SF Giants’ present and future came together in huge series win against Pirates

Baseball can be such an interesting, emotional sport. One team and its fanbase can go from complete despair to sheer elation in a matter of minutes.

When Pirates’ Spencer Horwitz roped a double that gave Pittsburgh a two-run lead in the top of the 10th inning, every SF Giants fan in the stadium and at home sitting in their couches got flashbacks. Hurtful flashbacks of a disastrous day in Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago, when their team lost two games in extra innings in a nine-hour span.

They didn’t know it at the time, but those two gut-punches marked the start of a very rough stretch for the Orange and Black. They would proceed to win just one of their next nine games and plummet all the way down to the bottom of the National League standings.

So when Willy Adames stepped into the batter’s box with two men on, two outs and a two-run deficit to overcome in the bottom of the 10th, it felt like the outcome of this at-bat had the power to define a future stretch. A base hit could revitalize the team; an out could sink it even deeper into its misery.

Thankfully, Adames came through with the clutch hit, his fifth of the series. The bullpen held it down for two more innings, and Jesus Rodriguez delivered with a soft single in the bottom of the 12th inning to propel the Giants to a much-needed 7-6 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Giants didn’t grab a lead until they walked it off in the bottom of the 12th inning. But given how badly wins are needed right now, they will take them in any way, shape or form.

"Gritty, you know, was something that stuck out. We had that in our win against the Nats too that was I guess similar to that. But the biggest thing a couple of people mentioned and I said something similar to somebody is just this sticking together," Giants manager Tony Vitello said following the win. "There was a lot a chaos in that game, guys had to hand the ball off to a fellow pitcher and you think we're gonna win in one inning and you got all kind of different situations popping up and they just stuck together."

This one was as chaotic and stressful as it gets, especially for a team as desperate for wins as the Giants right now. From challenging bullpen management to numerous game-altering at-bats, the tension built up until the very last play of the game.

Jesus Rodriguez found himself in the position of being the hero twice on Sunday afternoon. In his first crack at it in the 10th inning, he struck out on four pitches with the bases loaded. The baseball gods granted him another chance, and this time he didn't let it slip away. After both Matt Chapman and Drew Gilbert reached base safely, Rodriguez — in his fifth major-league game, drove in Heliot Ramos with a flare single into shallow right field.

But the play didn't go as smoothly as I made it sound. Ramos couldn't get a clean read of the ball trajectory and got a late start from third, causing confusion all around the ballpark and Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper to go nuts.

"I think he was in the right spot, a little bit off so he could score, but not too far if something crazy happened. And then he kind of had a read like that thing was gonna float. It did float for a little bit. Of course, we're in the dugout, and he thought he might have a chance to catching it," Tony Vitello said postgame. "I saw he was playing in and the ball hung like too long. So I'm like 'oh, is it gonna drop or not?' So I just took a break, like I just took a minute to see it land and go," Heliot Ramos said.

It's hard to dream up how things could have turned out better for Jesus Rodriguez in his first week in the majors. The front office put on full display the trust they have in him by trading away two-time Gold Glove winner Patrick Bailey to the Cleveland Guardians, basically giving him — and Daniel Susac — the keys to the catcher position for the foreseeable future.

In a five-game span in the big leagues, the young rookie catcher has collected his first hit, recorded two multi-hit games, sent a ball over the right-field fence (a rarity for a righty at Oracle Park), and hit a walk-off single in the 12th inning of a game. A promising start to what shapes out to be a promising career.

"There's going to be some patience that's required out of everybody and also eagerness to learn, which he kind of already has. But I think we kind of know wha Buster saw in order to acquire him and it's what everybody sees when you watch him, it's impossible not to see the attributes that he has," said Vitello about the 24-year-old catcher. "Everybody's been talking about the great hitter that he is. Even like throughout the minor leagues, I don't think he hit less than .330, so I think he's a pretty good hitter, he can put good at-bats together, his inside out approach, I love it," Ramos said when asked about Rodriguez's recent stretch.

That last magical moment couldn't have happened if not for the Giants core, one that will make over $100 million combined this season. Jung Hoo Lee, Rafael Devers, Heliot Ramos, Willy Adames, and Matt Chapman all ended the game with multiple hits, and decisive ones. It was the first time this season that all five of them finished with at least two hits.

They joined forces in the sixth inning to erase a two-run deficit and put together one of the team's most productive inning in a while.

Devers started things off with a sharply-hit leadoff double — he also lined one in the eigth that would have been a home run in 11 ballparks. Ramos went back-to-back and drove in Devers with another double — his second extra-base hit of the day after he smoked a 110.3 mph ball into the left-center-field bleachers in the fourth. Finally, Chapman — who had collected just one hit over his previous 32 at-bats — completed the rally with yet another double (which would have been a home run at Wrigley Field) after Adames had wisely advanced Ramos to third base.

You're probably wondering when was the last time the Giants hit three doubles in a single inning. I can unfortunately confidently say that it was the first time they did it this season. However, the last publicly-documented three-double inning I could find happened on September 7 2021, when Tommy La Stella, Brandon Belt and Buster Posey opened a game at Coors Field with three straight doubles.

At the end of the day, this win counts as just one in the win column, one of just 16 through 40 games, their fewest since 2017. But the momentum they generated out of it has the potential carry them through their upcoming 10-game road trip, starting Monday night at Dodger Stadium in the first game of a four-game set against L.A.

Not only did that win clinched the Giants their first series win since April 26 against Miami, it also bumped them up two spots in the National League standings — moving past the Mets and Rockies — and a successful road trip could bring them closer to where this team was put together to compete: in the playoff race.

"I don't wanna recreate today, I'd have a heart attack."

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