Photo credit: @sfgiants_fanly

By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Sunday, May 19, 2019

PHOENIX — The Panda strikes again.

For the second time in two games, Pablo Sandoval came off the San Francisco bench and delivered a pinch-hit home run. His homer on Sunday came in the top of the 10th inning, giving the Giants a 3-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Sandoval, pinch-hitting for reliever Sam Dyson, drove a Yoshihisa Hirano fastball into the left field seats just above the 388-foot marker, breaking a 2-2 deadlock.

“You’ve got to be prepared, and be ready to hit in any situation,” Sandoval said. “Then, take advantage of the situation. (Hirano) was doing a good job with his sequence of pitches. He threw a fastball away, and I was thinking fastball.”

Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said, “It’s amazing what he’s been doing, and with two strikes. It happened for him again!

“It’s incredible what Pablo’s done for us off the bench, and he sure delivered again in a big way.”

Will Smith came on with one out in the bottom of the 10th to record his 12th save, striking out Eduardo Escobar and David Peralta.

Before any of that could happen, the Diamondbacks had an opportunity to win the game in the ninth when Nick Ahmed led off with a walk and was sacrificed to second and moved to third when Blake Swihart was ruled out at first after a replay review of his grounder to short.

On Adam Jones’ sharp grounder just to the left of second base, shortstop Brandon Crawford’s throw to Brandon Belt just beat Jones at first, forcing extra innings.

“That was an unbelievable play,” Sandoval said. “If we don’t make that play, they win.”

The Giants took two out of the three weekend games at Chase Field, which had the roof open all three days.

San Francisco took a 2-0 lead in the third inning off Diamondbacks starter Robbie Ray. Joe Panik and Donovan Solano hit back-to-back singles, followed by a walk to Tyler Austin to load the bases. Evan Longoria drew an RBI walk and Kevin Pillar followed with an RBI groundout to first.

The Diamondbacks tied the game at 2-2 in the fourth. Peralta reached on an infield single, followed by a walk to Christian Walker. Nick Ahmed’s ground rule double down the right field line drove in Peralta.

A wild pitch during John Ryan Murphy’s at-bat allowed Walker to score and Ahmed to advance to third.

Drew Pomerantz started for San Francisco, going 4 2/3 innings, giving up both Arizona runs, striking out two and issuing five walks. Dyson (2-0) threw a scoreless ninth to get the win; the Giants bullpen held the D-Backs scoreless over the final 5 1/3 innings.

Hirano (1-2) was the sixth Diamondback pitcher in the game.

The Giants improved to 19-25 and return home to start a four-game series against Atlanta. Monday’s starter has yet to be announced, but San Francisco’s probables for the other three games are Shaun Anderson (0-0) on Tuesday, Jeff Samardzija (2-2) on Wednesday and Madison Bumgarner (3-4) on Thursday.

GIANT JOTTINGS: Sandoval’s pinch-homer was the third of his career. The first one came last season in Philadelphia. … The replay review time in the ninth inning of Blake Swihart’s ground out was 1:21. … D-Backs OF Wilmer Flores left the game with a right foot contusion. … Attendance was 24,061.