LaMonte Wade Jr. leads Giants to 2-0 win over Pirates

On a night in which the San Francisco Giants honored the ten year anniversary of the 2012 World Series Championship team, the 2021 Giants showed that they still know how to get the job done, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0.

The men of the night were LaMonte Wade, Jr., who scored both runs of the night. Starting pitcher Logan Webb, who ended up allowing five hits with nine strikeouts and two walks in eight innings. And Camilo Doval, who shut things down in the ninth, allowing just a walk to close out the game.

The action started in the bottom of the first. Forever Giant Tyler Beede was on the mound for the Pirates, and it was a struggle along the way to his final line of two runs on three hits with three strikeouts and three walks in three innings. Which took 74 pitches.

In his 27-pitch first inning, Wade kicked things off with a leadoff double, followed by an RBI double from Joc Pederson after working the count full. J.D. Davis walked, but the Giants were unable to capitalize on it.

This pattern repeated itself in the third inning, where Wade hit a leadoff home run to the arcade.

With two outs later in the inning, Beede walked both Mike Yastrzemski and Brandon Crawford, but Thairo Estrada grounded out on the first pitch to end the inning.

I know the team won, but when facing a struggling pitcher, they really should be putting more pressure on him and capitalizing on free baserunners. But for tonight, it was enough.

Also, I would be remiss if I did not share this play from Logan Webb to end the top of the third:

As nice as it is to watch the Giants win a baseball game, what I’ll remember about this game is the players from the 2012 season coming back and telling stories in the broadcast booth and everyone having a great time.

It’s easy to forget, when you have 162 games with these players in a season, that there will come a time when you won’t see them every day anymore. The sudden retirement of Buster Posey really brought that home for me.

And although players like Posey, Tim Lincecum, Sergio Romo, and Pablo Sandoval weren’t in attendance, they were present in highlights, and in the hearts of their former teammates in the form of fond memories shared. As well as a touching moment of silence at the end of the pre-game ceremony for Lincecum’s wife, Cristin Coleman, who passed away earlier this summer, in which some of his former teammates could be seen wiping their eyes.

There was a lot of talk from the broadcasters and the guests during the game about how much players go through together, the highs and the lows, and how it really brings them close together, and how it also brings their families close together. And you could see, even ten years later, that that comradery doesn’t go away.