SAN FRANCISCO–At long last, the Giants were back in the heat of the race.
Over the last four weeks, San Francisco waded through two dozen meaningless contests amidst the most dreadful season in franchise history only to reach the month of October with a result to play for.
On the final day of the regular season, the Giants needed one last loss to secure the worst record in the Major Leagues and the first overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft. After dropping 98 of their first 161, how hard could it be?
Apparently, pretty hard. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Giants’ infielder Pablo Sandoval launched a solo home run to the arcade in right field to carry the Giants to a 5-4 comeback win and all but dash their chances at earning the top pick in next year’s draft. For a Giants’ season that confused, perplexed and confounded in every possible way, a Sandoval home run was perhaps the only way that the 2017 should have ended.
“I feel happy, feel excited for that moment, especially when we round the bases, I wanted to cry, I don’t know what’s going on with me next year,” Sandoval said. “I’m just focused to work on the offseason and I’m just focused to come back stronger and do everything I can.”
Sure, the Giants weren’t matched up with a juggernaut, or even a team playing for a playoff spot, but the San Diego Padres were the ideal opponent for Bruce Bochy’s squad. Even though the Padres locked up a fourth-place finish in the National League West well over a week ago, the team that started the day 32 games out of first place had already secured five series wins over the Giants this season, and needed a victory on Sunday to make it six.
A loss guaranteed the Giants would finish at 63-99, at least one game clear of the Detroit Tigers, who did an admirable impression of the Philadelphia 76ers by entering the last day of the regular season with just six wins in their last 30 games. A win, and San Francisco would need the Tigers to beat the Minnesota Twins to ensure it maintained its grip on the lowest rung of baseball’s ladder. About 15 minutes after Sandoval’s home run, the Tigers completed their tank-job. The Giants were happy to celebrate.
“First of all, on your last game, you know, at home here, you want to win the game,” Bochy said. “But how we won it, that kind of fashion, it was a great ballgame. And for Pablo, he crushed it, I’ll add. He got all of it. For him to hit a home run and walk it off, I know that’s special for him, but it’s cool to see. He’s done a nice job since he’s come over here, he’s played third and first. But you know, it brought back good memories when he hit that ball.”
Though the Giants have long insisted they’ve played to win as many games as possible this season, after avoiding the grim potential of a 100-loss campaign with a win on Friday night, San Francisco could have waived the white flag in its season finale.
The franchise, though, is proud of its tradition, and has never selected first overall. And after giving the Chicago Cubs a fight in the National League Division Series in 2016, no one could have guessed this would be the year the Giants would sink to the depths of the Major League ocean. In fact, the Giants have only held a top-five pick four times in franchise history, and all four of those players became All-Stars.
Two of them even appeared on the field on Sunday afternoon. Buster Posey, the fifth overall pick in the 2008 draft, hit cleanup and smashed a leadoff double in the bottom of the second and then drew a walk in the bottom of the fourth. Matt Williams, the third overall pick in 1986, came onto the field during the seventh inning stretch to give away a car. No word on whether or not Will Clark, the second overall pick in 1985, was in the clubhouse today, as he’s worked in a coaching capacity for the Giants at various points this year. Jason Grilli, the fourth overall pick in 1997, was almost certainly not in attendance.
Nearly every move Bochy made on Sunday suggested the Giants were playing to win, but his decision to remove Posey in the bottom of the sixth was the only sign that Sunday’s game was about more than just a victory. After Posey’s double, he bumped his average to .320, which is the second highest average of his career.
“Overall, I’m pretty happy with it (offense),” Posey said. “Overall, there’s stuff I want to work on this winter to try to get better and that’s the great thing about baseball. I feel like you continually learn, you’re continually adjusting and I’m looking forward to doing that.”
Other than pulling Posey in favor of rookie Ryder Jones, Bochy managed as if the Giants were in contention. He gave a long leash to starter Johnny Cueto, who scattered 12 hits and four earned runs over five up-and-down innings of work. Cueto, like most Giants’ starters, didn’t receive much help from his defense, as outfielders played a part in allowing the first four hitters of the game to reach with base hits. Two of the base hits had a hit probability lower than 50 percent, and Carlos Asuaje’s single registered with a hit probability of 52 percent, but it’s game 162, who cares about the analytics on a day like this?
“It was a difficult year, obviously we didn’t win,” Cueto said. “We tried, my teammates didn’t win like we wanted to. Also, you have the fact I had issues with my dad, he wasn’t feeling well. I will continue doing the same thing, getting myself mentally ready and physically ready and just show up next year ready to win.”
Cueto exited with a no-decision thanks to a three-run fourth inning that featured a Brandon Crawford RBI double and a Jarrett Parker RBI single, which helped Parker atone for the time it took him to recover Padres’ pitcher Luis Perdomo’s triple down the left field line in the top half of the frame. Though Perdomo reached third base in just over 11.5 seconds to become the first pitcher with four triples in the same season since 1955, Parker should have been able to limit him to a double.
With a tie game in the top of the eighth, Bochy used three different relievers to sit down three Padres’ hitters, as Steven Okert, Cory Gearrin and Hunter Strickland all recorded outs. Those aren’t the buttons a manager playing for a draft pick pushes.
“We have some work to do,” Bochy said. “There’s no sugarcoating this. You lose 98 games, we’ve got some things we’ve got to fix, and forget the injuries, whatever, but I think you look at the numbers on both sides. We’ve got to get better. Especially in our division, you look at the years that LA had, Arizona, Colorado, we’ve got a lot of work to do. As I said, we’ll be relentless with this work to get back on track. All of us. We’ve talked with the players, we’ve met with them individually. We know what’s ahead of us as far as hard work.”
Unlike the Tigers, who have already fired manager Brad Ausmus and had Andrew Romine play all nine positions in their Saturday win, the Giants were determined to fight until the end. It was Sandoval who fought the longest, and after the Tigers lost their finale, San Francisco will have the No. 2 overall pick.
“It’s one thing, when God gives you the opportunity to come back with a team, give you a second chance with a team that you love and give you an opportunity to be here, so I wanted to be successful and end it on the right way for them,” Sandoval said.