And a little win, too.
On Tuesday, when the San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies 5-0 behind a divine and heroic performance from young southpaw Kyle Harrison, I wrote this:
Their formula, while not necessarily intentional, has been clear: pitch and defend so damn well that the tiny shred of offense the hitters can provide is enough to win.
That’s how they’ve won their games — almost all their games. There have been 148 instances this season where a team has allowed four or more runs and won the game. The Giants are responsible for one of those 148 instances.
That is the formula. Pitch damn well. Defend damn well. And assume the offense will trip in the batter’s box, fall into a pitch, and repeat that over and over until they score a meager number of runs, which will hopefully be enough.
On Wednesday that number grew from 148 to 156 thanks to the Yankees beating the Astros 9-5, the Orioles beating the Nationals 7-6, the A’s beating the Rangers 9-4, the Rangers returning favor and beating the A’s 12-11, the Royals beating the Brewers 6-4, the Guardians beating the Tigers 5-4, the Angels beating the Pirates 5-4 … and yes, the Giants beating the Rockies 8-6.
This is what we in the biz refer to as “taking one for the team.” You think the broadcaster’s jinx is specific to on-air commentary that leads to negative outcomes, but no, no, no. Sometimes it’s a positive jinx from a lowly writer. I knew what I was doing when I pointed out that the Giants cannot win by scoring a lot of runs. I couldn’t take it anymore. I’m not supposed to impact the outcome but damn it, I was desperate.
And so here we are. The Giants won by scoring enough runs that their pitching and defense didn’t need to be great, and then when their pitching and defense weren’t great, they still won. What a luxury to have multiple paths to victory that you can take.
It all took place early, giving you a sharp slap of excitement and optimism before dinner, and a long evening of a dwindling lead and an ascending fear in your tummy. The Giants only waited until the second inning to do some of that newfangled hitting that all the other teams seem to be talking about.
It began with the antithesis of Tuesday’s big-inning rally, with Michael Conforto pouncing on the first pitch that Peter Lambert threw in the inning, sending the ball exactly where the baseball powers that be envisioned when they decided to build a ballpark in a mile-high city.
Mountain Michael pic.twitter.com/pFfa83myG9
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) May 9, 2024
And then, a rally in earnest. A single by Matt Chapman. A single by Mike Yastrzemski. A single by Heliot Ramos, called up just hours earlier.
Helioooot pic.twitter.com/VNF0I9SFNT
— SF Gigantes (@SFGigantes) May 9, 2024
Now it was 2-0, a score that almost made you not say “here we go again,” when Blake Sabol proceeded to strike out looking at a clear strike three with a runner on third.
But the Giants, thankfully, were not done. A night after scoring a run on a swinging bunt, Nick Ahmed laid down a purposeful one. We’ve seen, throughout this year, how one little thing can swing something from “good” to “bad,” or vice versa. An umpire’s discretion is the difference between having an eye to be praised with patience to match, and being too passive. The placement of a ground ball is the difference between being a pitch-to-contact arm (said in a happy voice) and being a pitch-to-contact arm (said in a grumpy voice).
And so it is that Yastrzemski submitted his nomination for “Slide of the Year,” a category I frankly forgot existed at award season. And that was the difference between Ahmed’s bunt being brilliant and Ahmed’s bunt making you shake your head slowly while enveloped by your palm.
This Yaz slide is art pic.twitter.com/xuMzwslTU1
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 9, 2024
It was also the difference between 2-0 with two outs and 3-0 with one out, and the Giants took advantage of that difference. Jung Hoo Lee was up next and absolutely torched a ball off the fence, the rare missile worth admiring.
JUNG HOO OFF THE WALL pic.twitter.com/pEebgZcGkf
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 9, 2024
Despite the big run, the Giants would twice fail to get a runner home from third with less than two outs, as Thairo Estrada followed Lee’s knock with a pop-out. But, just as was the case the night before, LaMonte Wade Jr. had just the answer for runners at second and third with two outs: a liner up the middle to score a pair.
The Giants had plated six runs for the first time since April 20 and, miraculously, they’d allowed them all home in the same inning. Perhaps you didn’t know that that’s allowed, but now you do.
Six-run inning ✅ pic.twitter.com/I2Tzj6Z9Rs
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 9, 2024
Perhaps you had dreams of a football score gracing your television, but let’s not get too crazy. The Giants may have flipped the script, but they’re still not going to make winning look easy, and so the slowly opened the door for Colorado to come back in, starting in the bottom half of the inning, when Jordan Hicks ceded a two-out triple to Brenton Doyle, and then allowed him to score on a wild pitch (which perhaps should have been a passed ball).
The Giants got that run back, courtesy of Yastrzemski leading off the very next inning with a triple of his own, and Sabol doubling him home.
Blake Street pic.twitter.com/3m06YMk7Ff
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) May 9, 2024
But the Rockies were unperturbed. They rallied against Hicks in the fifth inning, scoring a pair of runs and loading the bases with just one out, a lone swing away from the game resetting. But Hicks, who on his worst days bends but still doesn’t quite break, worked an inning-ending double play to not only shut down the danger, but book himself another number in the win column.
The Rockies added another run in the sixth off of Sean Hjelle, drawing the game to within three runs, but a rally by Conforto and Chapman and Associates returned the lead to 8-4, where it sat patiently until the ninth inning.
You weren’t surprised that Bob Melvin brought in Camilo Doval in a non-save situation, since it really should be a save situation when you add the Coors Field tax. But you also weren’t surprised that Doval played with his food, walking the first two batters. He, like Hicks many innings earlier, then worked a brilliant double play, with help from his defense … though he was part of that defense.
And then, as if to give you a glimpse into what could have been in a more cursed reality, Doval promptly gave up a two-run blast to Elias Díaz.
He’d give up no more, though, and the Giants would win 8-6 and clinch the series. This isn’t how they’re designed to win games, but then again, good teams don’t stick with any one design.