It wasn't always pretty, but it was effective. The San Francisco Giants held on to beat the Phillies in 11 innings, winning their third straight grinding game. The offense continued to set the stage, but the big hit was once again hard to come by. Joc Pederson delivered a huge haymaker in the top of the 11th that essentially put this one away.
Except things once again got interesting in the bottom half of the inning. Bryce Harper came up representing the tying runs with two outs, and SF Giants manager Gabe Kapler elected to intentionally walk Harper to bring up Roman Quinn as the possible winning run. It was a daring move, one that actually might not have been the right decision. But in the end, the move paid off, as José Álvarez struck out Quinn to end the game. After the game, Kapler said catcher Joey Bart was strong in his conviction that the Giants should walk Harper, and Kapler ultimately made the move.
Last night's lineup was uninspiring to many fans, but it actually wasn't as bad as it looked when we consider some of the underrated performers against lefties, the injury to Austin Slater, and the fact that Darin Ruf was placed on the bereavement list prior to the game after losing his father unexpectedly. Heliot Ramos was called up to take Ruf's place, and he was in the lineup. Once left-handed starting pitcher Ranger Suarez came out of the game, Kapler was aggressive with using his strong lefty bench, going to Tommy La Stella, Mike Yastrzemski, Brandon Crawford, and Pederson for the second half of the game. Ultimately, it was a great time win and the Giants will go for the sweep this afternoon.
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The best daily San Francisco Giants podcast. Whether the Giants are winning championships or retooling for another title run, Locked On Giants host Ben Kaspick—a lifelong Giants fan and former contributor for RotoGraphs and Beyond the Box Score—breaks down every game, rumor, and transaction in a way that's data-driven and rational but also simple, passionate, and accessible to all.
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