Yastrzemski’s second homer is of walk-off variety vs. Padres
SAN FRANCISCO >> Mike Yastrzemski homered twice, the second a towering solo shot into McCovey Cove in the ninth inning, lifting the San Francisco Giants past the San Diego Padres 7-6 on Wednesday night.
Donovan Solano had a three-run home run in the eighth and Alex Dickerson also went deep as the Giants rallied to edge the Padres, who entered the game tied for the best record in baseball.
“Our players have actually talked about it … this team is full of fighters,” San Francisco manager Gabe Kapler said. “These are their words and I believe them when they talk. They demonstrated that they can back those words up tonight.”
It took a big lift from the Giants’ bullpen after starter Johnny Cueto was knocked out of the game in the fourth inning.
The two big swings from Yastrzemski were even more pivotal.
The Giants trailed 6-3 with two outs in the eighth before rallying.
Solano shook things up with his tying three-run blast off Padres reliever Craig Stammen.
With seven RBIs in the first week of the season, Solano trailed only Reds outfielder Nick Castellanos (8) and Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson (8) on the National League leaderboard before Thursday’s games.
After Tyler Rogers (1-1) worked the ninth, Yastrzemski homered off Matt Strahm (0-1) in the bottom of the inning to give San Francisco the walk-off victory. Yastrzemski also homered leading off the third.
Yastrzemski rounded the bases, did air high-fives with third base coach Ron Wotus then was met by several teammates who surrounded home plate and danced apart from one another.
“That was weird. I didn’t know what to expect,” Yastrzemski said. “Obviously we’re trying to do our best to stay safe and avoid as much contact as possible. Sometimes in that situation you just have to follow the lead and everybody was doing the right thing. We just jumped around.”