Weird, wonderful win

SF 7  LA 5  (11)

That was a 3-1/2 hour game! That was nothing “back in the day” but in today’s world it’s a marathon. And the Giants prevailed. It didn’t look good for the visitors as Dodgers rookie Emmet Sheehan rolled off six hitless innings in his debut. That’s right, a newly-minted kid stymied the Giants. Seems like an old story. He got help from his fielders–the Giants hit some balls hard and had a bit of bad luck. Nonetheless it was 4-0 LA after six. Sean Manaea was the victim in the 5th giving up all the runs with two outs and especially hurt by an error from Michael Conforto.

Sheehan got replaced by Brusdar Graterol in the 7th and Wilmer Flores breathed some life back into the lineup with a two-run homer. The Giants added three more in the 8th off Victor Gonzalez and Tayler Scott and suddenly everything was looking good. Alas, Camilo Doval put two on in the 9th and Freddie Freeman doinked one over the infield to tie the game at 5-5. Doval’s last blown save was April 30th. Mookie Betts was thrown out by Patrick Bailey trying to steal third base. Betts would play a big role later.

Neither team could score in the 10th but in the 11th Luis Matos walked with one out. Singles from Brandon Crawford and Austin Slater made it 7-5. In the bottom half Jakob Junis got the first man to ground out. Then it went really, really weird. Mookie hit an infield pop up and put his head down and jogged dejectedly toward first. Casey Schmitt muffed the play and Junis compounded the error by picking up the loose ball and chucking it over Wilmer’s head. Betts turned on the jets and raced toward second. Mike Yastrzemski picked up the carom in short right field and alertly ran the ball back to the infield. The Dodgers had given Manfred Man Michael Busch the stop sign as he rounded third. Betts had not noticed and mistakenly kept running. Suddenly both runners were in jeopardy, Busch headed home, and the Giants did the run-down play and got the second out. It was absurd–the Giants were in a giving mood but the Dodgers weren’t taking! Freeman struck out on three pitches to end it.

That’s five wins in a row. Alex Wood is back from the IL and gets the start tonight (6:10 PT).

Go Giants!

–M.C.