SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants and Diamondbacks have played 15 games this season and for so much of the year, a first-place San Francisco club has used matchups with Arizona to show why it has exceeded expectations.
The Giants wear opponents down, win with depth and execute the “little things” better than nearly every other club.
That’s what made Tuesday’s game against the Diamondbacks seem like such an anomaly.
The Giants held a 5-0 lead and coughed it up, led 7-5 in the ninth and watched their closer blow a save and gave a last-place Arizona club every opportunity to secure an unlikely come-from-behind win.
Instead, the Diamondbacks’ tendency to make late-game mistakes came back to haunt Arizona again as first baseman Christian Walker misplayed a pair of balls in the bottom of the ninth to help the Giants secure a 8-7 walk-off win.
After LaMonte Wade Jr. reached on an error to open the bottom of the ninth, catcher Buster Posey reached base for the fifth time on Tuesday with another walk before Brandon Crawford advanced the runners to second and third with a high chopper back to pitcher Matt Peacock.
The sequence set up newcomer Kris Bryant to be the hero as he put a ball in play on the right side of the infield that Walker couldn’t handle, which allowed Wade to race home from third and score the winning run.
Starter Alex Wood fell apart in a nine-pitch sixth inning sequence that allowed the Diamondbacks to erase a sizable deficit, outfielder Mike Yastrzemski failed to score a much-needed insurance run when he had a chance to scamper home on a softly hit groundball in the eighth inning and closer Jake McGee gave up his first earned run since May 30.
Yet the Giants still improved to 13-2 against the Diamondbacks this season and maintained their 4.0-game lead over the Dodgers in the National League West with a victory in a game they easily could have lost.
The win marked the 2,000th of assistant coach Ron Wotus’ major league career, which was a milestone manager Gabe Kapler celebrated postgame.
Wotus has spent three decades in the Giants organization, first managing three different minor league affiliates from 1991-1997 before coaching under Dusty Baker, Felipe Alou, Bruce Bochy and now Gabe Kapler. He’s one of the most well-respected men to don a Giants uniform and in the last 10 days, he’s even sported a new one as the third base coach changed his number from 23 to 8 so Bryant could wear his jersey of choice.
A Giants offense that scored five runs in a dramatic ninth-inning comeback against the Diamondbacks on Thursday at Chase Field picked up where it left off against Arizona in the bottom of the first inning. Brandon Belt, Bryant and Yastrzemski all delivered extra-base hits while Posey drew a walk and Alex Dickerson drilled an RBI single into center field in an inning that kept Wotus busy.
The four-run outburst put Arizona starter Zac Gallen on the ropes early, but the right-hander battled back and fired three scoreless innings before Posey homered to straightaway center field in the fifth.
Wood was outstanding through his first five innings as he limited the Diamondbacks to just one hit before Arizona’s hitters feasted on him in a brutal sixth inning. After recording the first out of the frame, the Giants left-hander gave up a double to Gallen, who was still in the game despite giving up five runs in the first five innings.
Two pitches later, the Diamondbacks had cut a 5-0 lead to 5-2 as Nick Ahmed and Ketel Marte each doubled to build on Arizona’s momentum. The next batter, Kole Calhoun, also swung at the first pitch, but grounded out to second base to give Wood a chance to get out of the inning while limiting the damage. Instead, catcher Carson Kelly tripled into the right center field gap and scored on a game-tying home run from Asdrúbal Cabrera, who has tormented the Giants this season.
The flyball Cabrera hit to center field initially appeared to be headed for the warning track, but Yastrzemski continued to drift back to the wall before watching the ball sail over the fence.
In a span of nine pitches, the Diamondbacks went from trailing by five runs and having no one on base to tying the game and giving Gallen a shot to go back out for the sixth inning. It’s possible Kapler should have replaced Wood after Kelly’s triple, but doing so would have required the Giants to have a pitcher immediately warm up after back-to-back doubles and then bring that pitcher in after throwing just four warmup pitches.
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