

The Giants won two 13-inning contests on the home stand, proving once again, they never shy away from tense ballgames that other clubs might consider torture. But all their warts were exposed in the series with the Jays: an offense slathered in molasses, a bullpen trying to find itself, starters too with Peavy and Cain starting–and losing–the first two games, and then on Wednesday a meltdown with closer Santiago Casilla on the mound.

Putting a personal side on the Giants woes, Buster Posey narrowly avoided the worst hitless streak of his career with a single in the first, ending an 0 for 18 slide.

The Giants led 4-1 buoyed by Madison Bumgarner’s quality start, which took the Giants deep into a game with a lead of more than a run for the first time in a week. But Cody Gearrin relieved Bumgarner in the seventh, then opened the eighth by allowing a pair of singles before hitting Troy Tulowitzki to load the bases. Russell Martin’s sacrifice fly made it 4-2, Josh Osich relieved, and allowed a run-scoring single to Justin Smoak, making it 4-3.

Casilla came on to close it in the ninth, but Michael Saunders homered over the center field fence on the ninth pitch of the at-bat. For Casilla, it marked his third blown save in 14 appearances, for Saunders a nice bounce back after he saw a batted ball glance off his head on Monday, his first career game at AT&T Park.

The Giants open a four-game set on Thursday in Phoenix with Johnny Cueto facing fellow, deep pocketed free agent signee Zach Greinke at 6:40pm PST.