San Francisco Giants’ LaMonte Wade Jr., left, scores past Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto during the third inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Sat Sep 3, 2022
Philadelphia (73-60). 4. 12. 2
San Francisco (63-68). 5. 11. 1
Saturday, September 3, 2022
By Lewis Rubman
SAN FRANCISCO-Baseball players and managers are notoriously superstitious. Think of all those players jumping over the foul lines and managers wearing out their clothing before changing it and their luck. Branch Rickey famously pronounced, “Luck is the residue of design.” Baseball is fraught with design.
Friday night’s stunning 13-1 Giant triumph over the visiting Philadelphia Phillies provided fodder for those participants, spectators, and other fans who know something of the history of the two teams.
The numbers 13 and 1 in the context of a late season rush to the league championship are catnip to the Giants. On August 11 (i.e., double one) of 1951, the Phillies defeated the New York Giants, dropping the New Yorkers to 13 games out of first with only 44 left on the schedule.
The Giants went on a tear and, with a little help from their outfield signal corps, caught up with, tied, and, on Bobby Thomson’s pop fly with two away in the ninth inning of the third game of a three game playoff, a pop fly the landed in the left field overhang, about 265 feet from home, went on to the World Series.
The Phillies, too, are no strangers to late season reversals of fortune. In 1964, they led the league by 6-1/2 games with only 30 to go and yet managed to blow that seemingly invincible advantage.
Saturday game recap: This Saturday afternoon’s tussle between the representatives of the Quaker City and the Quaking City took place with San Francisco an even ten games behind the Phils, who were hanging on to the last wild card slot by the skin of their teeth.
The newly re-energized Giants sent right lander Jakob Junis (4-4, 4.04 at game time) to the mound. He lasted 4-1/3 innings in San Francisco’s bitterly contested 5-4 triumph.
Junis allowed three runs, two of them earned, on seven hits, one of which left the park and another a double that was lost in the sun, and two walks. He threw 78 pitches, 52 of them strikes. His no decision gave him a record of 4-4, 4.05.
The Phils countered with another righty, Noah Syndergaard (8-9, 3.98 when the game began). He, too, got a no decision after hurling 4-1/3 frames. He surrendered four runs, three of them earned, on seven safeties and a walk.
He notched three strikeouts, throwing a total of 75 pitches, 52 qualifying as strikes. His no decision left his won-lost record at 8-9 but raised his ERA to 4.07.
As luck would have it, the home team escaped The Curse of the Leadoff Double when, in the bottom of the first LaMonte Wade, Jr., lined one to right and, following Mike Yastrzemski’s foul pop to third, Thairo Estrada hit a nubber to Syndergaard that would have been a close play at first if the Phillies’ pitcher hadn’t heaved it into the warning track.
Estrada wound up on second, and Wade took third on the infield hit and scored an unearned run on the throwing error. The inning ended with the orange and black leading, 1-0.
The worm turned with a vengeance in the top of the second. Bryson Stott beat the shift with a bunt single to the left that Brian Crawford fielded cleanly but threw wildly to first, allowing the Phils’ shortstop to take second.
Jean Segura’s double to right knotted up the score, and after Brandon Marsh whiffed for the first out, Matt Vierling’s Texas League single to right brought in Segura to put the visitors ahead, 2-1, where the score remained when the frame came to a close.
San Francisco loaded the bases with nobody out in the home third on back to back singles to right by Knap and Wade, followed by a walk to Yastrzemski. Syndergaard struck out Estrada, but Pederson hit the third single to right of the inning, bringing in Knapp with the tying run and leaving the basepaths still jammed with Giants.
First baseman Rhys Hoskins couldn’t handle Crawford’s hard bouncer behind the bag, allowing Wade to cross the plate with the leading run. A 6-4-3 twin killing, initiated with a spiffy behind the back toss from Stott to Segura, ended the frame, but the Giants were back on top, 3-2.
Stott didn’t stop there. He led off the fourth with a 412 foot roudtripper to right off an 84 mph change of pace on 1-1 count, tying the game at 3-3.
It didn’t look as though it would stay like that for long. Kyle Schwarber led off the fifth with a lost in the sun double to the left field warning track. Hoskins followed with a broken bat Texas League single to center that advanced Schwarber to third.
Alec Bohm then hit a grounder to Crawford, who threw Schwarber out at home while Hoskins moved on to second. That ended Junis’s tenure on the mound. Scott Alexander relieved him and induced Harper into a 1-6-3 double play that put out the fire and preserved the tie.
Knapp opened the Giants’ fifth by popping out to third. Then Yaz sent an automatic double to right center that hopped over the Visa sign. Estrada dropped a bunt single to third that put men on the corners.
At this point, Connor Brogdon replaced Syndergaard on the mound. Pederson lined a single to right that plated Yaz and moved Estrada into scoring position at second. They were stranded there after Brogdon fanned David Villar and Tommy LaStella grounded out to second. The inning was over, but the Giants had reclaimed the lead.
That was nice while it lasted, but JT Realmuto led off the visitors’ sixth with a single to left. Bryson Stott forced him at second on a nice play from Villar to Thairo Estrada in the shift.
Jean Segura’s double to left center tied things up again at four. After Scott Alexander got Brandon Marsh to go down swinging, Zack Littel came on to retire Matt Vierlilng to end the inning. He wound up getting the win, bringing his record to 2-2, 4.38.
Lefty Brad Hand took over pitching duty for Philadelphia in the bottom of the sxith. Lewis Brinson, pinch hitting for Luis Gonazález, greeted him with a double off the top of the Toyota sign in left. After walks to JD Davis and Evan Longoria, with a strikeout of Wilmer Flores – all of them, by the way, pinch hitters – the bases were fraught with Giants.
Estrada forced Brinson out at home, 4-2. The bases still were loaded now, with two out, and. Pederson at the plate.
He worked the count to 3-2 before walking to drive in Davis with the leading run and avert The Curse of the Leadoff Double. Hand struck out Brandon Crawford on three pitches, but SF had a tenuous lead of 5-4.
Workhorse John Brebbia took over mound duties for the Giants in the top of the eighth, and Schwarber greeted him with a line drive triple that bounced off the gates between the State Farm and AAA Insurance advertisements in right center.
Brebbia then fanned Hoskins and got Bohm to ground to Crawford while Schwarber held his ground 90 feet from home before yielding the rubber to Jarín García. He granted a semi- intentional walk to Harper before ending the threat by overpowering Realmuto with an 0-2 95mph four seamer.
After the seventh inning stretch, Andrew Bellatti faced leadoff hitter Austin Wynns, now catching for the Giants and batting in Villar’s spot after the massive pinch hit outburst in the bottom of the sixth.
Wynns got the second lost in the sun double, both of them leadoffeers, with a fly to left that left Schwarber helpless. LaStella, up next, sliced a fly to left that wasn’t high enough to blind Schwarber, and there was one out.
A set of effective sliders, and Brinson went down swinging. The Curse of the Leadoff Double was fulfilled when Bryce Johnson, the right fielder who replaced the pinch hitting Davis, took a called third strike.
Alex Young became San Francisco’s fifth relief pitcher of the afternoon when he took the mound in the top of the eighth and gave up a leadoff single to right center to Scott. Segura then singled to left. Danny Sands hit for Marsh and worked a full count before bouncing into a tailor made 6-4-3 double play. Out went Young; in came Camilo Doval. It took him four pitches to dispose of Matt Viering.
José Alvarado held the boys from the bay scoreless in their half of the eighth, and we went to the ninth with Doval still on the mound for San Francisco to face the top of the Phillies´order. Helped by a spectacular diving catch by Austin Slater, who had just replaced Pederson in left, of a sinking liner by Hoskins for the second out, he set them down in order, notching his 19th save in 22 opportunities.
Hand was charged with the loss. His record now stands at 3-2, 2.21.
Tomorrow at 1:05 we’ll see if the Giants can keep up their momentum. Staff ace Carlos Rodón (12-7, 3.03) will face off against fellow portsider Ranger Suárez (8-5, 3.42)
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