Remember Cutch's six hit, walk-off HR game

May 9th, 2020

’s stint with the Giants lasted less than a year, but he still managed to enjoy a signature moment with San Francisco.

On April 7, 2018, McCutchen delivered a walk-off, three-run home run in the 14th inning to cap a career-high six-hit game and lift the Giants to a wild 7-5 victory over the rival Dodgers at Oracle Park.

Acquired from the Pirates in exchange for right-hander Kyle Crick and outfield prospect Bryan Reynolds, McCutchen endured a slow start with the Giants, going 2-for-24 (.083) over his first six games of the 2018 season. But the former National League MVP winner subsequently delivered a timely breakout against the Dodgers.

McCutchen put the Giants on the board with an RBI double in the first inning and added four singles before finally ending the five-hour, 16-minute marathon with his dramatic homer in the 14th.

Los Angeles took a 5-4 lead on Logan Forsythe’s RBI single in the top of the 14th, but the Giants quickly responded after Kelby Tomlinson hit a leadoff single and advanced to third on Joe Panik’s single. That brought up McCutchen, who fouled off seven two-strike pitches from Dodgers reliever Wilmer Font before launching his first home run as a Giant to the left-field bleachers.

"I was just trying to fight him off, fight him off, fight him off, until I got comfortable enough that whatever he threw up there, I was ready to hit," McCutchen said afterward.

McCutchen’s dramatics wouldn’t have been possible without a stellar performance from the Giants bullpen, as Tony Watson, Hunter Strickland, Pierce Johnson and Reyes Moronta combined to pitch 6 2/3 scoreless innings to keep the Dodgers at bay for most of the night.

“Epic,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “It’s one of these Giant-Dodger games that will be talked about, that’s how good of a game that was.”