Giants sweep Mets behind Ruf’s late RBI

NEW YORK — With the bases loaded, no one out and the Giants leading by a run in the eighth inning at Citi Field on Thursday, San Francisco’s lineup had the chance to put the Mets away and cruise to a series sweep.

They squandered the chance anyway.

Missed opportunities haunt every team and the Giants made enough mistakes in New York this week that they easily could have lost a series to the sub-.500 Mets. Instead, the Giants captured their second consecutive 32 win and secured a series sweep ahead of a nine-day stretch in which they’ll face three clubs that should make the postseason.

Great teams find ways to win games and at 83-44, the Giants are great.

An early home run from Kris Bryant, a late RBI single from Darin Ruf and another Houdinilike escape from reliever José Álvarez were enough for the Giants to overcome their inability to add to their lead in the eighth inning.

With an opportunity to break the game open, pinch-hitter Thairo Estrada took four straight pitches off the plate to

open his at-bat against Mets lefty Aaron Loup. Estrada should have been trotting down toward first base with a RBI walk, but he soon bounced into a 5-2 force out after home plate umpire Adrian Johnson called Loup’s fourth offering a strike.

The call robbed Estrada and the Giants of a potentially valuable insurance run, and an offense that’s struggled with situational hitting and relied heavily on home runs was unable to recover as Bryant struck out swinging before Brandon Crawford popped out to shallow left field.

The sequence also followed one of the best situational atbats of the season for the Giants, as Ruf pushed a groundball single through a vacant right side of the infield to give the club a 3-2 lead. After Mike Yastrzemski opened the frame by hitting a ground-ball single into left center field against a shifted Mets defense, catcher Curt Casali was clipped by a pitch on his right forearm.