The Giants win for all the moms

Casey Schmitt loves his mom. And he loves your mom too. In fact, he loves all the moms who were in attendance at Oracle Park on Sunday afternoon, and he showed them that love with a Mother’s Day gift: a two-out, two-strike walk-off two-bagger in the 10th when no mom, or mom-affiliate, wanted to see it go to the 11th.

Bad things were going to happen in the 11th. Elly De La Cruz, the stealiest man in baseball, was going to start the inning on second base as the Manfred Runner. He was absolutely going to steal third and would’ve stolen home too, and then somehow would’ve stolen his way around the diamond again for another Reds run.

Things were looking for the Giants bleak up until the millisecond before Schmitt laced his double to deep left-center.

Emilio Pagán froze Mike Yastrzemski with a knee-high fastball to lead off the frame. An unproductive out with the gifted runner on second—the stadium filled with the devastating tsk of a thousand tongues. Heliot Ramos flew out to deep right on Pagán’s next offering, and Luis Matos remained stuck on second. Five pitches into the 10th, the Giants were down to their last out of the frame.

With an open base to work with, Pagán pitched around Blake Sabol. The catcher took the walk, and the Reds went to their sliderman Lucas Sims to face Schmitt.

As advertised, Sim threw nothing but breaking balls at the start of the at-bat. A slider over the plate to steal a strike, a slider six-inches off of it that Schmitt helplessly waved at—a whiff so bad Sims went out there again. Schmitt fouled it off to stay alive, but it was obvious he had the self-control of a Golden Retriever in the box. He was in swing-mode, anything close would be slobbered over and hacked at.

Any mom present would’ve told Sims to just throw the same pitch again. 0-2 count with a free-swinger just up from Triple-A, hitless since his call-up and desperate to please. Sling that frisbee until he misses! Solid parental advice that Sims ignored. The next pitch was a slider, but inside and over the plate. Based on the catcher’s set-up, it was a missed location, but Sims doubled-down on the mistake with the gusto of a sarcastic suburban sixteen-year old. He wanted to make things complicated, he wanted to outwit Schmitt instead of doing the boring but sensible thing of throwing another un-hittable breaking ball off-plate.

Maybe he thought the fastball would either freeze Schmitt or jump past him, or if he fouled it off, it’d set up another outside slider? Whatever the thinking was, it was as half-baked as a teenager in 5th period.

A 94 MPH fastball over the middle of the plate isn’t going to fool anybody.

Though San Francisco eventually came out on top in the 10th, count them lucky they even made it through the 1st.

The first pitch Kyle Harrison threw hit TJ Friedl in the hand, causing him to eventually leave the game. Harrison then walked Spencer Steer with one out, and Stuart Fairchild with two outs to load the bases before Jeimer Candelario bounced a 3-run double off the top of the wall. Jung Hoo Lee, in the lineup after missing a couple of games with a bruised foot, lunged into the centerfield wall trying to chase down the ball, collapsing on the warning track clutching his shoulder. The center fielder walked off the field with Dave Groeschner propping up his left arm.

In a postgame interview, Bob Melvin described the injury as a “separated shoulder”, but it was later clarified to be a dislocation, which is apparently different and worse. An MRI will reveal the severity of the issue and whether surgery is required. Lee’s certain trip to the IL will be San Francisco’s third outfielder, after Austin Slater and Michael Conforto, in two days, and seventh position player in the last week.

Harrison dealt with more turbulence in the 2nd, walking two more Reds hitters, and another in the 3rd, but escaped both frames without more damage being inflicted. The lefty started to recover control over his arsenal with three strikeouts in the 4th, and his last pitch of the day—an 0-2 changeup to Stuart Fairchild—bagged his 5th K of the afternoon.

A rather odd pitching line penned by the lefty: 3 runs on 3 hits, 5 walks, 1 HBP and 5 Ks over 5 innings pitched. Miraculously it was good enough to put Harrison in line for the win.

The Giants offense was typically sluggish against Cincinnati’s starter Frankie Montas. The opportunities they got were mostly provided by Montas himself. A two-out walk and HBP in the 1st ended on a Yaz pop-up. Their next base runner, and first hit of the day, didn’t come until one out in the 4th. A subsequent single and HBP loaded the bases, and Schmitt hit the ball hard, but right at the third baseman Santiago Espinal for the third out.

It wasn’t until the 5th with a rally sparked by a Tyler Fitzgerald double that San Francisco broke through.

Matt Chapman singled Fitz home before LaMonte Wade Jr. (who also loves his mom) made it a new ball game with one swing.

Wilmer Flores maintained the momentum with a single, then advanced to second on a wild pitch before Ramos brought him home with a single of his own. An infield single from Sabol and throwing error by De La Cruz allowed Ramos to score from first and extend San Francisco’s lead to 5-3.

Cincinnati clawed their back into the game with a singles barrage of their own against Sean Hjelle and Ryan Walker in the 7th. Mike Ford, another Giants alum from the 2022 season, launched Walker’s first pitch of the 8th over the wall in center to knot the game at 5-runs apiece.

Camilo Doval closed out the 8th and 9th with a pair of 102 MPH, knee-high cutters to strikeout De La Cruz and Ford. De La Cruz came up again in the 10th with runners in scoring position and again was K’ed to end the frame—this time with a belt-high challenge fastball from Luke Jackson.

A dramatic 6-5 win that certainly came at a cost. The San Francisco Giants are looking an awful lot like the Sacramento River Cats as of late. It hasn’t been a bad thing with Ramos contributing on both sides of the ball, and now Schmitt in the limelight, but things ain’t getting easier with the Dodgers coming to town.