SAN FRANCISCO — Just when it looked like the Giants were headed to another loss in what has become quintessential fashion this season, they pulled out the time machine for some of last year’s ninth-inning magic.
After mammoth solo shots from Joey Bart and Darin Ruf against the Brewers’ All-Star closer Josh Hader that pulled them within one in the bottom of the ninth, Mike Yastrzemski delivered the big blow — maybe the biggest this season — with a walk-off grand slam to center field that sent the Giants home winners, 8-5.
“Those are the things you dream about when you’re a kid playing in the backyard; you always focus on hitting walk-off grand slams,” Yastrzemski said. “But when it comes to that moment, you can’t be thinking about that. … I just tried to simplify and hit a ball somewhere to the outfield.”
Their ninth-inning rally gave the Giants their first win in 37 tries this season when trailing after eight innings, while Yastrzemski’s blast was the club’s first walk-off homer since August 2020 and its first walk-off grand slam since Bobby Bonds in 1973. No team in MLB history had homered three times in an inning that ended in a walk-off grand slam.
“Probably the wildest win of my career,” said Giants starter Alex Wood, who was left laughing and somewhat befuddled at the way his team pulled out the win after falling into a 5-2 hole. “Three bombs off Hader in the ninth? I still don’t believe it.”
Hader, one of the most decorated closers in the game, had never allowed more than two home runs in an outing.
Austin Slater, who scored from third base on Yastrzemski’s grand slam, was caught between first and second on a pick off but outran the throw to second. Yermín Mercedes, pinch-hitting for Brandon Belt, reached when Hader hit him with a pitch. Thairo Estrada poked a blooper that fell between three defenders in shallow right field to bring up Yastrzemski.
For once, it seemed, the bounces were going the Giants’ way.
The turning point, though, came a few innings earlier.
Before Bart delivered the physical manifestation of hope in the form of his leadoff home run against Hader, he sent a message to the rest of the club.
All of the Brewers’ five runs came in a disaster of a fifth inning that replicated so many of the faults that had led to losses during their stretch of baseball that dropped them 13.5 back of the division lead and out of playoff position.
There was an infield single, a ball that barely scooted through and an error. The Brewers batted around and scored five runs — taking what felt like a commanding 5-2 lead — while knocking Wood from the ballgame.
“It felt like all the energy was sucked out of the dugout,” Yastrzemski said. “I think it just kind of grinded Joey’s gears.”
Back in the majors for a little more than a week after a month at Triple-A, Bart felt the vibes of a downtrodden dugout. A group of players that had seen this story before — because it had played out just like this in so many of those 16 losses in their past 24 games.
Despite recording his sixth and seventh strikeouts of the night to start the inning, Wood would not finish the fifth, and the Brewers would eventually bat around while scoring five runs — only two of which were earned.
LaMonte Wade Jr. made the critical error on Christian Yelich’s hopper to first, after two Brewers reached on infield singles. The grounder hit off his glove, then off second baseman Thairo Estrada’s glove, and both runners rounded the remaining bags amid the chaos.
After being squeezed on a potential strike three that led to a walk, the reliever called on to get the Giants out of the mess, Tyler Rogers, proceeded to allow a three-run double to Andrew McCutchen, then issued a bases-loaded walk that capped the disastrous frame. The Brewers brought 11 men to the plate — nine of them after making the first two outs.
Whether Bart delivered his message to the team, or his voice simply carried was a matter of debate. Bart insists he was talking to injured backstop Curt Casali, but seemingly every player on the roster heard him.
“Sometimes you have long innings like that and things get kind of dead,” Bart said. “You have to keep fighting, keep pushing. … I said something to Curt, just between me and him. As a young player I don’t really think it’s my role to speak out. That’s just how I was feeling at the time, like, hey, it’s not over yet. Let’s keep going, let’s find a way to win and magic happened for sure.”
Bart exemplified that belief when he returned to the dugout from rounding the bases. Still trailing 5-3, Bart went to put his catcher’s gear on — something that would only be required if the club scratched two more across and forced extras.
“You’ve just got to put them on,” Bart said. “You’ve gotta put them on, to at least think that we’re gonna tie it and I might have to go back out. … It’s almost like good luck. I’m not gonna leave them off.”
After a one-run loss in extra innings to open this series, the Giants pulled out their own come-from-behind win on Friday. They did with the heroics of a catcher who had struggled so badly that he was demoted and reworked his swing, a pinch-hitter who seen as many hard-hit balls find leather as seemingly any other player in the game and a lefty who won his matchup against one of the majors’ nastiest left-handed relievers.
“One of the things we’ve seen over at least the last week or so is that our offense doesn’t feel like they’re out of games,” Kapler said. “We always feel like we have good players available to come up and get big hits for us. I don’t know that anybody would have expected that it would have been Yaz hitting that ball against Hader.”
After setting a season-high with eight strikeouts over seven shutout innings in his last start, Wood came one shy of matching that total through 4⅔ on Friday. Before the two infield singles and the error, Wood had retired 14 of the past 15 batters he faced since Yelich led off the game with a single. He was at 84 pitches when manager Gabe Kapler came out with the hook.
Because Wade’s error led to all three of Wood’s runs being unearned (Rogers’ two were both earned), Wood lowered his season ERA to 4.20. In three July starts, Wood has tossed 16⅔ innings and allowed one earned run — a 0.54 ERA.
Wade snapped a 5-for-41 slump since returning from the injured list with a second-inning triple that gave the Giants a 2-0 lead. Villar reached via a hit-by-pitch, Bart followed with a single, and Wade drove them both home with a 389-foot triple that met its match in the 415-foot alley in right-center field.
Mauricio Llovera, who recorded five outs without allowing a run between the sixth and the seventh, walked off the mound with head trainer Dave Groeschner and left the game with a flexor tendon injury, the Giants said after the game — a possible blow to a bullpen already on fumes. Every reliever has appeared in at least one of the past three games — Camilo Doval, John Brebbia and Jarlín Garcia on both Wednesday and Thursday — and Kapler said afterward Jakob Junis was a possibility to be activated for Saturday’s game.
