For the second straight game, the Giants walked off the Red Sox.
Joc Pederson, after the Giants offense seemingly failed at every turn to find the big hit for 10 innings, found a gap between Boston’s pushed-in infield for the game-winning single.
The Giants had loaded the bases on a Casey Schmitt hit-by-pitch and a perfectly placed Brandon Crawford bunt single, and Pederson delivered the winner. Before it, San Francisco was 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position.
“That was as any hit we’ve gotten,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said of Crawford’s table-setting bunt.
The Giants gave up a 2-1 lead when Justin Turner delivered a go-ahead home run off Tyler Rogers in the eighth inning. But a key double from Luis Matos in the bottom half evened the score and eventually sent the game into extra innings, where Pederson iced the game in the 11th.
The night before, J.D. Davis delivered a walk-off homer after Camilo Doval blew a rare save. If the Giants end up making the playoffs, circle this weekend’s two clutch wins against a contender in Boston, as key victories.
To beat the Red Sox and take the series, the Giants (58-48) received enough strong work from another bullpen game to buy their struggling lineup enough time to scrape out a 4-3 victory. Although the series didn’t feature the cleanest baseball ever played, it had an October intensity.
“It’s one of the best teams in baseball lately,” Crawford said. “To get these wins, it’s almost like a playoff atmosphere a couple months before the playoffs. Obviously that’s our goal, to get there. To have this experience now is great…It might be like this all August.”
The Giants have now deployed their opener game plan in back-to-back wins.
The strategy can be tough to follow. Fans who came to Oracle Park Sunday saw Scott Alexander listed as a starter, but didn’t know how many outs he’d be expected to get. It was Ross Stripling’s day, so extra tuned-in spectators could’ve expected to see him at some point, but without knowing exactly when. Some pitchers this year, who have shifted from starters to bullpen roles, have even admitted that they don’t know when they’ll be called upon.
It can be even more difficult to explain. Kapler is already testing out a new framing device, trading out the “bulk innings” phrase for “featured arm.”
“I just prefer to use that terminology,” Kapler said pregame. “‘Bulk’ just doesn’t necessarily have the same ring. These guys work really hard to put themselves in position to help us win baseball games.”
As many moving pieces as there are, the Giants have had success without traditional starters. And at this point, only Logan Webb and Alex Cobb fit that definition.
San Francisco built on its 2.78 team ERA in opener games, limiting the Red Sox — tied for second in team wRC+ in July — to three runs.
After Saturday’s game in which Sean Manaea provided 4.1 scoreless innings, Kapler repeated the stat that he’s often used — the Giants are 13-4 with a sub-3.00 ERA as a team in bullpen games. The ploy works for them.
By using an opener, the Giants can more easily put pitchers in positions to succeed with platoon advantages. In the series finale, southpaw Scott Alexander got five outs, including two against left-handed threats Rafael Devers and Masataka Yoshida. With righty Carlos Arroyo due up in the second inning, Kapler pointed to the bullpen to summon Stripling.
Last year with the Blue Jays, when Stripling registered a 3.01 ERA in the vaunted American League East, he allowed just six earned runs in five starts against Boston (2.08 ERA). He continued that success against the Red Sox with his new team. Coming off two straight quality starts, Stripling provided 4.1 solid innings, allowing one run on four hits.
“You’ve got to buy in,” Stripling said postgame. “Right now we’ve got two starters. So it’s kind of all hands on deck for everyone at any time.”
At one point, Alex Wood — another starter-turned-hybrid option — warmed up in the bullpen, but Stripling rendered his services unnecessary by cruising.
The Red Sox also didn’t use a traditional starter, instead going with a modified bullpen game.
Before Pederson’s walk-off, San Francisco snuck across two runs with small ball. Blake Sabol’s bunt in the first second inning loaded the bases and allowed Michael Conforto to score from third on a groundout. And an error from Devers gave the Giants a window for another score in the fifth on two singles.
Questionable base running from Sabol and Crawford hurt the Giants at points, especially as their abysmal situational hitting continued. They left 12 runners on base Saturday and 14 more in the finale.
Stripling finally surrendered a run to lead off the seventh inning, when Adam Duvall charged a changeup for a solo home run. He still lowered his season ERA from 5.77 to 5.52 by not walking any batters — just like Manaea did the night before.
The Giants tasked Tyler Rogers with the eighth and a 2-1 lead. San Francisco has been elite at protecting late leads, but not this weekend.
A night after Doval blew a save, Rogers allowed the Red Sox to take the lead. He gave up a leadoff double to the speedy Jarren Duran and Turner drove him home with the biggest hit of the game.
When Turner walked into the batter’s box, Giants fans in Oracle Park greeted him with a smattering of boos. The former Dodger had 15 home runs and a career .853 OPS against San Francisco.
He added another bomb. Turner connected on Rogers’ first pitch, sending it 382 feet for the go-ahead homer.
Yet just like in Saturday’s walk-off win, the Giants rallied. Luis Matos doubled Conforto from first to third, and Patrick Bailey knocked him in with a serendipitously placed dribbler in the eighth.
That tied it, and Doval and rookie Tristan Beck — called up for Anthony DeSclafani (elbow strain) — mowed through the Red Sox’s order in the ninth, 10th and 11th. Beck had thrown about 40 pitches two days earlier in Triple-A, but worked efficiently in the high-pressure situation. The rookie needed just 18 pitches for two no-hit innings in extras.
“He’s been so good for us, and the sweeper’s such a devastating pitch when it’s on,” Kapler said. “And he’s also got just such incredible poise and courage on the mound.”
Beck gave Pederson the chance to win it.
Crawford, who has come through with so many big hits in his Giants career, wanted to swing in the 11th. But he also knew that with Pederson and the red-hot Wilmer Flores behind him, a bunt could be just as effective.
Even with Boston shifted in for bunt coverage, the Red Sox had no chance to get Crawford. He connected on the first pitch, pushing it just fair down the third base line, between a charging Devers and catcher Connor Wong.
Moments later, with Pederson ahead in a 3-0 count against former Giant Mauricio Llovera, the Giants celebrated.
In a series in which every game was decided by one run, the Giants — with pitching, defense, and just enough hitting — stacked two wins.
“Just putting the team first — I would do the same for Flo behind me,” Pederson said of the 11th inning. “I think that’s what makes our team really special, is the willingness to pass the baton even in the big moments, so the person behind you can be the hero. sometimes you come up and be the hero at that time, but the unselfishness is really special.”
