Giants' winning surge reaches new heights

SAN FRANCISCO -- For the last seven weeks, the Giants have played like a winning team. On Monday night, those efforts were finally reflected in the standings.

After scoring three runs in the eighth inning to rally for a 5-4 series-opening win over the first-place Cubs at Oracle Park, the Giants (51-50) climbed over .500 for the first time since Aug. 14, 2018. They have now won nine of their last 10 games to improve to an MLB-best 15-3 in July.

“I feel great for these guys,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “The way they’re fighting, battling back. What a comeback tonight.”

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The Giants entered the eighth trailing, 4-2, but they staged an uprising against Cubs reliever Pedro Strop. Pablo Sandoval led off the inning with a double and scored after Brandon Crawford threaded a single between two infielders to cut the deficit to one. Austin Slater followed with a game-tying double that sailed just over the head of center fielder Albert Almora Jr.

“They say it’s a game of inches, and that was right there,” Slater said. “The last three weeks, it feels like a lot of things have been going our way. I’m sure early in the season it felt like a lot of things weren’t going our way. That’s baseball. You’ve just got to roll with the punches.”

Joe Panik capped the comeback by lining a go-ahead double down the third-base line to give the Giants their first lead of the night. Panik, who entered Monday batting .233 with a career-low .624 OPS, finished 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI, becoming the hero du jour for a club that has received contributions from every corner of its roster over its remarkable surge.

“It feels good,” Panik said. “These guys have been battling hard, grinding hard, so it definitely feels good to kind of help them out and have a productive night.”

With closer Will Smith unavailable, Sam Dyson took the mound in the ninth and pitched around a two-out walk to Victor Caratini and a single to Addison Russell to seal the win for the Giants, who now find themselves only two games out of the National League Wild Card race with nine games to go until the July 31 Trade Deadline.

“That eighth inning, that’s October baseball at Oracle Park,” Panik said.

The Giants’ climb back into contention has breathed new life into a team that was 12 games under .500 as recently as June 29. Since then, they’ve emerged as the hottest team in baseball, winning 16 of their last 19 games while averaging 6.9 runs per game over that span. They’ve also received consistent production from their starting rotation, which has posted a 3.36 ERA in 12 games since the All-Star break.

The pieces all seem to be clicking into place for the Giants, who are now setting themselves up for a fascinating Trade Deadline. Once viewed as classic sellers, the Giants may no longer be as inclined to part with impending free agents such as Madison Bumgarner -- who on Tuesday will make his final home start before the Trade Deadline -- and Smith given their recent run of success.

“It’s pretty amazing what these guys have done,” Bochy said. “I’m proud of them and how they played their way into playing important games. I can’t think of a season quite like this. We’ve had some ups and downs, but to go from where we were to where we are, it’s made this even more enjoyable.”