Camilo Doval cupped his ear with his glove. He couldn’t hear the signs being relayed from Austin Wynns’ wrist into the speakers in his cap. Slider or fastball? It was a tense situation, and the flawed PitchCom technology wasn’t helping.
Doval had been tasked with a four-out save when Dominic Leone left him with the bases loaded. Starter Carlos Rodón had given the bullpen a 4-1 lead, but Leone and John Brebbia had each allowed a run.
After stepping off the rubber, Doval finally got the signal. Wynns wanted a 1-2 slider. The Giants’ 24-year-old closer fired one. It broke well off the plate, but Tigers second baseman Jonathan Schoop flailed anyway.
Schoop whiffed. Doval stranded three, then needed just 11 pitches to earn the save in the ninth.
Doval’s gutsy performance earned him his 12th save of the season and preserved Rodón’s strong start. Aided by Mike Yastrzemski’s two RBI and two stellar defensive plays, the Giants (40-33) escaped with a 4-3 lead.
Rodón’s start nearly ended after his first three pitches. Two batters into Tuesday’s game, Miguel Cabrera ripped a single 107.4 mph back up the middle and off the starter’s cleat. Concerned athletic trainer Dave Groeschner emerged from the Giants’ dugout, but Rodón quickly shooed him back off the field.
Rodón then struck out Riley Greene to end the first inning and slowly trudged back into SF’s dugout. He made that walk five more times, holding the Tigers to one run in six innings.
Then in the bottom half of the first, the Giants provided Rodón a lead. Wilmer Flores walked and Joc Pederson sent him to third by slapping a double down the vacant third base line. Then with two outs, Evan Longoria singled both of them home.
It didn’t need to be barreled or even squared up, but Longoria deposited a two-out, two-RBI single into center field to give Rodón a lead.
The Giants’ offense didn’t muster up much more excitement, but it did effectively run up Tarik Skubal’s pitch count. Patience led to four walks. Attentive approaches allowed SF to foul off 18 Skubal pitches. By the time he recorded 12 outs, Skubal had already delivered 96 pitches.
Even some of San Francisco’s outs taxed the Tigers starter. Yermín Mercedes saw eight pitches in a strikeout. Skubal needed eight pitches to get Darin Ruf to fly out.
Rodón, meanwhile, worked as efficiently. He trusted his defense instead of trying too hard for punchouts. His team rewarded him for that when Yastrzemski cut down Javier Báez at second after the infielder drilled a base hit off the bricks.
Skubal, the Hayward native, reclaimed the mound for the fifth even as he approached the century mark. Command issues resurfaced, though, and he exited after walking Darin Ruf on his 108th offering. Wily Peralta relieved the starter and proceeded to allow two more runs on Mike Yastrzemski’s single up the middle.
Yastrzemski’s two-RBI knock came in almost the identical situation as Longoria’s: with two outs and runners on second and third. They were both the type of hits the Giants have been searching for all month, particularly during their stretch of 10 straight games decided by two or fewer runs.
Rodón finally ran into stress with a 25-pitch sixth inning. Cabrera, who entered the night 7-for-19 in his career against Rodón, singled in Robbie Grossman for his Rickey Henderson-passing 3,056th hit. But Rodón avoided further damage.
That was the last time Rodón took the mound though, despite throwing only 86 pitches. The only other time he threw fewer pitches this season was on May 15, when he couldn’t escape the third inning in St. Louis.
Although he didn’t go as deep as he possibly could have Rodón continued a positive trend with his fourth consecutive quality start. In his past four outings, the lefty has a 0.66 ERA while striking out 30 and walking six.
But the game was far from over. Brebbia, who’s tied for the MLB lead in appearances, relieved Rodón and gave up a run. Leone, owner of a 0.93 June ERA, allowed another Tigers score despite Yastrzemski’s leaping grab. Plus, he loaded the bases for Doval.
The closer had back-to-back hiccups last week in Atlanta. But a short memory is in the first line of any closer’s job description. Doval has already proven, in a very short time with the Giants, he’s mentally tough enough to fulfill ninth inning duties.
With his mindset, plus an electric arsenal, Doval sat down Schoop to end the eighth. Then he fanned Eric Haase on a wicked slider to start the ninth and rolled a double play ball to end it.
There was no need for PitchCom in the ninth. Just sighs of reliefs and postgame handshakes.
