If the weekend sweep over the last-place Rockies felt like a departure from September, playoff-level baseball, the Guardians reintroduced intensity to Oracle Park.
The Guardians are far from a juggernaut, but they have a real roster and came to play. There were tense situations, momentum swings, gutsy plays and aggressive management.
And of course, there was Late Night LaMonte, beating Emmanuel Clase in his first ever matchup against the All-Star.
For his second walk-off hit of the season, LaMonte Wade Jr. cracked a single off a 101-mph Clase fastball, scoring Blake Sabol — who tied the game with a single — from third.
In front of the remnants of an announced crowd of 20,705 — among the lowest of San Francisco’s season — the Giants celebrated their fourth straight victory. With a 5-4 win in extra-innings, the Giants (74-70) improved to 10-3 in extra-innings games on the year.
“Just a fastball,” Wade said of what he was looking for in the at-bat. “He throws hard. Just trying to hit something up the middle, let him supply the power. But stay within the approach, not trying to get too big. I was able to do that.”
Clase and the Guardians staff ranks eight in ERA. They present a tougher challenge than the Rockies, whom the Giants hit eight home runs across their three-game sweep.
Mike Yastrzemski met it right away. Hitting leadoff for the third straight game, he smashed Gavin Williams’ second pitch — a belt-high, 95-mph fastball — over the right-field fence.
LaMonte Wade Jr., has spent most of the season in the leadoff spot, but Yastrzemski could have a stranglehold on the job after this weekend. In two games against Colorado as the leadoff man, he went 5-for-8 with two walks, two runs, two RBI and three doubles.
Entering Monday, Yastrzemski slashed .429/.500/.714 (1.214 OPS) while batting first. The small sample size is growing.
“Yaz in the leadoff spot is doing great things for us,” Wade, SF’s most frequent leadoff man this year, said. “It’s fun to watch his at-bats. He’s seeing pitches, putting the balls hard in play, driving the ball up the park.”
Cobb surrendered a two-run homer to Josh Naylor in the third inning to give Cleveland a lead. His splitter to Naylor stayed flat and in the zone before it ended up in McCovey Cove.
Since Brandon Crawford committed an error on a routine grounder up the middle the batter before, both Cleveland runs were unearned.
Cobb wasn’t at 100% health, and won’t be for the rest of the season. After facing just two batters, he keeled over on the mound and required a visit from manager Gabe Kapler and head trainer Dave Groeschner. The veteran was pitching on seven days’ rest after receiving a cortisone shot to relieve pain and inflammation in his hip — discomfort he’ll pitch through as long as the Giants remain in the playoff hunt.
Postgame, Cobb described the early pain as a “zinger” in his hip. He said there’s no structural damage, so the issue going forward will just be pain tolerance and management. He admitted he might have to be more intentional about finishing his pitching motion because his body, at times, might let up subconscious.
Cobb didn’t have the swing-and-miss stuff he does when he’s at his best, but still limited Cleveland’s lineup for five innings. He got just three whiffs and struck out two, battling through fatigue and discomfort as the game went on.
“Today was really grindy, and he set the tone,” catcher Blake Sabol said of Cobb. “He’s obviously not feeling his best, and he definitely had to grind through the pain. It was huge for us.”
When Cobb ceded to Rogers for the sixth inning, the Giants owned a 3-2 lead. They took it with two runs in the bottom of the third, when Thairo Estrada, Mitch Haniger and Joc Pederson each contributed. Pederson, who could be heating up for a September with actual meaningful baseball this year, turned on a 98-mph inside fastball for an RBI single.
San Francisco’s slight edge held for three innings. To take down the back half of the game after Cobb, SF tried to play matchups with relievers against the lefty-heavy Cleveland lineup. But Taylor Rogers got beat by Bo Naylor — a lefty — and John Brebbia walked a righty with two outs before yielding the game-tying single up the middle to Steven Kwan.
In a tie game, the Giants sensed a chance to strike. Gabe Kapler pinch hit Austin Slater for Joey Bart even without a platoon advantage, and the outfielder delivered a leadoff single in the seventh. Then Kapler hit Wilmer Flores for Yastrzemski despite the latter’s big night (2-for-3, HR, 2B), which resulted in another single.
But Thairo Estrada struck out, Slater got thrown out at home on an ambitious race to the plate, and Blake Sabol — the third pinch hitter of the inning — flew out to strand the bases loaded.
The blown chance kept the score 3-3. Then Camilo Doval, inserted with two runners in scoring position and two outs in the eighth, kept it there.
The remaining members of a scant crowd rose to their feet with two outs in the eighth inning for Flores, but he lined out to left field to strand SF’s ninth and 10th runners of the night.
Doval overcame a pair of passed balls to escape the top of the ninth, but the heart of SF’s order went down 1-2-3 to send the game into extras.
The Giants started extras with a clutch defensive play as Luke Jackson charged a bunt and threw to Flores at third, who held onto his tag through contact. But Jackson surrendered the go-ahead single up the middle to Andrés Giménez.
Jackson struck out José Tena to leave the bases loaded, giving the Giants a puncher’s chance against Clase, who’s been an All-Star each of the past two years. Sabol delivered an upper cut, leading off the inning with an RBI single up the middle.
A steal and balk put Sabol on third for Wade. The first baseman whose propensity for the big hit did the rest.
“They call him Late Night LaMonte for a reason, right?” Sabol said. “What makes him such a special player is no matter what’s happening in his game — whether he’s 0-for-4 or 4-for-4 — he’s the same guy walking up to the plate. He’s definitely, I think, one of the best at taking it one pitch at a time.”
Along with much improved lower-body health, Wade said that quality of failure management is what has set his 2023 season apart from last year. The Giants have entrusted him with the full-time first base role and have penciled him in the leadoff spot more than anyone else on the club. In turn, he’s improved across the board and is just as dangerous as he was when he earned the patented moniker in 2021.
“You just can’t put too much on one at-bat,” Wade said. “I think that’s the thing I learned from last year. Putting too much on one at-bat, knowing you’ve still got maybe five more that game. You can’t let that first one, first two affect you, knowing you can get potentially one late that can make up for the whole night. I think that’s the biggest difference between this year and last year. Just taking it one at-bat at a time.”
That one at-bat on Monday night, at 10:06 p.m., with Sabol at third and the Giants’ playoff odds vacillating daily, added to the Late Night lore.
