SAN FRANCISCO — Stretching their winning streak to nine games, the Giants are seemingly finding new and exciting ways to eke out ballgames on a nightly basis. With five comebacks in the seventh inning or later, the late heroics are getting the well-deserved attention.
But the less heralded plays and performances that put them in position to set the stage for the late drama shouldn’t go overlooked.
“It’s those little things that lead to these bigger moments that we talk about,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “The big moments will always tell the story of a season, but it’s kind of the little things that are leading to those big moments.”
Before J.D. Davis hit his pinch-hit grand slam in Los Angeles, LaMonte Wade Jr. had to work a walk against a tough lefty to bring him to the plate. Smart base running by Mike Yastrzemski, tagging up from second and then from third on two sac flies, forced extras to set up his walk-off homer Monday night. The Giants also wouldn’t have gotten to extra innings Monday without Patrick Bailey’s play in the first inning, catching Fernando Tatis Jr. attempting to steal third. Bailey’s throw erased a runner right before Juan Soto homered, turning a potential two-run shot into only one.
When Joc Pederson drew his walk-off walk Tuesday, the bases were loaded with three rookies: Bailey, Casey Schmitt and Luis Matos, who scored the winning run.
“I think that’s the special thing,” Pederson said. “There’s not one or two, there’s 26 of us contributing, doing our own separate piece to help us win.”
The most unheralded aspect of their recent success, as always, is the bullpen. And within that group, the work they have gotten from rookie relievers, often taking down multiple innings at a time.
The Giants were trailing 3-1 when Tristan Beck took over in the sixth inning Tuesday night. They were down 3-0 when Keaton Winn took over in the fifth on Monday. The two 25-year-old right-handers held the Padres to one run over the eight innings they worked — five from Winn and three from Beck — allowing the Giants to stay within striking distance.
“You’ve got Tatis, Soto, Machado, you’ve got a star lineup over there and Keaton Winn, one run, that gave us a chance to come back,” Pederson said. “It doesn’t happen without him doing that.”
The Giants aren’t the first team to win nine games in a row. But they might be the first to do it while rolling with three healthy starting pitchers for most of it. The bulk work of Winn, Beck, Jakob Junis and Sean Manaea has been key. San Francisco has relied on its relievers for 50⅓ innings over the course of the winning streak, most in the National League in that time, and the bullpen has responded with a 1.79 ERA, also tops in the NL.
Who’s doing the heavy lifting? Beck (9.0 innings), Winn (9.0), Junis (5.2) and another rookie, right-hander Ryan Walker (5.0), who got his second nod as an opener on Wednesday, filling in for the injured John Brebbia.
“Just to see guys like Ryan Walker, guys like Matos, seeing these young guys come up and have that professional accountability and come in here and take care of themselves,” said third baseman J.D. Davis, “they’re not only taking care of themselves, they’re taking care of the guy next to him too.”
With Tuesday’s win, the Giants walked off their opponent in back to back games for the first time since 2019. Of the nine wins on their current streak, five have come after trailing entering the seventh inning. It should come as no surprise, then, that the Giants lead the majors in scoring in the seventh inning and later, including 26 over their current streak, six more than the next-closest team. Over the course of the streak, the Giants are batting .349 in the seventh inning on.
Since the start of June, Brandon Crawford, age 36, has driven in three of those late RBIs, while Pederson, age 31, leads the team with five. But in between them are Bailey and Schmitt, a pair of 24-year-old rookies, with four apiece.
It’s an exhilarating way to win, but is it sustainable?
They have also been held to three runs in the first six innings of their eventual walk-off wins the past two nights. They’ve been held hitless into the sixth inning three times in the past two weeks and gone on to win twice.
“We’ve struggled a little bit in the early parts of games recently,” Kapler said. “But I think it speaks to the tenacity of the team and also to the fact that you get a bigger sample size. More at-bats in a game and eventually the true colors of the offense are going to come out, and I think they have in a lot of ways. … A win is a win. It’s pretty exciting the way they’re going right now.”
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