6-8-24 RECAP: San Francisco Giants (31-33) vs Texas Rangers (30-33)
A righty heavy lineup was sent out by Bob Melvin & friends as the Giants faced Rangers lefty Andrew Heaney. Righty Spencer Howard got the start thanks to him sporting a clean bill of health above all else. Here it goes.
It only took two batters for the Giants to crack the scoreboard. Austin Slater led the game off with a walk and was immediately doubled home on a ball hit into the left-center field gap by Heliot Ramos. Heaney limited the damage at just the one run. 1-0 Giants thru half an inning. Figured that should be enough run support for Spencer Howard.
Yeah, no. Howard served up an easy baked rally for Texas by walking Marcus Semien and Josh Smith back to back to start the bottom of the 1st. Adolis Garcia would move Semien to 3rd base on a fly out to the right field wall. Semien then scored on an RBI sac fly to the warning track in center off the bat of Nathaniel Lowe. Score was knotted at 1-1 after an inning.
With it still 1-1 in the top of the 3rd, the top of the Giants lineup started doing damage yet again. Austin Slater laced a single into right field and Heliot Ramos went big fly into the left field seats to make it 3-1. It was a sensational shot. Very sensational. I was sensationalized, yes.
Spencer Howard was pulled in the bottom of the 5th with two outs and a runner on 1st for Erik Miller. He was sitting at 74 pitches. Even yours truly, who isn’t exactly a Spencer Howard guy, thought he should’ve got the opportunity to go one more batter in order to be eligible for the win. Anyways, Bob Melvin made the right call as Miller struck out Josh Smith and really made him look silly in the process. He looked like an unfolded lawn chair swinging at strike three. It was still 3-1 Giants through five innings.
Fast forward to the bottom of the 8th because that’s what I do when nothing happens for 2.5 innings. After Miller and Ryan Walker mowed down the Rangers for 2.1 combined innings, Bob Melvin gave the ball to Tyler Rogers with the top of the order coming up. Rogers made quick work of the Rangers sluggers and it would set the stage for a Camilo Doval save opportunity in the 9th.
It was an interesting 9th inning to say the least. Nathaniel Lowe worked a leadoff walk, but Doval would bounce back and get Ezequiel Duran to fly out to right field to Mike Yastrzemski, who hit for Austin Slater in pinched hit for Slater. The plot thickened as Jonah Heim smacked a high chopper off home plate and beat out an infield single to put runners on 1st & 2nd. That brought up Travis Jankowski and he hit a slow roller to Wilmer Flores at 1st base. Flores gloved it and did the straight glove flip to Doval covering to just narrowly beat Jankowski to the bag. Whew! So with two outs and runners at 2nd & 3rd, it was up to Leodys Tavares. It was one hell of a battle. Taveres missed tying the game with a liner down the right field line by mere inches. So damn close to this game going to extras. Very close, indeed. In the end, Doval would win the battle by getting Tavares to hit a can of corn out to Yastrzemski in right field to end the game. After all the drama, it would go down as a 3-1 Giants victory.
The streaky Giants will try to get back to .500 and sweep the series all at once tomorrow. Keaton Winn (3-6, 6.17) will makes his return after his season took a turn for the worse a few weeks back. Opposing him will be Nathan Eovaldi (2-2, 2.70), who has found his form since returning from the injured list. First pitch from Arlington will be an early one, 10:05 PM PT.
Not going to lie, the 9th inning shenanigans saved this from being one of the more boring games I’ve ever recapped. So, Camilo, thanks I guess?
- Slater: 1-2, R, BB, K (.156)
- Ramos: 2-4, HR (6), 2B, R, 3 RBI, K (.327) 💣
- Chapman: 1-4, 2 K (.240)
- Bailey: 0-0, BB (.276)
- Fitzgerald: 1-3, BB (.273)
- Howard: 4.2 IP, 3 H, ER, 3 BB, 2 K (2.03) (74 pitches)
- Miller (W, 1-2): IP, H, 2 K (3.60)
- Walker: 1.1 IP, K (2.70)
- Rogers, Ty: IP (2.53)
- Doval (S, 11): IP, H, BB (3.91)
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