Posey’s long day ends with winning hit
Dereck Rodriguez, the rookie who earned the decision in Wednesday’s 5-4, 13-inning victory against the Cubs, is that rare pitcher who can understand intimately how hard it must have been for Buster Posey to catch 13 innings with a hip injury, then whack the winning single off the wall in his seventh at-bat.
Rodriguez’s father, Ivan, had to play through dozens of bumps, bruises and tears during a 21-year major-league career.
“Catchers are a whole different breed,” Rodriguez said after the Giants rewarded themselves for a 4½-hour game with a series victory against the one of the National League’s standard-bearers.
“They get banged up and go on like it’s nothing. For Buster to feel something the majority of the season, his hip, and still go out every day and hit the ball like he does, he’s just a different animal. He’s a future Hall of Famer.”
Posey won it out of selfpreservation. Facing James Norwood, who was making his major-league debut, Posey slammed a 2-2 fastball off the wall in right to score Brandon Belt, who drew a walk to start a two-out rally that Andrew McCutchen perpetuated with a single.
Posey then stood in the traditional interview spot inside the clubhouse and again answered uncomfortable ques-
tions about an injury and pending cortisone injection that he noted would have remained a secret had he not been elected to the All-Star Game and had to explain why he chose not to go.
“Everybody’s got stuff they’re dealing with,” Posey said. “I try not to make more of it than what it is.”
Still, when asked if he was ready for Thursday’s off day, Posey replied, “Yes, sir. Absolutely.”
The off day would have been a lot harder to stomach had the Giants not pulled out this one. In fact, a loss arguably would have been their worst of the season after they finally got to a left-handed starter (Mike Montgomery) for four firstinning runs, could not preserve the 4-0 lead, then went 11 innings without scoring.
The Giants put 14 runners on base from innings two through 12 and could not push a fifth run home. Five times they had two runners on, twice with nobody out.
The bullpen saved the day, notwithstanding Javier Baez’s leadoff homer in the seventh against Tony Watson that tied it 4-4 after a still shaky Johnny Cueto surrendered three runs on a Jason Heyward solo homer in the third and Kris Bryant’s two-run shot to center in Cueto’s fifth and final inning.
Ty Blach and Reyes Moronta combined for a shutout sixth. With the game tied, Mark Melancon, Will Smith and Rodriguez held the league’s highest-scoring offense scoreless over the final six innings. Smith threw 30 pitches in his two innings, both his most since his Tommy John surgery.
“I thought the pitchers threw the ball really well all three games,” Posey said. “That’s a good team over there.”
One Giant whom many fans probably had not heard of had a big impact.
Chase d’Arnaud, a 31-yearold playing for his sixth bigleague team, hit a homer to start the four-run first inning, which also included a two-run Gorkys Hernandez double and Steven Duggar’s scoring single, his first big-league RBI.
D’Arnaud hit the ball hard four times, adding a double, a lineout and a drive to the leftfield wall in the 13th.
He also saved a run in the sixth inning when he charged Anthony Rizzo’s slow roller with the bases loaded and two outs and fired a strike to first to retire the lumbering first baseman.
Cueto’s second start off the disabled list (five innings, three runs) was a bit better than his first. It also had a bizarre finish.
Cueto doubled over in pain after grounding out in the fourth, later explaining he hit the ball off the end of his bat and lost the feeling in his fingers. The way he shook his right arm, anyone in the park had to think he had blown out his elbow for good.
He still returned for the fifth and allowed a first-pitch Heyward single ahead of Bryant’s homer, admitting later that he was still feeling the “bees” in his hand. Cueto got through the inning, though, retiring his final three hitters.