Giant comebacks: San Francisco is 2nd team since 1900 to erase 3 straight 4-run deficits on road
By MIKE FITZPATRICK
AP Baseball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — That’s three Giant comebacks in a row — all on the road.
Matt Chapman, Patrick Bailey and their San Francisco teammates have put together a remarkable run of resiliency this week.
Bailey hit a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning, Chapman saved the game with a sparkling defensive play at third base and the Giants rallied from another big deficit to beat the New York Mets 8-7 on Friday night.
“That was a hell of a win,” Bailey said. “We’re never out of it.”
After clawing out of a 6-2 hole in the eighth, the Giants joined the 1932 St. Louis Cardinals as the only major league clubs since 1900 to win three consecutive road games in which they trailed by at least four runs.
Just two other teams have accomplished the feat at home: the 1999 Florida Marlins (against San Francisco) and the 1961 Boston Red Sox, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“It’s the same thing the last three days: We’re just fighting to the finish,” manager Bob Melvin said. “When we get guys on base there’s just a really good feeling in the dugout that someone’s going to come up with a big hit.”
San Francisco trailed 5-0 in the fifth Wednesday night at Pittsburgh before winning 9-5 in 10 innings, then rallied from down 6-2 in the eighth Thursday behind Chapman’s three-run homer to beat the Pirates 7-6.
Before this week, the Giants had never won consecutive road games after trailing by four runs — let alone three in a row.
“It’s just been crazy games,” Chapman said.
Jorge Soler and Mike Yastrzemski also homered for the surging Giants (26-26), who won their seventh in eight games to reach .500 for the first time since they were 2-2 on March 31.
San Francisco trailed 6-2 with two outs in the eighth Friday before Thairo Estrada laced an RBI double. Chapman walked to load the bases and Bailey launched a 2-0 fastball from Reed Garrett to right-center for his first career slam.
Yastrzemski added a solo shot off Jorge López in the ninth to make it 8-6, but the Mets mounted a late rally of their own. They scored once in the ninth on Francisco Lindor’s RBI single off the right-field fence and loaded the bases with one out before Camilo Doval struck out slugger J.D. Martinez on three pitches.
Doval fell behind 3-0 on Mark Vientos but got back to a full count and induced a slow bouncer to third. Chapman charged, barehanded the ball on a do-or-die play and fired off balance across the diamond to first, where LaMonte Wade Jr. made a difficult pick of an in-between hop for the final out.
A fired-up Chapman ran alongside the dugout railing for a receiving line of high-fives to his glove from teammates, and the out call at first base was quickly upheld following a replay review.
“I think it’s the most excited I’ve ever gotten after a play,” said Chapman, a four-time Gold Glove winner who homered in the previous three games. “To be able to have a walk-off play on defense like that with the bases loaded, game on the line, I think that’s probably the best one, for sure. Kind of surprised myself even a little bit there, so it was just a lot of fun.”
Or, as Bailey put it: “My goodness, that was one of the best plays I’ve ever seen made on a baseball field.”
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