San Francisco Giants Heliot Ramos right circles the bases after hitting a home run off the Sacramento A’s in the bottom of the first inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Sun May 18, 2025 (AP News photo)

Sunday, May 18, 2025

Oracle Park

San Francisco, California

Sacramento Athletics 2 (22-25)

San Francisco Giants 3 (28-19)

Win: Randy Rodriguez (3-0)

Loss: Tyler Ferguson (0-6)

Save: Ryan Walker (3)

Time: 2:19

Attendance: 40,051

By Stephen Ruderman

SAN FRANCISCO–The Giants came back with two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to complete the sweep of the Bay Bridge Series with a 3-2 win over the Oakland A’s Sunday.

Wilmer Flores single handedly carried the Giants in the first two games of this series. First, he knocked in eight of the Giants’ nine runs with his three home runs in the opener on Friday night. Then Saturday, he grinded through a nine-pitch at-bat to draw the walk-off walk that knocked in the lone run of the game.

Justin Verlander took the ball as the Giants looked for their first three-game sweep of the A’s since 2015. Verlander was still looking for that elusive first win in a Giants’ uniform, as he came in 0-3 in his first nine starts. Perhaps the tenth time would be the charm.

Verlander got off to a shaky start in the top of the first inning. The A’s loaded the bases with two outs following a double and a pair of walks. Fortunately, Verlander managed to wiggle his way out of it without any damage.

Left-hander Jeffrey Springs took the mound for Oakland. On the first pitch Springs threw in the bottom of the first, Heliot Ramos greeted him with a home run to the Giants’ bullpen out in left-center field.

The Giants had fired the opening salvo, and Verlander cruised through the second and third innings.

However, the A’s staged a two-out rally and loaded the bases against Verlander in the top of the fourth. Lawrence Butler then came up and lined a base-hit up the middle to center, and that knocked in a pair of runs to give the A’s their first lead of this series. Verlander was done after four innings, and he would remain winless after ten starts.

After Ramos’ home run to lead off the bottom of the first, Springs flat out dominated. All he did was retire 20-straight Giants. When Matt Chapman broke that streak with a two-out base-hit in the bottom of the seventh. Springs gave up just one run and two hits over six and two thirds innings. He didn’t walk a single guy, and he struck out five.

Following Verlander’s departure, Spencer Bivens pitched a pair of one two three innings in the fifth and sixth, and lefty Erik Miller struck out two in a scoreless top of the seventh. Randy Rodriguez then took the ball for the top of the eighth and threw a one two three inning.

Mark Kotsay brought in Tyler Ferguson for the bottom of the eighth. LaMonte Wade, who has finally been starting to swing the bat, led off the inning with a triple to Triples Alley in right-center. The sellout crowd of 40,051 finally got into it, and the Giants were in business.

Up came Patrick Bailey, who is also finally starting to heat up at the plate. Kotsay had the A’s play the infield in, and Bailey grounded a base-hit up the middle to center to tie it.

It was a brand-new game at 2-2, and the Giants looked to take the lead. Christian Koss then sacrificed Bailey over to second with a bunt down the first base line. It should be noted that when Nick Kurtz went to pick the ball up, Koss started back pedaling towards the plate. However, Kurtz knew better than to fall for the old Javy Baez trap, and he just took the ball over to first.

Up came Heliot Ramos, and he grounded a base-hit to left field. Bailey came sprinting home, and the Giants were back ahead. However, Ramos was tagged out after being caught in a rundown between first and second.

For anybody interested, the Ramos putout was 7-2-3-4-2. As my pal in the press box and Editor-in-chief of Sport Relay, Evan Thompson, said, it was a zip code. 72342 is the zip code of Helena and West Helena, Arkansas to be exact.

Anyway, while it wasn’t the best look for Ramos to be caught in the rundown after his big hit, it didn’t take away from his big day, as he knocked in two of the Giants’ three runs.

Melvin stuck with his man, Ryan Walker, for the top of the ninth. Walker rewarded his skipper with a one, two, three inning to pick up his eighth save, and the Giants had the sweep.

At the end, it was Randy Rodriguez who got the win, and Tyler Ferguson who took the loss.

The Giants improve to 28-19, and they will look to build off the sweep when the Kansas City Royals come to town Monday night to start a three-game series.

Robbie Ray (6-0, 3.04 ERA) will take the ball for San Francisco in the series opener Monday night. The Giants are 9-0 in his starts this season. Left-hander Kris Bubic (4-2, 1.66 ERA) will counter for Kansas City.

First pitch will be at 6:45 p.m.

Giants News and Notes:

With Sunday’s sold-out crowd of 40,051, the Giants have now sold out 11 games at Oracle Park this season. That is the most in a season since 2018.

Final Thoughts:

See, I told ya the Giants would be fine.

The Giants were tested in their first legitimate slump of the season, and they passed with flying colors. As each day goes by, and as the Giants pick up more and more dramatic comeback wins, the more I am convinced that we are witnessing a special season in the City by the Bay.