Tyler Rogers gives up a lot of weak contact. That was nearly his un-doing. In to protect the one-run lead in the 9th, the submariner gave up a feeble infield hit to Pavin Smith, who to his credit hit five foul balls in a ten-pitch at-bat. Nick Ahmed then singled before Stephen Vogt popped out. Another single from Josh Rojas loaded the bases. Rogers then got burned on a bad call--a feeble grounder in front of the plate by Ketel Marte was seized by Buster Posey. He got the force at the plate and was about to throw to first to complete the DP but it was called a foul ball. Rogers shook it off and channeled his inner beast and got the strikeout. He then got another weak grounder, this one from Eduardo Escobar that had just enough legs so Brandon Crawford could throw him out and that was the game. It was torture, but it was a win.
The Giants fell behind early but mounted a huge comeback to take a 5-4 lead to the 9th. Johnny Cueto went five innings, giving up four runs, he was followed by an inning apiece from Caleb Baragar, Nick Tropeano, and Jake McGee before Rogers' dramatic finish. The hitting hero was Jason Vosler who was called up because Brandon Belt went on the IL. Darin Ruf started and got hurt running the bases so Vosler had to pinch-run and grab his first baseman's mitt. He hit the game-winning homer in the 8th! Austin Slater had the other big blast in that frame, a two-run pinch-hit bomb to tie the game. Steven Duggar had a great at-bat in the 6th to get a rally going that scored the first two runs.
The Giants really needed to win these two games in Arizona. They go to Los Angeles next for a re-match with the Dodgers, a four-game set starting tomorrow night.
Alex Wood gets the start at 7:10 Pacific.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
2 comments:
There were a lot of 2 strike hits for both teams. Not only was the call questionable on the little ground ball in front of the plate, but on the last batter the pitch before the ground out looked like a definite strike for a called strike 3 and game over, instead it was called a ball. This had better not been a similar situation as when Livan Hernandez had been screwed on a 3rd strike call, and on the next pitch the Braves hit a grand slam to change the team that won the game. Despite all the luck seeming to go against the giants in the bottom of the ninth, they managed to hold on. Perhaps just barely getting a win going into a dodger series is better than winning the last game of the series 19-4. I thought Arizona did a great job hitting against the shift. Slater's home run landed here in Florida where I watch the game.
Yeah Slater really blasted it. Let's hope they can hang tough and win a couple in LA.
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