SAN FRANCISCO – Bob Melvin, without knowing it at the time, manifested what was to come from the Giants in their second game of a three-game set against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday.
While speaking with reporters in the dugout at Oracle Park two hours before first pitch, Melvin discussed how the past few games have come down to the wire for the Giants, both positively and negatively.
“It feels more dramatic because all of our games seem like they end on the last pitch of the game,” Melvin said.
A couple hours later, the game ended on … wait for it … the last pitch of the game.
Matt Chapman played hero after Heliot Ramos singled in the bottom of the ninth down one run, as the Giants third baseman walked it off in the bottom of the ninth to secure the comeback 3-2 win over Atlanta.
Again.
“Look, that’s why you keep playing. You keep fighting,” Melvin said postgame. “You get a guy on and all of a sudden you get a chance. One swing can do it, so you just keep battling to the end. We’ve seen it many times. What is that, our eighth walk-off? So we’re used to these kinds of games.
“It seems like as many as we’ve had like this, we’re battle-tested all the way to the end until that last out. We have a chance. This was obviously a sign of that.”
About 17 hours prior to Chapman’s walk-off, the Giants defeated the Braves 5-4 on a wild pitch walk-off in extra innings.
Saturday was San Francisco’s eighth walk-off this season, which leads all of MLB.
The down-to-the-final-pitch games haven’t always benefited the Giants, though, as most recently as Tuesday’s extra-innings loss to the San Diego Padres, San Francisco closer Camilo Doval, needing just one out to win the game, blew a save opportunity as San Diego won in the 10th.
But the Giants were on the right side of history Saturday, even if it comes with physical and mental pain.
“Torture. It’s torture baseball here,” Giants ace Logan Webb (6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 10 K) said postgame. “But that’s just the way we like it. We play a lot of close games, especially in this ballpark. We played great defense again today. And we’re going to try to come up with a big hit when we need to.
“ … It’s exciting. We just got to keep it going. We talked about my last [outing], asked me if this was a low point, it’s ebbs and flows. You just got to keep going.”
After Webb’s last outing Monday against the Padres, an eight-inning shutout gem that received…