San Francisco Giants’ Ryan Walker (74) throws against the Miami Marlins in sixth inning action. Walker pitched an inning of relief faced six hitters and gave up no runs on three hits at Oracle Park in San Francisco for his first Major League win on Sun May 21, 2023 (Bay Area News Group photo)
Miami (24-23). 101 110 001. – 5. 13. 0
San Francisco (22-24). 013 002 01x. – 7. 9. 1
Time: 2:24
Attendance: 28,936
Sunday, May 21, 2023
By Lewis Rubman
SAN FRANCISCO–Ever since Major League Baseball, after destroying Curt Flood’s career, read the writing on the wall and acceded to Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale’s hold out demands in 1966 by accepting a byzantine version of free agency, “well travelled” has become a frequent adjective for any player with more than five years’ experience. (Of course, in the old days, players moved around a lot, only they had no control over where and when they’d be moved).
Miami’s starter for today, Jesús Luzardo, deserves that peripatetic epithet. Born in Peru, raised in Venezuela and south Florida, signed by the Washington Nationals, traded to the Athletics, and then dealt to Miami, the 25 year southpaw seems to be justifying the excitement he aroused when he first came to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2019.
His game time marks of 3-2, 3.16 are good, if not outstanding, but there is a detail of his recent outings for the gang from the Miami Bay Area. In four of his nine previous starts he had held his opponents to one run or less. His April 17 start against the Giants in Miami was one of the five in which he didn’t fare that well. He gave up three runs on five hits in 4-1/3 innings.
Like Luzardo, Alex Wood, the Giants’ starting pitcher, is left handed and has experience a few injuries along the way. Indeed, he was on the IL from April 19th to May 4th. He had gone 0-0, 476 since his return and was 0-0, 2.87 when he took the mound at 1:06 on a warm, sunny Bay to Breakers Sunday at Oracle Park.
It didn’t take long for the Marlins to jump ahead of the Giants in a game they eventually won, 7-5. Jorge Soler, the second man up for the Fish, drove a solo home run 436 feet, deep into the left field bleachers to get Miami off on the right fin in the first inning.
Nor did it take long for the Giants to catch up. Pat Bailey, in his fourth major league at bat, got his second hit and first homer and RBI with 423 no doubt about it blast over the left center field fence. It came off a 97.8mph four seamer.
It looked like we were playing two for the see saw. Wood got two quick outs in the third and then deflected a line drive off Jon Berti’s bat towards second, where it went for an infield single. Berti, to, went to second on a balk and scored when Soler lifted a double to the right field corner.
And in the bottom of the frame, Bryce Johnson defied The Curse of the Leadoff Double. His two bagger landed on the Konica Minolta sign on the base of left center field fence in front of the Giants’ bullpen. He went to third on Wilmer Flores’s productive ground out too. short and scored Estrada’s double down the left field line.
Davis trotted home on JD Davis’s eighth dinger of 2023, a 433 foot moon shot way over the top of the sign Johnson’s earlier hit had bounced against. The inning ended with the Giants holding a 4-2 lead that Nick Fortes narrowed to 4-3 with a two out four bagger to left in the top of the fourth. Yastrzemski’s beautiful diving catch of Garrett Hampson’s dying quail to right kept it there.
A one out single to right center by Edwards and an infield hjit by Bertio in the top of the fifth ended Wood’s working day. John Brebbia came on and gave up a single down the left field line to Soler that could have been a double but in any case drove in Edwards and moved Bert on to third.
Cooper popped up to third. Then Brebbia escaped from trouble with a doozy of a play. Soler tried to steal second, and Berti ran for home, resulting in this pickle: Bailey threw to Estrada, who threw back to Bailey, who threw to Schmitt, who threw to Brebbia, who threw to Crawford, who threw to Schmitt, who threw to Bailey, who tagged Berti out at third, 2-4–2-5-1-6-5-2. And so the top of the fifth ended with the score knotted at four. Ryan Walker relieved Brebbia to start the sixth.
Wood had lasted 4-1/3 innings and got a no decision. He allowed four runs, all earned but one posthumous, on six hits, two of them homers, and no walks. He struck out five and saw his ERA rose to 4.05. 50 of his 74 pitches were considered strikes.
You knew that tie couldn’t last. Davis led off the home sixth with a double to left, and Haniger drove him in with a tie breaking single to right that ended Luzardo’s mound tenure. Andrew Nardi relieved him.
He got Yastrzemski to foul out to third and then gave up a single to center to Schmitt that brought Haniger to the hot corner. Bailey dropped a sacrifice bunt that scored Haniger and moved Schmitt to second before Crawford drew a walk. Bryce Johnson’s nubber to the mound ended the episode with the Giants ahead, 6-4.
Luzardo gave up six runs, all earned and one posthumous, in five innings. He yielded six hits, two of the home runs and a walk, while striking out eight. He threw 92 pitches, 59 for strikes.
Matt Barnes got the Giants out 1-2-3 in the seventh and, after yielding a single to center to Haniger to open the eighth, gave way to Steven Okert. Haniger stole second, his first attempted steal of the year, on Okert and then scored a run charged to Barnes, when Schmitt singled to left. (He, too, stole second).
Ryan Walker pitched a scoreless sixth for San Francisco, and Jacob Junis repeated that feat in the seventh and set the Marlins down in order in the eighth.
Camilo Doval took the mound in the top of the ninth with a 7-4 lead and the bottom of the order coming to bat. Joey Wendle hit for Hampson and managed an infield single to short. Luis Affaez lined out to Estrada at second. Edwards took a called third strike.
Wendle, who had gone to second on defensive indifference, went to third on an swinging bunt single by Berti and scored on Bailey’s errant throw to first. Soler ended the game with a fly to right.
Duval got credit for the save, his 12th. Walker (1-0,0.00) was the winning pitcher, and Luzardo (3-3. 3.83) the loser.
The Giants now will fly to Minneapolis to take on the Twins tomorrow, Monday, evening there but 4:40 in the afternoon here. San Francisco hasn’t yet announced their starting pitcher, but the Twinkies will throw Bailey Ober (2-0, 1.78)
