With the spotlight on him after trade, Rodriguez delivers with 12th-inning walk-off
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SAN FRANCISCO -- If the Giants are going to find a way to climb out of their early season rut, they’re going to need their core group of position players to start showing more fight at the plate.
They showed progress in that regard on Sunday, when Heliot Ramos homered, Willy Adames chipped in with three hits and rookie Jesus Rodriguez delivered a walk-off single to help the Giants edge the Pirates, 7-6, in 12 innings and clinch a series victory at Oracle Park.
“It was a battle, for sure,” Ramos said. “I think we definitely stuck together, and that’s all that matters. We needed it so our confidence can go up. I feel like we showed what we’re capable of when everybody plays together and puts good at-bats together.”
The Giants trailed, 6-4, after Joel Peguero gave up a two-run double to Spencer Horwitz in the top of the 10th, but they managed to tie the game on Adames’ two-out, two-run single to left field in the bottom half of the inning.
San Francisco went on to load the bases after Pirates right-hander Yohan Ramírez plunked Matt Chapman and Drew Gilbert, but it missed a chance to walk it off after Rodriguez went down swinging on a sweeper to end the inning.
Still, the 24-year-old catcher came through with the big hit when he took his next at-bat in the bottom of the 12th.
The Giants caught a break when Pirates right fielder Ryan O’Hearn couldn’t track down an opposite-field drive from Chapman, allowing it to fall for a double that put runners on second and third with one out. Pittsburgh then intentionally walked Gilbert to load the bases for Rodriguez, who knocked a first-pitch sinker from Justin Lawrence to right field for his first career walk-off hit.
“I feel like the AB before, I just got caught up in the moment,” said Rodriguez, the Giants’ No. 18 prospect per MLB Pipeline. “I went too aggressive, and that’s just not me. I’m aggressive, but not that aggressive. When I looked back, I just thought about that. I went in trying to be myself and hit the ball the other way. It works.”
Rodriguez became the first San Francisco rookie to record a walk-off hit since Patrick Bailey did so on Aug. 13, 2023.
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Rodriguez’s single seemed to float in the air a bit before finding grass, which forced Ramos -- the automatic runner -- to freeze at third before racing home to beat O’Hearn’s throw to the plate and finally end the three-hour and 51-minute Mother’s Day marathon.
“I saw [O’Hearn] was playing in and the ball hung too long,” Ramos said. “I was like, ‘Is it going to drop or not?’ So I just took a minute to see it land and then go.”
Rodriguez remains relatively inexperienced behind the plate -- he also made an errant throw down to second base that helped the Pirates get on the board in the first inning -- but he should get an extended run in the big leagues now that the Giants have traded Bailey, a two-time Gold Glove Award winner to the Guardians. Fellow rookie backstop Daniel Susac is also working his way back from a right elbow injury and could come off the injured list this week.
Sunday’s dramatic win should create better vibes for the Giants (16-24) as they prepare to hit the road and kick off a four-game series against the rival Dodgers on Monday night at Dodger Stadium.
In addition to the big hits from Ramos, Adames and Rodriguez, the Giants got three combined doubles from Chapman and Rafael Devers and steely performances from their bullpen. Left-hander Ryan Borucki -- a former Pirate -- entered Sunday with a 6.00 ERA over 14 appearances this year, but he worked a scoreless 11th and 12th to give the Giants a chance to stage their final rally.
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“Those games are so much fun,” Borucki said. “Obviously, for me personally, it was my former team. It wasn’t the outing I wanted yesterday, so I just had to try to forget about it and just go pitch my game and got it done.”
The Giants had right-hander JT Brubaker warming in case the game ended up going another inning, but they would have run out of pitching after that, which made their ability to get the job done in the bottom of the 12th even more critical.
“That was one of like 17 things you could mention that were stressful,” first-year manager Tony Vitello said. “There was a lot of chaos in that game. Guys had to hand the ball off to a fellow pitcher. You think we’re going to win in one inning, and you’ve got all kinds of different situations popping up. They just stuck together. It kind of had that feeling the whole day.”