SAN FRANCISCO – A Casey Schmitt hit-by-pitch and a perfect Brandon Crawford bunt helped load the bases in the bottom of the 11th inning during Sunday’s game against the Red Sox.
All the Giants needed was for Joc Pederson to put the ball in play and allow the runner to score.
And with one clean swing on a 3-0 count, Pederson pulled a single into right field. For the second consecutive game, San Francisco walked off the Red Sox, this time winning 4-3 and improving its record to 58-48.
“Playoff baseball, you don’t get a ton of hits but when you have opportunities, so you have to capitalize,” Pederson after a game his manager Gabe Kapler said had ‘playoff vibes,’ adding, “That’s what makes teams special.”
The Giants are now two games behind the Dodgers for the top spot in the NL West after Pederson’s third walk-off hit of his career. Pederson also beat the Padres on a game-ending walk in June.
It wasn’t the first time San Francisco had scored a run with the bases loaded on Sunday.
The Giants loaded the bases in the second inning without getting the ball out of the infield. Boston starter Brennan Bernardino plunked Michael Conforto and Luis Matos before giving up a bunt single to catcher Blake Sabol.
Casey Schmitt’s hard-struck grounder to third drove in his 25th RBI of the season to give the Giants an early 1-0 lead.
Faced with righthanded reliever John Schreiber in the third inning, manager Gabe Kapler took out the righthanded Austin Slater and replaced him with Mike Yastrzemski.
When Yastrzemski had to leave the game in the fifth inning with left hamstring tightness, future walk-off hero Pederson took his spot in the outfield.
Kapler also went with an opener approach for the second consecutive game, allowing Scott Alexander to get five outs on 16 pitches before bringing in Ross Stripling for what he called a “featured role.”
San Francisco is now 14-4 when employing an opener.
The Giants were the beneficiaries of some shoddy fielding at third base by Boston’s All-Star Rafael Devers, with a mishandled ball giving the Giants runners on the corner with no outs and the top of the order due up.
Wilmer Flores, who entered the day batting .394 in July, poked a ball into right field to give the Giants a two-run lead.
Stripling cruised along until the seventh, throwing 4 1-3 innings with three strikeouts and no walks. Adam Duvall’s solo home run for Boston ended his day with no outs in the inning, and Taylor Rogers replaced him.
“I think that some guys want more of an explanation and it’s more give and take, and you might get more emotion when they’re told they’re getting opened for,” Stripling said about pitching in long relief. “I think that I’ve done it a bunch and a decent amount here, so It think it’s a pretty easy conversation when they approach me about it.”
Rogers surrendered a Jarren Duran double before giving up a homer to San Francisco’s longtime nemesis Justin Turner, who launched home run No. 16 against the Giants to give the Sox a 3-2 lead.
Turner spent nine years tormenting San Francisco as a member of the rival Dodgers, and in his last two games as a member of the Red Sox, the 38-year old has now hit a game-tying two-run single and a two-run home run in his last two games against the club.
The Giants’ anemic offense, which had scored fewer than four runs in nine of the last 10 games, somehow cobbled together a Conforto single and and a Matos double to put runners in scoring position.
Catcher Patrick Bailey’s ground ball tied the game, but Schmitt was called out on strikes to leave the game tied at three apiece at the end of the eighth inning. Neither team scored in the ninth or 10th inning.
In his first day back with the major league team, RHP Tristan Beck got the ball in the tenth inning. The Stanford alum worked around the ghost runner on second and a walk to leave the inning with the score still tied.
“I’m happy to take the ball whenever the team needs me, and you know, obviously, you start counting down how many guys are left in the rotation,” Beck said. “I felt good physically, and I let them know that.”
Beck wouldn’t need to go out again as the Giants got the runner over to third on Crawford’s flawless bunt in his first game back on the field following a 12-game absence due to knee inflammation.
“Perfect execution always trumps good strategy, and that was perfect execution by Craw,” Kapler said, with Crawford later adding, “I wanted to hit obviously with Joc behind me, but I know in that situation, my job is to get a bunt down.”
Pederson’s hit gave San Francisco its second straight walk off win against the visitors from Boston (56-49). Beck (2-0) got the win and Mauricio Llovera (1-1) was hit with the loss.
The Giants will continue its nine-game homestand on Monday with a 6:45 p.m. game against the Diamondbacks.
