SAN DIEGO – Even in this analytics-driven era of defensive shifts and unorthodox alignments, it’s hard to imagine that a third baseman ever caught a ball quite where the Giants’ Eduardo Núñez did Saturday night.
Padres rookie Carlos Asuaje popped up a pitch. Catcher Buster Posey looked up at a washed out, twilight sky while raising his hands in confusion. And Núñez’s cognition was as quick as his feet. He covered ground faster than a defensive back jumping a route, and leapt while making the catch in the grass behind the plate.
It is one thing to be in the right place at the right time. It is another to use all your mental and physical gifts to will yourself there. The Giants already gave away the former, so they must accomplish the latter — and they barely succeeded in a 9-6, 10-inning victory over the San Diego Padres.
The Giants blew a six-run lead, with Madison Bumgarner giving back five pieces of the pie and the bullpen blowing its 31st save of the season. But Hunter Strickland came up clutch on his 28th birthday to force extra innings, Kelby Tomlinson sprayed yet another important, late-inning hit while the Giants took advantage of an error to push ahead in the 10th, and Denard Span added a two-run home run that delighted the orange-tinged crowd here.
“It was great, a huge win today – really huge,” Núñez said. “We battled back, and it was really fun to see them fight. This team can fight in the playoffs like that, too.”
First, they must get there. The victory pulled the Giants (82-73) into a tie atop the NL wild card standings with the New York Mets, who nearly erased a 10-0 deficit before losing to the Phillies. The St. Louis Cardinals lurk a half-game behind.
The N.L. West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers won to reduce their magic number to one – all but assuring they will clinch before the final weekend series at AT&T Park. But this is no time for the Giants to lament losing a division that they led by eight games in late June and 6 ½ at the All-Star break.
The wild card is going to require a fight.
“You’re proud of the guys,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “(Losing the six-run lead) was tough to take, being in our situation. They’re all must-wins. It can be so frustrating. But you keep fighting. That’s what they did today.”
Bochy said he’d never seen a third baseman catch a ball behind the plate in foul territory. Neither had Posey, who was shielding his face in self preservation as Núñez sped past him.
“Just the fact he could pick up that I didn’t see the ball, and then cover that kind of ground, it was pretty incredible,” Posey said. “I mean, I’m still trying to find the ball. I can’t think of more than a few times when the ball goes up, and I completely lose it. It was just a great play.”
Núñez couldn’t stop smiling as he tapped gloves with Bumgarner and then signaled to the rest of his infielders.
“I had to run hard, man,” Núñez said. “But I was worried because Posey was in my line. So I had to move a little bit, and that’s why I jumped to the ball.
“I’ve never seen that before, a third baseman passes the catcher and jumps for a fly ball. It’s one of those plays you don’t think about. It just happens.”
Posey and Bumgarner could only smile at each other in disbelief as Núñez crashed into the mesh screen behind home plate in the third inning and then sat there suspended like an overgrown moth caught in a spider web.
No such safety net exists for the Giants, who simply have to score more runs if they hope to emerge at the top of this wild-card pig pile. They thought they scored enough Saturday night. Then they had to score some more.
The Giants gave Bumgarner a rare oasis of runs in the first inning while scoring three off sore-armed right-hander Jarred Cosart. Joe Panik drove in two with a two-out, two-strike single, and Angel Pagan followed with another hit.
Brandon Belt, newly installed as the No.2 hitter, started the rally by drawing his 99th walk of the season – the most by a Giant since Barry Bonds’ last hurrah in 2007.
The three runs matched the Giants’ biggest first inning of the season; they have scored just 60 runs in the first inning – their fewest in any frame except the ninth or later.
Cosart’s inflamed elbow limited him to one inning, leaving the Padres in need of piecing together the game from the bullpen. Someone was bound to have an off night, and the Giants took advantage of right-hander Jose Dominguez while scoring three more in the fourth.
Bumgarner started the rally with his second double of the game – he joined Jake Peavy as the only Giants pitchers in the past 14 years to accomplish that bit of trivia – and the Giants loaded the bases after Denard Span walked and Belt singled.
The Giants scored one run on Posey’s fielder’s choice grounder, on which the Padres failed to record an out at second base. Hunter Pence followed with an RBI comebacker that might have been a double play if Dominguez hadn’t thrown to the wrong middle infielder covering second base. Instead, the Padres recorded just one out as Span scored. Núñez followed with a single that scored Belt to give the Giants a 6-0 lead.
It was their biggest output in more than a week, and it appeared that Bumgarner could cut the line on his way to the 100th victory of his career. He allowed just four hits in six innings and achieved one other milestone, striking out Wil Myers in the fourth inning for his 245th of the season, breaking the all-time franchise record for a left-hander that Cy Seymour and his progeny had held dear ever since 1898.
But three of the Padres’ hits were home runs that brought them back.
Hunter Renfroe’s first big league homer, which came in the fourth inning, also represented the Padres’ first hit of the night. The Padres made it 6-3 in the fifth when Derek Norris homered after Bumgarner had issued a leadoff walk to Luis Sardinas.
A bad break set the stage for one more bad pitch with two outs in the sixth. Renfroe hit a ball that appeared to skip along the third base chalk line in foul territory, but umpire Mike Winters ruled that it nicked the corner of the bag for a double. Adam Rosales followed with a blast that hit the facing of the Western Metal Supply Co. building in left field.
Bumgarner threw 99 pitches in six innings – two more than he did in his previous start Monday at Dodger Stadium, when he curiously departed after seven. This time, there was little doubt his night was over.
The Giants’ relievers had a 6-5 lead and nine outs to cover. They did not record three before blowing their 31st save opportunity this season. Cory Gearrin and Javier Lopez each retired a batter in the seventh before the Padres tied it against Derek Law.
The inning was as full of warmth for Padres fans as it held chills for the Giants. Yangervis Solarte, who recently lost his wife to cancer and had just returned to the Padres after burying her, received a standing ovation as he was announced as a pinch hitter. He responded with a single against Law, and then took second on a wild pitch. Manuel Margot followed with an RBI single that scored pinch runner Travis Jankowski with the tying run.
Strickland retired all five batters he faced, striking out three of them – an emphatic turnaround in his first appearance since blowing a save Monday at Dodger Stadium.
Bochy called Strickland’s contribution a game saver.
“I just stuck with what was working and just attacked,” said Strickland, who mostly pumped a fastball that hit 99 mph. “As a competitor, you want to deal with it and get back out there. But we know that every game is a playoff game for us. When you get a chance, do your job.”
The Giants went ahead in the 10th on a whoops and a blast.
Angel Pagan hit a leadoff single, advanced on a sacrifice and slammed on the brakes at third base on Tomlinson’s hit to right field. But the ball squirted out of Renfroe’s glove, allowing Pagan to race home. Tomlinson alertly hustled to second base, and then jogged home when Span’s career-high 11th home run landed in the stands down the right field line.
Will Smith, who recorded the last out in the ninth, gave up a leadoff single to Jankowski in the 10th. Bochy brought in Sergio Romo, who pitched around another single before getting a double-play grounder from Myers to record his third save in five days.
Perhaps Romo is in the right place at the right time again – even if he had to travel leagues to get there, as Núñez did.
Bochy marveled that his third baseman was able to make that catch beyond the dirt circle, even though he wasn’t playing in.
“He covers a lot of ground, doesn’t he?” Bochy said. “That’s what you hope they all do – that they cover each other.”
