Everybody can exhale.
Of course it wasn’t easy, but the Giants got a much-needed 5-2 win in the get-away game vs. the Miami Marlins on Wednesday before heading back west, ending their losing streak at five games. It’s a long flight, but it will be a happy one.
Michael Conforto — who is still not 100 percent with a calf injury — had the big swing of the bat in the 11th inning after coming in as a designated hitter replacement, launching a two-run shot that broke a longstanding 1-1 deadlock.
The Giants flirted with a nightmare in the bottom half of the inning, when Sean Hjelle and Tyler Rogers loaded the bases, giving Miami the winning run at the plate with two outs. Ultimately Rogers got the ground ball from Luis Arráez that he and San Francisco sorely needed.
The bullpen as a whole was excellent, with John Brebbia, Scott Alexander, Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval combining for five scoreless innings after Alex Cobb exited. They stayed ahead in counts and held the line as the Giants offense sputtered
After losing their starting pitcher early on Tuesday, the Giants got excellent production from Cobb on Wednesday. Cobb brought some of his best strikeout stuff, opening the game by freezing the likes of Jazz Chisholm and Garrett Cooper with his power sinker, then striking out the side in the second inning with three swings and misses on his splitter.
Cobb struck out eight in five innings, giving up just a run on seven hits. His elevated pitch count of 92 was the primary reason for his exit.
Wilmer Flores continued his four-game hitting streak in the fourth with a lead off single to center. That piece of hitting would lead to the Giants’ first run of the game, after Darin Ruf’s deep double off the centerfield wall scored Flores from first. Ruf has looked much better with the Giants than he did in New York last year. For context, Ruf has two doubles in six games with SF and had just five with NY in 28 games last season. Ruf’s shot on Wednesday would have been a home run in eight ballparks.
It was also the final pitch of Marlins starter Trevor Rogers’ day, who left the field with a trainer due to an undisclosed injury.
For the sixth game in a row, the Giants lost their early lead, but it could have been a lot worse if not for an impressive escape by Cobb in the fifth inning.
Cobb was hard done by multiple soft contact singles, one of which by Garrett Cooper that scored a run. It looked like things might get out of hand when a walk of Jorge Soler loaded the bases with two outs. J.D. Davis saved the day at the hot corner, with an incredible pick and throw to first off a ball hit 104 m.p.h. by Bryan De La Cruz.
It was the second incredible play of the day by Davis, who also fielded a hopper barehanded but was unable to get the runner at first. Davis is clearly the Giants’ MVP right now, slashing (.333/.373/.593) while play a near Gold Glove caliber third base.
On the offensive end, there was very little to speak of from the fourth inning on, as the Giants were unable to muster a single hit until extras. The free runner in the 10th inning wasn’t much help for SF either, with a ground out and two strikeouts keeping the hitless streak alive vs. left hander Tanner Scott.
But San Francisco’s issues vs. left handers and issues getting hits in general finally reached a tipping point in the 11th, when the injured Conforto blasted a two-run shot to give the Giants their first hit and first lead since early in the game. Mike Yastrzemski, who hit a home run in Tuesday’s game, then added a two-run shot of his own, giving the Giants a 5-1 lead heading to the bottom half of the inning.
Though there were theatrics in the bottom half of the inning from the bullpen, it was ultimately enough to get the job done.
