we had this one in the bag the whole time
the whole entire time, yessir, no questions asked
not even one second of doubt
completely stress free win
AAAAHHHHH
So.
The San Francisco Giants, deciding to exist in spiritual solidarity with the 49ers (who tried their best to lose to the Lions in the fourth quarter), eked out a 6-5 win over the Chicago Cubs. It shouldn’t have been that close. It should have been another blowout — the Giants had 12 hits and 4 walks, that’s 16 baserunners — but only managed to get the 6 runs. The Giants had 22 runners left on base.
Wilmer Flores, returning from the IL after suffering a hamstring strain, created pretty much all of the Giants runs. He went 3 for 3 with a walk, three RBIs, and 2 runs. His biggest hit of the night was a two-run homer off of Justin Steele in the bottom of the fifth to bring the Giants lead to 5-2.
Flo Knows pic.twitter.com/vaHQj5AdyI
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) September 12, 2021
The Giants scored a run in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings before the blast by Flores. The first came off a Flores RBI single to drive in Buster Posey after the latter doubled.
Welcome back, Wilmer pic.twitter.com/lz6D5BVLdO
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) September 12, 2021
The Giants got another run in the third off of a Kris Bryant groundout that scored Logan Webb, and another run in the fourth off of a Slater RBI single that scored Flores. Both Flores and Slater making an immediate impact was certainly a welcome sign for the Giants.
After the Flores two-run homer, the last Giants run came in the 7th inning. Flores walked, and the last ball was a wild pitch that allowed Kris Bryant to score from 3rd.
Bryant scores on a wild pitch pic.twitter.com/JC4zSVbS5u
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 12, 2021
Not a bad first game back from the IL!
Meanwhile, Logan Webb took the mound. He pitched significantly better than his line indicates, as officially he went 6+ innings, gave up 5 runs (4 earned) on 6 hits and 2 walks with 5 strikeouts. He made Cubs hitters do things like this:
Oh my. pic.twitter.com/R6UcPfcUAl
— MLB (@MLB) September 12, 2021
But Webb also faced some bad luck. Two defensive miscues behind him led to two flyball triples, both of which came around to score. Slater lost the first ball in the sun, and on the second, Slater and Kris Bryant collided in the outfield. Bryant was slow to get up, but luckily seemed to shake it off and remained on the field for the rest of the game. Webb did give up a long home run to Ian Happ for the Cubs’ first two runs of the game, but otherwise seemed locked in until the seventh inning.
In the seventh, a leadoff walk came around to score on a David Bote double. Then a little bloop flare single by Robinson Chirinos chased Webb from the game. Tyler Rogers then entered the game, striking out the first batter he saw on three pitches before giving up a single to Happ. With the bases loaded, Rogers then got both Wilson Contreras and Alfonso Riveras to strike out on 3-2 counts, on two pitches that probably were ball fours, but Rogers got the call against Contreras and made Riveras chase out of the strikezone. This maintained the Giants lead at 6-5. (This inning was the one you see in the win probability graph).
Going into the ninth, McGee managed to get his 31st save of the year, but not without a little bit of torture. Patrick Wisdom doubled, but McGee got Frank Schwindel and Happ to ground out to end the ballgame, handing the Giants their seventh win a row.
The Giants went 6-0 on this road trip. They can clinch a postseason berth tomorrow at home with a win against the Padres. It’s their first sweep at Wrigley Field since 1995, and these Giants just keep rolling. They’re now 93-50.