Number 24 did it all tonight
No it wasn’t the most glamorous of walk-offs.
It would’ve been cool to see Heliot Ramos, the centerfielder on the day San Francisco honored The Centerfielder, bounce one off the Willie Mays wall in right, stretching out his back swing as Mays did, showing off his number 24 to the first base dugout and the screaming crowd behind it as he measured the ball’s flight over his right shoulder before chasing it out of the box.
But in the thick of five-game losing streak in which they hadn’t won a game since Say Hey’s passing, the Giants weren’t going to be picky. Three runs in the bottom of the 9th is impressive enough (though they’re making a habit of it against the Cubs). Two sacrifice flies to tie it, a game winning plate appearance in which Wilmer Flores didn’t lift his bat from his shoulder—no, not electric in the typical sense, but Willie wouldn’t have cared. It was always about the team, what needed to happen to get the win, and finally back home, with 24 all on their backs, the Giants said goodbye.
Wilmer walks it off for Willie pic.twitter.com/FV3gVKNuYQ
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 25, 2024
The cold San Francisco Giants offense didn’t have two bats to rub together for most of the night against Cubs starter Justin Steele. The lefty Steele limited San Francisco to just one base runner—a single—over the first four innings, and the lefty recorded a season-high 9 strikeouts over 7.1 innings pitched.
Solo shots from Matt Chapman (his first since May 23rd) and Nick Ahmed (his first as a Giant, and first since June 10th, 2023) leading off the 5th and 6th coughed up some smoke, halving Chicago’s 4-run lead, but nothing sustained, nothing sparked into flame.
Nick Ahmed hits his first homer of the season into the beautiful purple sky
@NBCSGiants
pic.twitter.com/2HUQIM8Pyh— KNBR (@KNBR) June 25, 2024
The two run deficit felt like a chasm. Rallies are near impossible when you can’t string together hits, and Steele didn’t allow two knocks in an inning until the 6th, nor two base runners to reach in the same frame until the 8th. Any sign of life—hit or walk—was quickly snuffed out. Nick Ahmed’s walk in the 8th—finally a lead-off base runner—was followed by Austin Slater striking out. Heliot Ramos’s brick-grazing double put runners in scoring position for the first time, knocking Steele from the game—an opportunity again minimized by Wilmer Flores waving at an errant Tyson Miller sweeper.
San Francisco had seven plate appearances across the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings with the tying or lead run represented at the plate, and recorded only one hit. Jorge Soler, who ripped a grand slam off a Miller breaking ball more than a week ago, chased another out of the zone, this time popping up to right to end the 8th, San Francisco’s only viable threat against Justin Steele and Chicago until that point.
Meanwhile Spencer Howard had turned an ugly bullpen game—an unplanned for scenario that we’ll probably have to get used to given the state of the Giants’ rotation as well as current workload fears for key players—into a beauty.
Howard took the mound in the 5th with a mess on his hands courtesy of Luke Jackson. The veteran sliderman allowed the first four Cubs to reach base. Dansby Swanson’s RBI double capped a three-hit, two-walk, three-run outburst that sent Jackson packing, his ERA now ballooned to 6.46 (23.2 IP).
Runners at second and third, one out—Howard calmed the waters. He struck out Michael Busch and Tomás Nido, and didn’t walk off the mound for good until he fanned Busch again to end the 9th.
Howard scattered four hits and a walk over 4.2 innings of work while striking out a career-high eight batters. He not only navigated the Jackson nonsense in the 5th but stranded a lead-off triple in the 6th off the bat of Pete Crow-Armstrong.
4.2 innings, 0 runs, 8 strikeouts
Spencer held it down and got the W pic.twitter.com/NnlooDuMaH
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) June 25, 2024
Take Jackson out of the pitching line, and despite the seven walks they surrendered (tied for second most in a game this season) the only arm to give up a run was Raymond Burgos making his Major League debut.
It ended up being an impressive one despite allowing the first three hitters he faced to reach base. That in itself was a bit of bad luck: Cody Bellinger squibbed a 60 MPH off the end of his bat away from the defense to lead-off the frame. Still with the bases loaded, Burgos got Dansby Swanson to pop-up for an unproductive out. Michael Busch rolled a grounder towards second but because of the defensive alignment ended up being an awkward play for shortstop Nick Ahmed fielding the ball on the right side of the infield. He tried to get the runner going to second, then when he realized that he wouldn’t be able to threw over to first too late to get the speedy Busch.
An 80 MPH grounder—more weak contact on the ground—and it turned into an RBI single. Welcome to the big leagues. With the bases still loaded and a run in, Burgos buckled down, striking out Nido before getting Crow-Armstrong to ground-out to second.
Despite a surprising pitching performance, the Giants were still set-up for their sixth consecutive loss. San Francisco’s luck needed to change. After 8 innings of offensive ennui, something needed to make the earth wobble a bit, a little orbital crack in the sidewalk to jostle up the funk. Matt Chapman obliged. He hit his first homer in a month in the 5th, and in the 9th, he flipped a bloop into shallow center off reliever Colten Brewer, just weak enough to force the speedy Crow-Armstrong, racing in from a no-doubles defense, to leave his feet. Mid-flight, the ball booted off his glove, and Chapman took second for his 20th double of the season. On the next pitch, Thairo Estrada laid down a bunt single to put runners at the corners. Michael Conforto pinch hit for Luis Matos and chipped away with a sacrifice fly.
A productive out but a scary one. Estrada as the tying run at first with one out seemed much, much further away from home than with no outs. 270 feet—a lot could go wrong over that distance. One swing, one ground ball could end it. That’s what Craig Counsell was hoping for when he swapped Brewer for Drew Smyly to face the pinch-hitting Patrick Bailey. Bailey did provide that one swing on the first pitch he saw, and he did deliver that ground ball, just too well-struck up the middle for the Chicago infield to do anything about. Ahmed, who may have felt giddy to swing after hitting his first homer after a 230+ plate-appearance drought, worked his second walk in two innings to load the bases, and on the first pitch Austin Slater dug out a knee-high sinker to center to tie the game.
Austin Slater ties the game pic.twitter.com/5jeC3BWDJP
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 25, 2024
Obviously the tying run coming home was key, but Ahmed advancing to second after Crow-Armstrong’s throw went towards third ended up being a sneakily pivotal play. From first, Ahmed identified the direction of the throw and with no one covering second (I’m not sure where Nico Hoerner was) he bolted for the bag. Shortstop Dansby Swanson cut-off the throw on the infield and raced towards second but got there too late. The play ended up being a little too close for comfort, and in the moment, the decision to risk the final out at second when the winning run was already at third seemed…well, very stupid. Whatever benefit it gave of removing a force out possibility in the infield was lost when Chicago elected to intentionally walk the next batter, who happened to be Ramos, the Giants’ best offensive bet who was also enjoying a 3-hit night.
What I didn’t see at the time was that Ahmed’s taking of second forced Chicago to box themselves into a corner. With a runner on first, they probably would’ve pitched to Ramos, but with a base to play with it, they could pick and choose who to face. Generally an advantage, though with the bases loaded, the air gets thinner, the room to wiggle gets tighter. Smyly had to put it over the plate, and he couldn’t.
Five pitches—all incredibly close, and maybe some on a different night would’ve gone Chicago’s way—but credit to home plate umpire Ramon De Jesus for sticking with the zone he had established. It had been a squeeze for pitchers all night, and Flores went into the box with an understanding that he could be the hero the Giants desperately needed without swinging his bat.
Emotional end to an emotional night pic.twitter.com/McKEm5PYpY
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) June 25, 2024
You could squint at times, blur your vision and see moments of Mays on the field: Chapman’s hustle double; an aggressive tag from first by Ahmed; a half-cocked but still over-the-shoulder catch in center by Ramos. Spirits of 24, the number representing the Giants on a diamond for the first time in 50 years—how could it not give you chills?
An over-the-shoulder basket catch in center field pic.twitter.com/dJnvLsqA7s
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 25, 2024