Photo credit: @SFGiants

By: Ana Kieu

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — The San Francisco Giants had hoped to build their win streak when they returned to AT&T Park, where they welcomed the Texas Rangers for a three-game series that began on Friday night.

Prior to Friday’s game, Dereck Rodriguez, who missed the Giants’ last 10 games with a Grade 1 right hamstring strain, was reinstated from the 10-day DL. Following Thursday’s game, Casey Kelly was optioned to triple-A Sacramento.

Speaking of Dereck, his father Pudge was in attendance to watch his rookie son play like any proud Papa would. And, of course, the Rangers’ Twitter had to sarcastically ask Pudge who he was going to root for tonight.

In case you didn’t know, Pudge played the majority of his MLB career with the Rangers as a catcher from 1991-2002. Pudge was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. in his first year of eligibility on January 18, 2017. Pudge received 76% of the votes at the time.

Nathan Aung threw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Giants. Aung did a darn good job like when he last threw the first pitch at the Giants vs. Dodgers game at AT&T Park on August 22, 2013.

The Giants got on the board first, thanks to Andrew McCutchen, who hit his 15th home run of the season and 10th career leadoff homer. San Francisco had a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.

The Giants continued to roll in the bottom of the first. Evan Longoria’s RBI single scored Joe Panik for a 2-0 lead. Then, Brandon Crawford’s sac fly allowed Buster Posey to score for a 3-0 lead. And then Alec Hanson’s sac fly that drove in Brandon Belt for a 4-0 lead.

The Giants led the Rangers 4-0 after the first. Texas had a lot of work to do in order to mount a comeback.

Fast forward to the bottom of the fourth inning, where the Giants continued pouring in the runs. Posey hit a single to score McCutchen for a 5-0 lead. Belt followed up with a single that scored Panik for a 6-0 lead.

The Giants led the Rangers 6-0 after the fourth. The Texas defense hadn’t come up with any answers to suppress the San Francisco offense yet.

After a scoreless sixth inning, the Rangers proceeded to score some runs–one apiece in the seventh and eighth innings and two in the ninth inning, which forced the game into extra innings. The Giants fans were delighted to see some free baseball on a cool, cloudy night…just not the end result.

Rangers’ Robinson Chirinos walked and Jurickson Profar scored to lift the Rangers past the Giants 7-6 in 10 innings.

Notes
This weekend, MLB is celebrating Players Weekend, a joint effort between MLB and the MLBPA. Players will be wearing traditional alternate uniforms with nicknames on the back and a patch on their sleeve to pay tribute to a person or persons who aided their career.

Enter the Catch the Cure Tacoma Sweepstakes by donating at busterstacoma.com. You could win Buster’s Toyota Tacoma!

Up Next
The Giants and Rangers meet again Saturday afternoon at 1:05 pm PDT. Andrew Suarez (4-9, 4.68 ERA) will take the mound for San Francisco, while Texas will counter with Martin Perez (2-5, 6.93 ERA).