Giants thrill on Will Clark’s number retirement night, defeat Cubs 5-4

Back-to-back home runs from Luis González and Joey Bart sealed the deal as the Giants honored Will Clark both on and off the field.

The San Francisco Giants defeated the Chicago Cubs 5-4 tonight in a thrilling game to honor Will “The Thrill” Clark, whose jersey number 22 was retired in a ceremony before the game. It was not easy. The bullpen and defense in the ninth inning really made me regret a lot of my life choices. But they got it done and got their second win of the series (and of the second half).

Things got off to a rough start for Jakob Junis in the first inning, but he managed to pop up Patrick Wisdom to get out of a bases loaded jam to end the inning. Junis ended his day allowing just five hits and a walk, striking out four in four innings.

The Giants got on the board in the third inning, which was kicked off by a walk from Darin Ruf, and in a moment that was very similar to the ending of this year’s Opening Day game, he scored from first on a double from Austin Slater. This was followed by a single from Yermin Mercedes, which knocked in Slater.

However, where they really honored the man of the day was in the fourth inning. David Villar singled to start off the inning, where he was promptly knocked in on a home run from Luis González. Not to be outdone, Joey Bart followed that up on a first pitch home run of his own to give the Giants their fifth run of the night.

Things got scary in the bottom of the fifth. With two outs, Thairo Estrada was up to bat against Mark Leiter, Jr. who had entered in the beginning of the inning to replace Drew Smyly. Leiter threw high and inside and hit Estrada on the side of his head on the batting helmet. Trainers and coaches came out to talk to Estrada who was down for quite some time before being helped to sit up, and then slowly stand, being helped off the field by his coaches.

The Cubs scored their first run of the night in the seventh. Jarlin Garcia entered to replace Tyler Rogers, who had two scoreless innings in relief of Junis. Garcia promptly allowed a single to Yan Gomez, striking out P.J. Higgins, and then another single to David Bote. With the Cubs deciding to pinch-hit Nelson Velazquez for Rafael Ortega, the Giants opted to bring in Yunior Marte to replace Garcia. Velazquez immediately singled in Gomez, before Marte managed to get a pop up and grounder to get out of the inning.

Marte would go on to pitch a clean eighth inning before returning for the ninth, and hitting Gomes with a pitch to lead off the inning, followed by an infield single to Higgins before being pulled for Dominic Leone, who immediately allowed a single to load the bases and bring up the top of the lineup with no outs.

He got Velazquez to hit into a fielder’s choice that got no one out, somehow, and allowed Gomes to score. Wilson Contreras then hit into what should have been a double play to Jason Vosler (who had entered to replace Estrada) who made the play to Flores at second, but the throw from Flores was too high for Belt to make the second play at first, as Higgins scored the third run of the night for the Cubs, with runners still on the corners with one out.

Seiya Suzuki grounded out to Vosler, who made the throw to Belt to get the out there, but it allowed Bote to score and put the tying run in scoring position at second. Before finally, blessedly, Ian Happ hit a groundball to Flores, who made a clean throw to Belt to end the game.

Just another hahahahahahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAH laugher, as they say.