Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Take that!

SF 5  STL 4

Rookie Blake Sabol blasted a two-out, two-strike, two-run homer in the 9th to shock the Cardinals and give the Giants a dramatic walk-off win. It was a nail-biting 2-1 game into the 8th when St. Louis finally broke through against the Giants wall of relievers, tacking a three-spot on Scott Alexander and Camilo Doval. That 4-2 lead looked insurmountable for the home team but an error (one of three by the Redbirds) by Tommy Edman at second base allowed leadoff man Joc Pederson to reach. A clutch double from Mike Yastrzemski (who homered earlier) plated him and the Giants had a pulse. Two quick outs followed and it didn't look good. Ryan Helsley is a very tough reliever who has 100+ mph heat and a wipeout slider. He left one just a bit out over the plate and the young Giants catcher showed off his power with a 428-foot bomb to center. That's four wins in a row!

John Brebbia opened (1-1/3), Sean Manaea followed (1-1/3, 1 R), then Jakob Junis (1.0), Taylor Rogers (1-1/3), Tyler Rogers (2.0), and finally Alexander (1/3, charged with all 3 R), Doval (1/3, gave up the RBI hit to Paul Goldschmidt), and Sean Hjelle (1.0) took the 9th.

The Giants blew a couple of games earlier in the month and I kept thinking "when is our turn?" for some come-from-behind excitement. This was one of those "payback" wins. It is good to see the team playing better baseball. Maybe Anthony DeSclafani can mow 'em down tonight for a series sweep (whoops, it's a four-game series!) for a fifth straight win. Wouldn't that be nice? First pitch at 6:45 PT.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

 

p.s. It's an unusual off-day on Friday as the team travels to Mexico City for a weekend set against the Padres. The Giants will be the visitors at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú Béisbol (3:05 Sat, 1:05 Sun PT).

4 comments:

Andrei said...

Wow.....That was a nail biting, chalk board scratching, come from behind loving, Giants WIN! Oh my, I can't take too many of those, but I welcome them wholeheartedly. OK.....time to get greedy and let's break out the broom! Go Giants!

nomisnala said...

Unexpected and exciting comeback after the giants gave the game away, it was nice to take it back, especially against a team that has both Goldschmidt and Arenado. I was surprised that he let Alexander to pitch to the pinch hitter, who was 1 for 1 vs Alexander with a home run. After he was announced, I thought a move was in the making, but surprisingly Mr. Matchup sat tight.

M.C. O'Connor said...

I wondered about that one too but he had already used Tyler Rogers, Jakob Junis, and John Brebbia so it would have been Sean Hjelle or Tristan Beck and I think Kap decided an experienced lefty is better than a rookie righty. They obviously wanted to save Camilo Doval for the 9th but that didn't quite work out!

Baseball makes you look like a genius and then it makes you look like an idiot.

I keep forgetting this is a FOUR game set and thus they've got two more. Tonight with Tony Disco and tomorrow with Logan Webb.

nomisnala said...

So many times when you want to save a pitcher, for the game, or a later inning, you end up in trouble and have to use him anyway, so why not just use the guy who can shut the other team down. Of course it does not always work, but when these guys are always throwing stats, and metrics out there, perhaps they should stick to it and stop adding to the torture giants fans too often experience.