Giants hold first wild-card spot
In the first three innings of Thursday’s series finale against the Seattle Mariners, the San Francisco Giants looked overwhelmed by the moment and fazed by pressure.
Rookie center fielder Mauricio Dubón committed a mental error by missing a cut-off man, allowing the Mariners to tack on an extra run. Starting pitcher Tyler Anderson lost his composure, voiced his frustration about a call and was ejected by home plate umpire Edwin Moscoso before recording an out in the third inning. A Giants offense that has been consistent and patient throughout the season was taking bad swings and making weak contact against Mariners
pitcher Nick Margevicius, who gave up seven runs in San Francisco last week.
The mistakes were uncharacteristic for a Giants team that had won 16 of its past 24 games to climb back to .500, but not unsurprising considering the club had played on just two of the previous six days due to postponements. Rust is expected after long layoffs, but for a franchise chasing its first playoff berth since 2016, it can’t last long.
Fortunately for the Giants and firstyear manager Gabe Kapler, it didn’t.
Veteran infielder Wilmer Flores, who is batting .311 with an .893 OPS in innings 7-9 of games this year, delivered the go-ahead, two-out, two-run triple in the top of the seventh that gave the Giants a lead they wouldn’t surrender in a 6-4 win.
“I think the whole year, every game has been big,” Flores said. “We have already played those guys, I don’t think we need to put pressure on ourselves. It’s another game that we needed to win. You don’t want to go out there thinking that we have to do things, we just have to go out there and do our thing.”
The Giants rallied for a combined five runs in the sixth and seventh innings and their bullpen tossed seven shutout innings to beat the Mariners and improve to 25-24 with 11 games to play. With 10 days left in the regular season, the Giants have little time to create separation from their competitors in the National League Wildcard standings and plenty of time to lose their grip on a postseason berth.