San Francisco Giants’ Heliot Ramos #17 hits a single off Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Justin Steele #35 in the sixth inning of their MLB game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, June 24, 2024. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

Chicago (37-42). 000 130 000. 4 10. 0

San Francisco (37-42). 000 011 003. 5 9. 0

Time: 2:42

Attendance: 30,701

Monday, June 24, 2024

By Lewis Rubman

SAN FRANCISCO–With their amazing 5-4 come from behind walk off (literally a walk off) in this Monday’s series opener against the visiting Chicago Cubs, the San Francisco Giants inched back towards their glass ceiling of .500. The dozen runners the Cubs left stranded gives an idea of what sort of a Perils of Pauline experience Monday night’s game was.

Before the game began, the Giants staged a well earned celebration of the life and achievements of Willie Mays. When the game began, everyone in a Giants uniform wore the number 24, as a tribute to the great ballplayer and person that was Mays. Whatever the motivation of “tributes” like this may be, their main consequence is the difficulty they cause in identifying the players. I consider them another baseball superstition, like avoiding stepping on the foul line when going on and off the field, only wrapped in sanctimony

This evening’s encounter, as probably will be the case for the next three contests, was a bullpen game for San Francisco. Erik Miller was the opener. In his one inning on the mound, Miller walked a batter, Seiya Suzuki, and then picked him off while attempting to steal. That third out ended Miller’s near cameo appearance. His successor, Spencer Bivens, went two frames and allowed two bases on balls, both in his first inning of scoreless work.

Brandon Burgos, promoted today from Sacramento, made his major league debut to open the fourth. Cody Bellinnger welcomed him with a weak grounder down the third base line that just made it into left field for a single. Christopher Morel followed with a solid single to left.

A five pitch walk to Ian Happ loaded the bases with none out. After Danby Swason’s fly out to right provided a brief respite, Michael Busch sent a ground ball behind second base that slick fielding Nck Ahmed had trouble controlling. Busch beat his throw to first for an RBI single. Burgos showed major league poise by getting Pete Crow-Armstrong to ground out to Estrada, closing the inning and preventing further damage. But damage was done, and Chicago was ahead, 1-0.

Luke Jackson was the fourth Giant pitcher, replacing Burgos in the top of the fifth. A leadoff walk to Nico Hoerner and back to back singles to right by Suzuki and Bellinger, and it was 2-0. A wild pitch and a walk to Morel, and the Cubbies had clogged the base paths for the second straight inning.

Ian Happ’s grounder to Estrada forced Morel out a second, but Happ beat Ahmed’s throw to first, Suzuki scored, and there were runners on the corner with only one out. That was it for Jackon. Spencer Howard replaced him with two runners in scoring position and his team trailing 3-0.

Ten pitches later, the score still was 3-0, and the inning was over. Howard struck out Busch and Tomás Nido to keep a bad situation from becoming a total loss. He continued on the mound for the rest of the game allowing a total four hits and a walk but nary a run on the way to his first win of the year against one defeat and lowering his ERA to 3.80.

The Cubs’ starter, Justin Steele, entered the professional ranks in 2014 but didn’t make it to the show until 2021. But when he did, he was quite a success. Last year he was named the NL all-star team and pitched a shutout frame.

In the regular season, he hurled a pair of 10 strikeout games, went seven consecutive undefeated starts. He came to work this Monday bearing an unimpressive 0-3 won-lost mark but sporting a respectable ERA of 3.16. He wasn’t involved in the decision, but he pitched a worthy game, throwing 106 pitches, a noteworthy 81 for strikes and allowing two runs, both earned, on nine hits, two of which were solo home runs. He issued only one free pass and struck out nine Giants in his 7-1/3 innings of work.

Steele cruised through four innings, allowing only a first inning single to Héctor Ramos until Matt Chapman smacked an 82 mph slider 410 feet into the left field bleachers to narrow the gap to 3-1. A gap that shrank to 3-2 on Ahmed’s leadoff homer to left in the home sixth after Jackson had pitched himself into and out of a two on, none down jam in the top of the frame. The blast was Ahmed’s first four bagger in his injury shortened season.

Steele’s labor ceased in the home half of the eighth. With one out and Ahmed, who had drawn a leadoff walk on first, Ramos drove a long drive to the crease where the 365 foot marker meets the State Farm advertisement for a double that put the potential tying and winning runs on base. Tyson Miller relieved him and fanned Flores, bringing up Jorge Soler, who popped out to shallow right

The task of preserving Chicago’s slim lead in the bottom of the ninth fell to Cotten Brewer. Chapman led off with a full count dying quail double that fell just in front of a diving Crow-Armstrong’s glove in center. Estrada beat out a bunt to the mound, sending Chappy to third.

 Chapman made it a one run game by scoring on a sacrifice fly to left by Michael Conforto pinch hitting for Matos. Exit Brewer. Enter Drew Smyly. Patrick Bailey, pinch hitting for Casali singled to center, sending Estrada to second. A walk to Ahmed, and the bases were loaded for Austin Slater, who sent a game tying sacrifice fly to center. Ramos was granted an intentional walk, and Wilmer Flores sent the Giant fans home happy with an anticlimactic but game winning walk.

Smyly was frowning at this turn of events and was charged with the loss

The game featured some excellent fielding by both teams. Two plays by Chicago’s shortstop, Dansby Swanson come to mind, his leaping catch of Estrada’s scorching line drive in the second and his backhanded grab and throw of Casali’s ground ball in the third. Although Ramos didn’t make any spectacular plays, he covered a lot of ground and did the number 24 proud in center field.

The second of this four game series will take place Tuesday, at 6:45. Chicago’s Kyle Hendricks (1-4, 7.46) will face off against a motley crew from San Francisco’s bullpen.