Nuñez’s single wins it in 10th
Conor Gillaspie had a reason to celebrate the moment he awoke Tuesday. He turned 30. His night turned into a full-on party, for himself and a team that desperately needed to rush the field and pound someone joyfully after a gameending hit.
The Giants beat Cleveland 2-1 on Eduardo Nuñez’s single in the 10th inning against closer Cody Allen after Gillaspie opened the inning with his third extra-base hit of a season that has not been kind to him. He shot a double off first baseman Edwin Encarnacion’s glove into the right-field corner.
Denard Span’s sacrifice attempt turned into a bunt single that set up Nuñez’s first big-league walk-off hit, an opposite-field poke through the hole on the right side that scored pinch-runner Kelby Tomlinson.
The obvious question for Nuñez was whether he had a game-ending hit in the minors.
“I don’t remember,” he said. “It was a long time ago.”
With the Giants on the verge of falling 30½ games out of first place, and a clubhouse full of anxious players ahead of the trade deadline, it’s easy to forget that they still are trying to win ballgames.
They have had so little success, a win like this is good for the soul. Gillaspie knows it. “The situation we’ve been in as a team, the way we’ve been
scuffling, getting a win like this, in extra innings, a little excitement at the end, it’s really good for this team,” he said. “We really needed it.”
Gillaspie needed a little good fortune, too.
He did execute a good piece of hitting by turning on an inside pitch from Allen and ripping it. But the Indians were playing no-doubles, which meant Encarnacion was guarding the line.
Encarnacion is usually the designated hitter and was playing first base for just the 17th time this year. A regular first baseman might have caught the ball. Gillaspie actually expected it.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “I kind of stopped running. I was happy to get it by him.”
After Span’s bunt single sent Tomlinson to third, Span took second on catcher indifference, eliminating the possibility of a force. Nuñez was not thrilled to see that, thinking the Indians were going to walk him to load the bases and create a force at any base.
He ended the game on the next pitch, cementing a win that also served as a reminder that the Giants do have men who can pitch.
Ty Blach, working on 12 days’ rest, held Cleveland to one run in seven innings, preserving a 1-1 tie by jamming pinch-hitter Carlos Santana for a groundball that ended his final inning with two runners stranded.
Hunter Strickland pitched a perfect eighth and Sam Dyson needed to pitch two scoreless innings because the Giants failed to win in the ninth despite loading the bases with one out against All-Star setup man Andrew Miller and the closer, Allen.
Allen struck out Joe Panik and got Gorkys Hernandez to fly out to send the game into extras.
The Giants had only four hits before the 10th, including an RBI single by Buster Posey after right fielder Brandon Guyer dropped a Nuñez flyball for a two-base error in the sixth inning.
They also benefited from three highlight-reel plays from shortstop Brandon Crawford and a diving catch from Hunter Pence.
The win came before a second consecutive non-sellout crowd of 39,151.
Manager Bruce Bochy was happy to get his third seveninning start in the five games since the break, saying, “It makes life a lot easier. It’s going to be critical they get us deep into games and pitch quality innings if we’re going to turn this thing around.”
Which nobody should forget remains the ultimate goal.