DENVER — During the Giants’ most demanding stretch of the 2021 season, the club played 16 consecutive games without an off day and navigated through series against three National League teams currently in position to make the playoffs.
The run finally ended Wednesday in Denver against a sub-.500 Rockies team, but a visit to Colorado was hardly an easy way to finish a grueling run. The Rockies, for all of their flaws, own one of the best home winning percentages in the majors and hadn’t been swept at Coors Field this season.
Then LaMonte Wade Jr. showed up.
With the Giants trailing 4-3 in the top of the ninth, Wade stepped up with the bases loaded and lined a two-strike single into right center field off a 99-mile per hour fastball off Carlos Estevez to push his team ahead by a run in a 7-4 comeback victory.
“The Rockies are really good in this ballpark and in particular, it’s tough to come from behind when you’re at the end of a long grueling stretch of games,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “You really have to dig deep and you’ve got to have quite a bit of mental strength and toughness and I thought that’s exactly what happened.”
A rally that began with a pinch-hit leadoff walk from Buster Posey ended after Evan Longoria delivered a two-out, two-run double to left center field to score Wade and Brandon Belt.
Closer Jake McGee, a former Rockies reliever, picked up his 30th save as the Giants improved to 90-50, moving to a season-high 40 games over .500.
During his short time with the Giants, Wade has established himself as one of the league’s best performers in clutch situations as he improved to 9-for-15 with nine RBIs in the ninth inning of games this season on Wednesday. In at-bats classified as “high-leverage” by Baseball Reference, Wade is hitting nearly .400 with an OPS above 1.000.
“I think what stands out is how selective he is,” Kapler said. “He’s just taking pitches he doesn’t feel like he can do something with and sometimes those pitches are strikes. Very similar to Darin Ruf where he’s able to go down in the count and trust he’s got enough bat speed, enough whip and enough power to get the ball in the air to the pull side.”
Wade’s contributions have played an overwhelming role in the Giants’ success this season, particularly for an outfield that’s been inconsistent and often dealing with injuries. A Giants team that’s already missing a pair of outfielders, Alex Dickerson and Austin Slater, due to injuries had to replace Mike Yastrzemski in the bottom of the eighth inning after the right fielder fouled a ball off his right ankle during an eighth inning plate appearance.
Kapler said Yastrzemski had a right ankle contusion and will be considered “day-to-day.”
The Giants recorded just two hits in their first five innings against Colorado starter Jon Gray, but after falling behind 3-0 in the bottom of the fifth, San Francisco’s offense answered right back. Belt led off the inning with a bloop single into center field before Wade drilled a single through a vacant left side of the infield to bring Brandon Crawford to the plate.
The Giants’ most dangerous hitter with runners in scoring position sent the first pitch he saw from Gray over the left field wall for a game-tying, three-run homer. Crawford’s 20th home run of the season inched him closer to his career-high of 21 set in 2015 and gave him 80 RBIs, which is four shy of his final total from the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
After shutting out the Dodgers over six scoreless innings in his last start, DeSclafani’s outing against Colorado started off with promise as the veteran kept the Rockies scoreless through four innings. Some of the good fortune DeSclafani had in the first few frames shifted in the fifth when catcher Elías Díaz hooked a double inside the left field line before taking third base on a passed ball by Curt Casali.
With Gray at the plate, the Giants pulled their infield in and watched the Rockies pitcher bounce a single past third baseman Kris Bryant’s outstretched glove to give Colorado its first lead of the series. After two more base hits, Kapler went to his bullpen so lefty Jarlín García could face left-handed hitter Charlie Blackmon.
The move nearly paid immediate dividends as García induced a potential inning-ending double play ball, but the Giants were too slow on the 4-6-3 exchange and Blackmon reached on a RBI fielder’s choice. The next hitter, Trevor Story, added to Colorado’s lead with a RBI double that tipped off the glove of Wade in left field who nearly made an outstanding running catch in front of the left field wall.
Díaz gave the Rockies the lead with a solo homer off Zack Littell in the seventh inning, but the Giants had yet another ninth-inning rally in them thanks to Wade.
