Giants rally past Phillies; Will Clark’s No. 22 to be retired.
‘I rake,’ said closer, and he proves it in 1st atbat
The clubhouse manager was taking bat orders and asked Will Smith what model he wanted. Why? Nobody knows. Smith had not batted in the majors, or in the minors. The last time was in college. He could have taken a tennis racket to the plate for all it mattered, right?
Smith had an answer, though, telling the clubbie, “Give me the same as Bum has.”
When Smith finally had a shot to take that Madison Bumgarnerstyle model to the plate in the eighth inning Sunday night, on national TV, he did his teammate proud. Batting righthanded, he lined a twoout, tworun single to right off Nick Pivetta to help seal his and the Giants’ 96 victory against the Phillies.
The Giants took three of four to end a streak of series losses at three.
Smith was not done after delivering the first tworun hit by a Giants reliever since Felix Rodriguez’s tworun double at Coors Field in 1999. The big lefty needed to get the final three outs after he was tagged with a tough blown save in the eighth, his third against 28 saves.
Manager Bruce Bochy asked Smith to accomplish what would have been a dif
ferent first, a multiinning save. Smith inherited two Tony Watson runners and allowed a Corey Dickerson sacrifice fly that tied the game 66.
Smith got the job done in the ninth, starting with his own good snag of a Roman Quinn bunt, with Brandon Belt making a greater play stopping Smith’s onehop throw while falling over and keeping his foot on the bag.
With the third out came the first Gatorade and water bath of Smith’s life, and then the postgame commentary.
Nothing but praise, of course.
“Did I expect that? Probably not,” said hitting coach Alonzo Powell, who did note that Smith will pop into the cage to take a few hacks now and again.
Smith motored to first at the speed of sloth. Bryce Harper noticed and fired the ball toward first base, but it was off line.
The Giants’ dugout had been yelling, “Run! Run!” Asked whether he heard that, Smith said, “I could not. I was blacking out a little bit. If that throw is on line, I would have been out. I would have made Bochy challenge it.”
Smith admitted he was still in a “fuzz” half an hour after the hit, but a happy fuzz. He always has fun playing ball, he said, but that “probably was at the top of my funness.”
Poor Scooter Gennett hit a ball into McCovey Cove to give the Giants a 65 lead in the sixth and was overshadowed by Smith, his former Milwaukee teammate.
Gennett said he and Smith actually spoke in the dugout early in the game about the pitcher’s desire to step into the box.
“He’s like, ‘I rake!’ I’m super happy for him,” Gennett said. “It was almost more exciting than a grand slam, a single to right. I’m glad he got to first base on time.”
If Smith ever was to bat, it would have been in this threering Oracle Park circus.
“You know things had gone awry in that game,” Bochy said. “I had three relievers get their first atbats, and two of them smoked the ball.”
Jandel Gustave struck out in the second, Trevor Gott flied out to right in the fourth. Still, they were twothirds of the first trio of pitchers to make their first plate appearances in the same game since 1934.
With rookie Conner Menez gone in the second inning and Philly starter Jake Arrieta done after three, the teams combined to use 14 pitchers. The eight Giants walked 11. They had not won a game and walked at least 11 since 2006 at Coors.
Mike Yastrzemski doubled and hit his 12th homer. Evan Longoria hit a tworun single and started the winning rally with another single. Kevin Pillar’s two hits included a twoout, goahead triple in the eighth that gave Smith a 76 lead before he batted.
Bochy tried to deke the Phillies by sending Sam Coonrod to the ’pen, but they did not bite and walked Brandon Crawford intentionally to get to Smith.
“I think they knew I wasn't going to take out my closer,” Bochy said.
After Crawford stole second, Smith took four pitches — three balls, then a strike — before his big swing.
“Everybody was pumped for Will,” Menez said. “That was pretty freaking awesome.”