Sandoval’s hustle helps beat Mariners
SEATTLE >> In the same season Pablo Sandoval recorded the first pitching appearance of his career, the Giants infielder accomplished a feat arguably as surprising and certainly more meaningful on Tuesday night.
Sandoval won the Giants a game with his speed.
“I knew Dee Gordon was playing deep, so I got a chance to get there,” Sandoval said. “I tried to hustle to keep the run going and that momentum kept the inning going. We got the opportunity.”
In the top of the ninth, Sandoval jetted up the first base line after hitting a chopper past Mariners closer Edwin Diaz. Gordon, playing second base, raced in to scoop the ball and throw to first, but he misfired past the bag allowing rookie Steven Duggar to trot home with the go-ahead run in a 4-3 Giants win.
“He was zooming,” second baseman Kelby Tomlinson said of Sandoval.
After the Giants surrendered three separate one-run
leads Tuesday, Sandoval’s pinch hit infield single, Gordon’s throwing error and Will Smith’s fourth save of the season helped the club improve to 52-50 and remain above .500.
Following back-to-back walk-off losses in Oakland, the Giants defeated the Mariners and gained a full game in the National League West with more late-inning persistence.
“We’ve played some tough games, and it’s good to have it go our way,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “We got a break at the end. We’ve played a lot of tight games, and here’s another game that could have gone either way.”
The Giants avoided their third straight loss with timely hitting from a few unlikely sources.
Four of the nine hitters Bochy penciled into Tuesday’s lineup hadn’t hit a home run this season, including designated hitter Hunter Pence who hit in the fifth slot in the order despite carrying a .285 slugging percentage into the game.
While he’s struggled through the toughest season of his professional career, Pence proved there’s still pop in his bat as he launched the third longest home run by a Giants player this season with a 445-foot moonshot that hit off the base up the upper deck at Safeco Field.
“It might have been weighing on him, I don’t know,” Bochy said. “But the home run was big for us.”
Pence’s first homer of the year broke a 2-2 tie in the sixth and gave starter Andrew Suárez his third different lead of the night. But once again, Suárez couldn’t keep the Giants in front as he issued a two-out walk to Denard Span and reliever Reyes Moronta allowed an inherited runner to score on a single by Mariners pinch hitter Ben Gamel.
Pence wasn’t the only unexpected source of offense for the Giants on Tuesday, as the team’s first three The Giants’ Kelby Tomlinson hits an RBI single during the fourth inning of Tuesday’s game against Seattle.
runs batted in came off the bats of players with a combined 24 RBIs on the year.
Tomlinson entered Tuesday’s game with a .214 batting average and was one of the four hitters without a home run this season. Despite his poor numbers, the second baseman led the charge against spot starter Roenis Elias, tripling for the team’s first hit of the game in the third inning before singling home Brandon Crawford on the eighth pitch of his at-bat in the fourth.
“It was a big game today and to get it turned back around after the All-Star break, hopefully we can carry it into tomorrow and win a series and get rolling again,” Tomlinson said.
After legging out his third inning triple, Tomlinson scored on an infield single by leadoff man Chase d’Arnaud to push the Giants ahead 1-0.
Suárez couldn’t hold one-run leads in either the third or fourth innings, as the Mariners struck back in both frames with a run of their own. In the third, light-hitting center fielder Guillermo Heredia launched his third home run of the year, a 404-foot solo shot to center to tie the game at 1-1. In the fourth, former Giants outfielder Denard Span hit a bases loaded sacrifice fly to bring home Nelson Cruz, but left fielder Austin Slater prevented the Mariners from adding on.
With two on and one out, catcher Mike Zunino laced a single into left field, but Slater scooped it up and fired a perfect strike to the plate to catch Kyle Seager in plenty of time.
“That was huge,” Suárez said. “I was pumped because it changed the game for sure.”