After a disappointing series loss at home to the otherwise hapless Chicago Cubs, the Giants had on opportunity to get off on the right foot in St. Louis. It was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a relaxing night, but San Francisco took their chance.
For four-and-a-half innings, it felt like they were in control of Monday night’s proceedings. The other four-and-a-half were far less certain, but they were marked by a resilient, smart performance that concluded with a comeback, 4-3 win.
San Francisco went after Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore early and often, singling four times to center field and consistently putting runners on base. Liberatore had a great deal of success with his curve, and allowed just three runs, but got tagged a handful of times.
The Giants, with 12 hits, put at least one baserunner on in every single inning except the final frame. They put eight on base in the first three innings.
That third inning was where they made their first mark.
After an Austin Slater single and a gift hit-by-pitch on Thairo Estrada, Mitch Haniger ambushed Liberatore on a first-pitch changeup. He ripped the ball to left field for a two-out, two-RBI double.
That 2-0 lead held up only until the fifth, when Paul DeJong continued his partial ownership of Logan Webb. On an 0-2 count — there was clutch hitting in two-strike counts on either side on Monday — DeJong took Webb deep to left to cut the precarious two-run lead to just one.
DeJong is now 6-of-11 against Webb with a couple homers in their meetings.
An inning later, Webb had a short-lived nightmare.
After allowing a leadoff single, Paul Goldschmidt — who Webb had struck out masterfully on three pitches in the first — hit a two-run homer to left field to steal a 3-2 lead for the hosts.
Webb was efficient and effective outside of those couple blips, though. He pitched seven innings with seven strikeouts and three hits allowed.
On other nights, Webb might have taken a loss or a no-decision. But this was a night of resilience and persistence at the plate.
San Francisco was unrelenting in its approach and ground out at-bats to tie, then reclaim the lead.
With the odd-throwing Andre Pallante on the mound — he reaches his arm straight back in a mechanical, borderline unnerving fashion before firing to home — the Giants were initially stifled. Slater, who had three singles on the day, struck out. Thairo Estrada flew out.
But a walk from Pallante to Wilmer Flores offered a spark.
That inkling, that little bit of kindling, was enough to capitalize on. J.D. Davis slapped an opposite-field single to put runners on first and second.
Haniger, who opened the Giants’ tally in the third, followed Davis’ lead. He fell behind 0-2 in a blink, watching a couple high-90s fastballs snap past his vision. But on Pallante’s third-straight fastball, Haniger shot his own opposite-field single to drive home Flores and tie the game at 3.
That chip-chip-chipping kept up an inning later against former Giant Chris Stratton.
Patrick Bailey, who had a couple hits in the game, had perhaps the most massive for the Giants in the eighth. In an incredible, 11-pitch at-bat that Giants broadcaster Dave Flemming dubbed the “at-bat of the night,” Bailey held on with Stratton before dropping in an opposite-field double.
The man to drive him home a batter later? Who else, but the .202-hitting Brandon Crawford. He has been starved for hits this season, except, seemingly, in key moments.
He obliged the clutch moment, slapping a single through the left side of the infield at a slow enough speed to allow the hard-running Bailey to score and take a 4-3 lead.
That left it all up to a nervy eighth and ninth inning.
Taylor Rogers was not entirely convincing in his setup appearance. He managed to get out both Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, but allowed singles to Brendan Donovan and Nolan Gorman. He made Gabe Kapler sweat quite a bit, and headed to the dugout after nursing a crucial pop up from Arenado with runners at the corners.
With two outs, in came Camilo Doval. The Doval experience has the perpetual potential, if not likelihood, to be unpredictable.
To Willson Contreras, Doval missed the plate four-straight times, often waywardly. Bailey, on the fourth one, offered ye olde catcher head tilt and an “eaaaaaasy there” motion to try and settle Doval down.
He immediately hit the strike zone with an 87 MPH slider and a 101 MPH fastball, rendering Dylan Carlson to ask for time at the plate in order to process what he’d just witnessed. The next pitch saw too much of the plate at 102, but stayed in the park to conclude the eighth.
The top of the ninth came and went. It was the only inning in which the Giants failed to secure a baserunner.
The bottom half, of course, began with absurdity.
Doval got off to another 3-0 count before rediscovering the strike zone like a wayward sailor catching a distant glimpse of land.
After working back with a couple strikes, it seemed like he had induced a relatively straightforward ground out to short… only for the ball to skyrocket off the lip of the infield grass and leap over a disgusted Brandon Crawford’s head.
He got back on track by earning a 6-4-3 double play from DeJong, before careening immediately off the tracks again.
Doval was truly — even for his standards — unpredictable. He put himself in perilous situation after perilous situation.
He fell behind 3-0 to Tommy Edman, then walked him. Edman stole successfully, but that was rendered moot when Doval hit Donovan after putting him in an 0-2 count.
So, with the tying run on second and the winning run on first, in stepped Goldschmidt.
In simultaneously befitting and confounding fashion for a game that was always on edge, Goldschmidt grounded out instantly to Doval.
Fin.
It was a dicey, hard-fought win that was ugly, impressive and everything in between.