SAN FRANCISCO _ Yes, you can live in the past. Michael Morse proved it. Yes, you can celebrate the future. Christian Arroyo demonstrated it.
As for the San Francisco Giants finally pulling off a late-inning comeback? No time like the present.
Arroyo's first major league home run _ a two-run shot off blue-socked Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Sergio Romo _ started the Giants' comeback in the seventh inning Wednesday night. Morse's triumphant return to the roster resulted in another gilded storybook page, and a familiar romp around the bases after he hit his tying pinch homer in the eighth.
The Giants made it a team-wide romp when Hunter Pence's bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the 10th inning sent them to a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on a belief-suspending night at Third and King.
Gorkys Hernandez led off the 10th with a single against right-hander Ross Stripling, Conor Gillaspie worked a walk, Nick Hundley put down a sacrifice bunt in which the Dodgers gunned and failed to record an out a third base, and then Pence worked a 10-pitch at-bat, the tension ratcheting up with every pitch, before lofting one deep enough to left field.
It was a cathartic win for a team that had become masters at staging tantalizing but unfulfilling late-inning rallies. And the method of their comeback from a three-run deficit mixed old magic and fresh blood.
Arroyo floated around the bases, descended into the dugout and tried to pretend like he'd done this before. It wasn't a very good sell.
The crowd stood hopeful of acknowledging a curtain call. Arroyo could not tamp down his wide grin but did not emerge to hold a helmet aloft. When you are 21 years old and in the big leagues, baseball teaches you that joy should be served in bottled form.
But there are exceptions. You could be Morse, and you have all but retired, and you stumble into a spring training locker because of a conversation you happened to have at Pence's wedding, and you find yourself not only back with the team where you had the best time of your life but hitting a pinch home run in your first at-bat to tie the game.
When that happens, it all gets shaken and spilled out.
It really did happen Wednesday night.
The Giants purchased Morse's contract prior to the game and he bought them life. Arroyo hit a two-run home run off Romo in the seventh inning and Morse went deep off Pedro Baez in the eighth. It was a carbon copy of the tying, eighth-inning shot that Morse hit off the St. Louis Cardinals' Pat Neshek in the game that clinched the pennant in 2014.
Now as then, Morse romped around the bases and threatened to tear off limbs with emphatic high fives.
Until Arroyo touched a slider in the seventh inning, the Giants appeared dead.
It was the oddest confrontation. The crowd knew what to expect from the pitcher. From the furthest reaches of the upper deck, there was no mistaking who stood on the mound with those high socks and that trick slider.
The crowd knew less about the batter. Only that he arrived with a high draft pedigree, searing statistics from the minor leagues, and little use for a shaving kit.
This is the odd part. The pitcher was a Dodger. The hitter was one of their own. And the kid finally gave Giants fans something to cheer.
Arroyo extended his arms and got enough of Romo's slider to coax it through the chilled air and over the left field fence for his first major league home run.
The moment woke up a crowd that had little to cheer as the Dodgers scored three runs off Johnny Cueto in the sixth inning and once again, the Giants got off to a late start. Dodgers left-hander Alex Wood no-hit them until the sixth inning when Drew Stubbs collected his first as a Giant, a clean single through the left side.
Cueto won three of his first four starts but entered with a 5.25 ERA and has not pitched the kind of quick and clean innings for which he became known last season. He needed a running catch from Pence in right field to strand two runners in the first inning.
But Cueto got his shimmy on and he kept the Dodgers off the board until Corey Seager led off the sixth inning with a towering home run to center field. The shot touched off a taxing three-run inning.
Yasmani Grandal hit a one-out double to put two runners in scoring position, and Cueto issued a pitch-around walk to Yasiel Puig. It was the shrewd move, considering Chase Utley was on deck, and he was 1 for 31 on the season.
But Cueto couldn't put away Utley with two strikes, or get him to hit a double-play roller. The savvy veteran has only faced six major league pitchers more often than Cueto, and he entered with a .324 average in 42 plate appearances.
Utley made the smart adjustment. He lowered his bat angle and flared a sinker to left field for an RBI single that gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead.
And then, on a night when Gold Glove shortstop Brandon Crawford was grieving at a family funeral for his sister-in-law, the difference might have been a millisecond on a double play not turned.
With the infield in at all four spots, Andrew Toles hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Eduardo Nunez. Second baseman Joe Panik had a bit more ground to cover before accepting the throw and turning the pivot. Toles beat the relay throw by a half-step as the third run scored.
