San Francisco Giants’ Patrick Bailey, right, hits a game-winning grand slam during the 10th inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vasquez)

By Lincoln Juarez

SAN FRANCISCO – Patrick Bailey’s walk-off grand slam electrified the Oracle Park crowd Friday night as the Giants topped the Dodgers in 10 innings, 5-1 behind Justin Verlander’s masterful seven inning performance. 

Just prior to the start of game one between the Dodgers and Giants, the New York Mets lost their seventh game in a row, putting the Giants just a single game out of the final National League Wild Card spot and adding to the intensity inside Oracle Park Friday night. 

40,509 packed the ballpark on 3rd and King to witness the first great pitchers-duel of the weekend between RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (11-8, 2.72) and RHP Justin Verlander (3–10, 4.09). 

Verlander, who reached 20 years of Major League service time Friday night, shut the Dodger offense down, surrendering only one run on four hits while striking out four. The lone run came on a Michael Conforto home run in the seventh inning that tied the game at one. A 92mph fastball left middle-middle was the only mistake Verlander made all night. 

The Giants scored early, as they’ve done in this winning stretch, getting to Yamamoto in the first. Rafael Devers walked with one out and eventually scored from first base on a ball hit to the left-center field gap by Willy Adames. Center fielder Andy Pages had trouble fielding the ball allowing Devers to score and put the Giants in the lead 1-0. That was the only hit Yamamoto allowed in his seven strong. He held the Giants to a hit and a run while striking out 10. 

The pitching got some help keeping the score tight throughout the game. In the top of the fourth inning, with the Dodgers trailing by a run and two runners in scoring position, Matt Chapman dove right into the 5-6 hole to keep a groundball from getting to the outfield, returned to his feet and fired a lazor to first base. While stretching for the ball in order to get the inning-ending out, 1B Dom Smith strained his hamstring and was removed from the game. 

“We’ll see how he is tomorrow. He’s gonna get some imaging tomorrow” is what Bob Melvin said about Dom Smith’s high hamstring strain which shouldn’t be as bad as it sounds. 

With the game tied in the bottom of the ninth and one out, the Giants finally had a great opportunity to score with pinch-runner Grant McCray tagging up from third base on a very shallow fly ball hit by Wilmer Flores. Dodger center fielder Andy Pages threw a perfect strike to home plate to catch McCray and end the inning on the double play. 

In the top of the 10th, McCray was ready for his revenge and got an opportunity on a short pop-up off the bat of Mookie Betts. McCray caught it and threw a 101.7mph seed to catch the ghost-runner in the 10th inning and just like that the Giants had every ounce of the momentum gained. McCray’s throw was the hardest thrown outfield assist by a Giant in the statcast era. While praising McCray for coming off the bench and being ready to make a play as he did, Bob Melvin said, “There’s plenty of things you could say about the plays of the game, I don’t know that there was a bigger play in the game than that.”

The Giants took their energy to the bottom of the tenth where the bases got loaded with two walks and the already-existing runner on base to start, setting the table for Patrick Bailey, who had already provided fans a walk-off moment for the ages on his walk-off inside-the-park home run against the Phillies on July 8. Bailey sat on a high fastball in a 1-0 count and barrelled it to left field. The roar of the crowd was immediate because everyone knew Patrick Bailey had just walked off the Dodgers in grand fashion. Grant McCray, still juiced up from the throw he made in the top half of the inning, joined who else but Drew Gilbert as two of the first to storm the field toward home plate. The electrified fans cheered Bailey all the way around the bases until he officially scored, putting an end to the game and putting the Giants a half game back of the Mets for the last NL Wild Card spot. 

A game for the ages was just the start of an incredible weekend of baseball on the shores of McCovey Cove. Another great pitching matchup takes place Saturday night with LHP Clayton Kershaw (10-2, 3.27) vs. RHP Logan Webb (14-9, 3.12). 

First pitch 6:05pm at Oracle Park.