San Francisco Giants LaMonte Wade is congratulated by teammates for his walk off single that scored Blake Sabol to defeat the Cleveland Guardians in the bottom of the tenth inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Mon Sep 11, 2023 (@SFGiants photo)

Cleveland (68-77). 002 000 100 1. – 4. 9. 0

San Francisco (74-70) 102 000 000 2 – 5 12. 3. (10 innings)

Time: 3:21

Attendance: 20,705

Monday, September 11, 2023

By Lewis Rubman

SAN FRANCISCO–The Giants needed to win tonight’s battle with the AL Central second place Cleveland Guardians. To give you an idea of how different that division’s from the NL West, the Guardians came to town with a record of 68-76, while the Giants’. game time 73-70 had them in third. It was a long, hard fight, but the orange and black prevailed, 5-4, in ten mostly action packed innings.

San Francisco sent one half of the Cobb-Webb combo to the mound tonight. Alex Cobb, who’s been battling leg ligament problems recently and was thrown off his normal pace by his 103 pitch 5-2 loss to the Braves in Atlanta on August 18. The 35 year old veteran took the mound at 7-6. 3.74 but had gone1-3, 5.87 since August 1.

Cobb didn’t pitch long tonight, but he pitched well, throwing 79 pitches, 47 for strikes, to 20 batters over five innings. In that span, he allowed two runs, both unearned, on three hits, one of them a four bagger, and a walk while striking out two. W 8-6, 3.62. He had to settle for a no decision that lowered his ERA to 3.62.

Cleveland’s starter was the right handed rookie Gavin Williams, Cobb’s junior by 11 years. He was Cleveland’s first round choice in the 2021 draft and, now, two years later, he came to the city by the bay with a record of 2-5, 3.35 for a decidedly mediocre team. He went six innings tonight and, like Cobb, wasn’t involved in the decision.

The youngster threw 93 pitches, 40 of which were balls, to 26 batters over six frames, over which he gave up three runs, all earned, on five hits, one for the distance, and four walks, He struck out two and left with an earned run average of 3.43.

Mike Yastrzemski, leading off for the third straight game, which coincides with San Francisco’s current winning streak, sent Williams’ second offering, a 94.6mph four seamer 368 feet deep into right field to get the Giants’ off on the right foot. It was his 14th home run and 39th run batted in of the season.

Cleveland got that run back and another to go with it on two unearned runs in the top of the third. José Ramírez sent a two out line drive up the middle that just missed hitting Cobb. Crawford let the ball go by him into center for an error. Josh Naylor followed that with an authoritative two run blast over the wall in right, and the Guardians were up, 2-1.

That didn’t last long. With one down in the home third, Estrada singled to left, stole second and, after a walk to Haniger, scored on Pedeerson’s single to right, which sent Haniger to third. Guardian first sacker Josh Naylor made a beautiful catch of Davis’s hard bouncer or an unassisted put out that allowed Haniger to cross the plate with the tally that put the Giants ahead once more, at 3-2.

The left handed Rogers, Taylor, relieved Cobb for the sixth inning and set the heart of the Cleveland order down in order on seven pitches. After striking out Will Brennan at the start of the seventh, Rogers surrendered a sharp single to left to Bo Naylor and exited the game, replaced by John Brebbia, making his second appearance since returning from the IL on September 5. Naylor, stole second on him, the Cleveland catcher’s third stolen base in three attempts.

Myles Straw went down looking at a called third strike, and José Tena drew a walk that set the stage for Steven Kwan’s game tying single to right center. Tena motored to third, and Brebbia walked to the dugout, replaced by the right handed Rogers twin, Tyler, the submariner. Josh Naylor lashed a hard drive towards first; Wade made a magnificent grab of it and beat Naylor to the bag.

So the game was tied at three when Sam Hentges replaced Williams after the seventh inning stretch. The first two Giants he faced were pinch hitters, Austin Slater and Wilmer Flores, respectively. The two right handed hitters touched the lefty receiver for singles that put runners on the corners.

Hetges then fanned Estrada and was removed for a righty, Reynaldo López, who got Haniger to ground to Ramírez at third, who threw Slater out at home. Pederson got a single to deep second base to load the bases before the pinch hitting Blake Sabol popped out to third. López had preserved the tie; the Giants left the bases loaded.

Rogers wasn’t as effective in the eighth as he’d been in the seventh. Kole Calhoun hit a one out single to right; Tyler Freeman replaced him as a pinch runner. Giménez hit a grounder that Rogers fielded and then threw away. It was scored a hit with both Freeman advancing to third on Rogers’ throwing error. Giménez then stole second.

Will Brennan grounded back to the mound. This time Rogers threw accurately to Flores, now playing third, and Freeman was put out in a rundown, 1-5-2, with Brennan taking second. At this point, the Giants called on Camilo Doval, who retired Bo Naylor on a fly to right.

Matt Moore gave up a leadoff single to Sabol in the home eighth and then got past Matos and Crawford before Slater smacked a single to center that sent Moore to showers and brought Enyel De Los Santos in to face Flores. After working a full count, Flores flew out to the warning track in left. That made 10 men that the Giants had left on base.

It was Cleveland’s turn to miss opportunities in the top of the ninth, wasting a single, an intentional walk, and two passed balls to strand two runners in scoring position and sending us to the bottom of the inning with the score still knotted at three.

Where it stayed after De Los Santos pitched a 1,2,3 frame.

Luke Jackson faced Cleveland with Josh Naylor as the zombie runner and Freeman at the plate to open the tenth. Freeman tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt, but Jackson threw Naylor out at third. Freeman then stole second.

Giménez laced a single up the middle to put the Guardians ahead, 4-3 First base umpire Bruce Dreckman ruled that Estrada’s throw to first on Brennan’s grounder pulled Wade off the bag, but a review of the play overturned that call.

Nonetheless, Giménez took second on the play, the Giants issued an intentional pass to Bo Naylor, and Straw drew a base on balls to load the bases before Jackson fanned Tena for the final out.

It was do or die for San Francisco in their half of the tenth with Pederson placed on second and Sabol at bat. Sabol singled to right on the first offering from Emmanuel Close, the Guardian’s new pitcher. That tied the score again. Then he stole second and took third on a balk. Wade came through with a single to center center, and the Giants had gained a long, hard, victory.

Jackson, now 2-2, 3.14, was the winning pitcher. Close took the loss, his ninth against two wins. It was 11th blown save of the season.

So, where does this leave the Giants in the playoff chase? They’re in a dead tie with Miami at 74-70, 1-1/2 games behind the Diamondbacks for the last spot in the NL Wild Card race. Both teams. have an elimination number of 17 with 18 games left to play,

The probable starters for the game tomorrow, Tuesday, at 6:45 are Sean Manaea (5-5, 5.00) for the Giants and Cal Quantrill (2-6, 5.70) for the Guardians.