SAN FRANCISCO — Come-from-behind wins on the road are nice, and certainly help you get to the postseason. But there’s nothing like doing it at home, as Mike Yastrzemski reminded everyone on Monday night.
Yastrzemski was all over three late rallies for the Giants and won it with a three-run, walk-off homer in the bottom of the 10th inning.
His fourth career walk-off landed in McCovey Cove and gave the Giants a 7-4 win over the San Diego Padres, their eighth straight.
The Giants trailed all night, but they emptied the bench in the late innings and it finally paid off in the ninth. With Josh Hader unavailable, the Padres turned to right-hander Luis Garcia, who proved to have no idea how to hit the strike zone. Garcia walked pinch-hitter Blake Sabol and then gave up a single to Yastrzemski. A very wild pitch brought one home run, and Yastrzemski took third on Luis Matos’ fly ball to center. After a walk by JD Davis, Garcia was yanked, but Drew Carlton wasn’t much better.
Patrick Bailey’s line drive to left was deep enough to score Yastrzemski, and Carlton followed with walks by David Villar and Casey Schmitt, who had just one in his previous 134 plate appearances. Padres manager Bob Melvin made his third pitching change of the inning, and this time he was rewarded. Ray Kerr struck out Joc Pederson to leave the bases loaded.
The Padres had jumped out to a 4-0 lead behind Michael Wacha, with Juan Soto hitting a pair of loud homers to left. The Giants crawled back on a couple of homers of their own.
With Davis and Schmitt banged up, Villar took advantage of a start at third and hit a solo shot to left in the fifth. The homer was his first since April 29, when he went deep against the Padres in Mexico City.
An inning later, Yastrzemski gave Wacha a flashback he probably didn’t want. Yastrzemski’s ninth homer of the season landed in the arcade and made it a two-run game. That set the stage for the late drama.
Ain’t Havin’ It
Fernando Tatis Jr. led off the game with a double to left and immediately tried to steal third on Patrick Bailey. Tatis was initially ruled safe, but the Giants challenged and it was a quick review.
Bailey now has caught eight of 20 runners who have tried to steal on him. In the last four games, he has thrown out Tatis and Mookie Betts, two of the better baserunners in the National League. Monday’s throw prevented a run, as Soto followed with a homer.
The Rookie Relievers
Ryan Walker has a good sense of humor, apparently. When “opener” John Brebbia went down, he said he hoped that his replacement would use his “I’m just the opener” warm-up song and Walker did in his first start in the big leagues. He gave up a solo homer to Soto, but that was the only run in his 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Soto had the same greeting for rookie Keaton Winn.
The superstar left fielder crushed Winn’s first pitch to just about the same exact spot as his first homer, but Winn settled in quickly.
He threw five shutout innings after the blast, allowing three hits and striking out four. Winn ended his first night at Oracle Park with a strikeout of Tatis with two outs in the top of the ninth.
Winn has allowed just one run over nine innings in two relief appearances. The Giants will have this rotation spot come up again over the weekend, and it is possible that either Winn or Tristan Beck fills it.
Getting Healthy
The Giants had enough concern about their infield after Sunday’s game that they flew Triple-A second baseman Isan Diaz from Texas to San Francisco, but Diaz didn’t end up getting activated. When Scott Alexander (hamstring strain) went on the IL, Sean Hjelle got that spot.
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In the late innings, it became clear why the Giants went that way. Davis pinch-hit for Brandon Crawford and stayed in the game at third. After making his first defensive appearance since spraining his ankle a week ago, Davis should be able to return to a starting role on Tuesday.
A day after Schmitt took a fastball off the forearm, he pinch-hit and stayed in the game at shortstop. The welt on Schmitt’s arm was just about gone when he arrived at Oracle Park on Monday and he felt fine after going through a pregame workout.
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