Ramos bookends 3-2 win

A lead-off homer in the 1st and an RBI single in the 8th from Heliot Ramos bagged the series sweep

Heliot Ramos’s red-hot May continued on Sunday with another 2-hit, 2-RBI game on a day when hits and runs were at a premium. The San Francisco Giants found a way to eke out another close victory on just five hits with Ramos driving in the winning run late in the 8th, securing the weekend series sweep over the Athletics.

The first pitch opposing starter Jeffrey Springs threw, Ramos deposited into the San Francisco bullpen beyond the wall in center.

His sixth blast of the year gave the Giants an early jolt that lasted the 20 seconds it took for him to round the bases. The sizzle fizzled…and it fizzled fast.

The lefty Springs would go on to retire the next 20 hitters he faced. After the solo homer to lead-off the first, nothing was hit hard. Springs did not throw a single pitch from the stretch, nor do I think a single drop of sweat beaded on his brow as he cruised into the 7th.

It’s hard to say how much of Spring’s success was the quality of his pitching or just the consistent troubles of the San Francisco line-up against southpaws. Statistically, going into this game, the Giants were pretty much middle of the pack or slightly below average as a team against lefties (91 wRC+, 15th in MLB). Honestly, the numbers aren’t as worse as I expected given the team’s 3-10 record when facing a left-handed starter. But that silver-lining doesn’t have much shine to it. Production against the devil’s hand has generally been bad, ineffectual, impotent. The record speaks for itself. Even slightly gussied up after today’s win, and it still reeks. Every southpaw from Nick Lodolo of the Reds to Springs has dispatched Giants hitters like some Greek hydra, a Chris Sale Randy Johnson Snellzilla.

Though it’s not entirely accurate to characterize Springs’s outing as “flesh-feasting” akin to a mythic man-eating monster. No limbs were torn off, nor faces were melted by the 32 year old journeyman’s offerings. He’s not going to blow hitters away.His stuff isn’t stuffed with “stuff.” His fastball ranks as one of the worst in baseball, averaging just 91 MPH, but if he can get a fastball by a hitter, his slider and change-up are more than just coins he can rub together. The secondary off-speed and breaking pitches made up 54% of his mix today, which helped play-up the velocity of the fastball when he needed to sneak one over the plate.

In other words, Springs didn’t throw, he pitched. Command was king. Location, location, location. Away, away, away — that was the name of the game. Everything after that first fastball on the inner-third to Ramos was spotted on the outside of the plate. A significant stretch for righties that must’ve felt miles long given Springs’s mechanics, how he sets up on the third base side of the rubber and strides towards the on-deck circle up the first base line before hooking his arm around towards the plate. The 3-2 slider he threw to Wilmer Flores in the 7th is a great example of this. You can see Flores lean in towards the plate as Spring reaches the end of his motion, as if he’s trying to stay in Springs’s eye-line. When the breaking ball jumps back over the zone, it locks him up.

Two outs into the 7th, Matt Chapman ripped a single up the middle and Springs’s day was done. A quick hook and a bit rash since he had only thrown 84 pitches. Nor in my mind, did a two out single, or a second hard hit ball seven innings after the first one warrant cause for alarm, especially since Willy Adames was the next batter, who showed up to the ballpark today with a 11 wRC+ against lefties in 2025.

Another questionable call by manager Mark Kotsay, and again, I’m not complaining.

With Springs out, the offense sprung into action, becoming a finely-tuned run-manufacturing machine. Bob Melvin swapped Sam Huff for LaMonte Wade Jr. to face the right-handed reliever Tyler Ferguson in the 8th. On the seventh pitch of the at-bat, Wade lined a cathartic triple to lead-off the inning.

Patrick Bailey, in for David Villar, singled the first pitch he saw up the middle to bring in the tying run. A pitch later Christian Koss advanced Bailey into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt, and then Heliot Ramos got just enough mustard on his swing to roll an inside curveball through the 5.5 hole and plate Bailey to take the 3-2 lead.

Ryan Walker worked a 1-2-3 9th for his first save since May 7th. The shutdown final frame capped another impressive bullpen display in which four arms (Bivens, Rodriguez, Miller, Walker) allowed just one hit over the final five innings in relief of a wonky Justin Verlander, who gave up 2-runs, walked 5 and needed 80+ pitches to complete four innings of work.

So, no…Verlander did not factor into the decision.