Giants' rookie catcher Patrick Bailey beats Mets with late home run
NEW YORK — One thing is becoming clear about this 2023 San Francisco Giants season: it’s never dull.
From a nine-starter roster to multiple rookies making an impact to recent wackiness afield, the team is a mix of relevant and watchable, particularly in June. The Giants got a little bit of all of those elements Friday as they closed out the month with a 5-4 comeback win propelled by Patrick Bailey’s three-run homer off David Robertson in the eighth.
“Patty Bales single-handedly put us on his back and won the game for us,” Giants starter Alex Cobb said.
Bailey then contributed in a huge way by throwing out pinch runner Starling Marte trying to steal second with one out in the ninth, his 11th caught stealing in 28 attempts, and closer Camilo Doval struck out Brandon Nimmo to nail down his 24th save, tied for most in the majors.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler said he was asked to compare Bailey to Buster Posey on a TV interview earlier in the day, “and my thought at the time was, 'Hey, let’s pump the brakes a little bit, right? It’s a month into his career, let’s let things unfold.' But that was as good as it gets — superstar-caliber stuff. A three-run home run off one of the tougher relievers in baseball, and an absolutely perfect throw with the excellent exchange.”
Bailey and Kapler both praised Doval, too. He’s not always among the quickest relievers to the play with men on base, but his 1.35 second or thereabouts time to the plate was just what was needed.
“That was probably one of his quicker moves, and fortunately a fastball up and I was able to put a good throw,” Bailey said.
“That was a huge bit of development for Camilo,” said Kapler, who credited third-base coach Mark Hallberg for his work with Doval on improving his times to the plate. “I don’t think that was something Camilo was doing the past couple of years.”
Bailey, who made his big-league debut in May, has an 11-game hitting streak, the longest by a Giants rookie since Posey’s 21-game streak July 4-July 28, 2010. Bailey’s .322 average is tops among all rookies with at least 30 at-bats, and his seven Defensive Runs Saved lead all catchers with at least 200 innings behind the plate. The Giants are 20-9 when he catches.
The team went 18-8 in June, a mark that included seven wins in games in which they trailed after seven innings. Since May 1, the Giants are 35-20, and 15 of their 21 wins after trailing at any point have come since May 15.
To set up Bailey’s decisive blow in the eighth, Joc Pederson reached on an error and ex-Met J.D. Davis walked. Bailey whacked a 1-1 knuckle curve out to center, and now has five homers and 26 RBIs in his 33 games. Through Posey’s first 33 games — which included seven games as a September callup in 2009 — he had one homer and 10 RBIs.
Giants 5, Mets 4 San Francisco New York ab r h bi ab r h bi Totals 35 5 8 5 Totals 35 4 9 4 Wade Jr. 1b 3 0 0 0 Nimmo cf 5 1 1 0 Flores dh 5 1 1 1 Lindor ss 4 1 2 0 Pederson rf 3 1 1 0 McNeil 2b 4 0 2 2 Slater pr-lf 0 0 0 0 Alonso 1b 4 0 0 0 Davis 3b 4 1 0 0 Vogelbach dh 2 0 0 0 Bailey c 4 1 1 3 Mendick ph-dh 1 0 0 0 Estrada 2b 4 0 1 0 Alvarez ph-dh 1 0 0 0 Sabol lf 4 1 1 0 Pham lf 4 2 3 1 Johnson pr-cf 0 0 0 0 Baty 3b 4 0 1 0 Matos cf-lf 4 0 1 0 Canha rf 4 0 0 0 Crawford ss 2 0 1 1 Narváez c 2 0 0 1 Schmitt ph-ss 2 0 1 0 Guillorme ph 0 0 0 0 Marte pr 0 0 0 0 San Francisco 010 010 030 — 5 New York 110 011 000 — 4 E_Wade Jr. (6), Matos (1), Alonso (3). DP_San Francisco 0, New York 1. LOB_San Francisco 8, New York 6. 2B_McNeil 2 (11). HR_Flores (8), Bailey (5), Pham (9). SB_Johnson (2). SF_Narváez (2). IP H R ER BB SO San Francisco Cobb 5 6 3 2 0 3 Ta.Rogers 1 1 1 1 0 2 Manaea W,3-3 1 1 0 0 0 1 Ty.Rogers H,18 1 1 0 0 0 1 Doval S,24-26 1 0 0 0 1 1 New York Carrasco 5 5 2 2 3 6 Brigham H,6 1 1-3 0 0 0 0 1 Raley H,15 2-3 0 0 0 0 2 Robertson L,2-2 BS,11-14 1 2 3 2 1 1 Hartwig 1 1 0 0 1 1 WP_Hartwig. Umpires_Home, Bruce Dreckman; First, Malachi Moore; Second, Stu Scheuwater; Third, Tom Hanahan. T_2:47. A_30,116 (42,136). See More Collapse
Some of the other talking points before Bailey’s blast: Cobb came off the IL after missing 15 games and threw five innings, one of the Giants’ three former Mets homered, Pederson’s fantasy football nemesis homered, two Giants rookies did some excellent work in the outfield, and a San Francisco fan’s gaffe factored in a Mets run.
In the fifth, with Nimmo at first and two outs, Jeff McNeil hit a ball down the left-field line that took a big hop toward the side wall, where a fan in a Giants hat tried to grab it. Left fielder Blake Sabol didn’t try to play the ball from that point, which probably didn’t help as Nimmo raced around to score. A challenge by Kapler didn’t change where the runners were placed — the run scored and the Mets regained the lead.
“Another learning experience for me,” Sabol said. “Next time, play it live. I don’t think he scores if I played it live.”
The young fan, maybe in his late teens, looked stricken at the turn of events, and Sabol went over and chatted with him and gave him a fist bump. The fan was not ejected.
“I felt bad for the kid there, he had a whole stadium booing him,” Sabol said. “I looked over and saw him just sinking further and further in his chair, and I think we all have had situations where we’ve had a mistake like that. He was just a kid excited at a baseball game trying to get a baseball. So I ran over there, and the first thing he said was, 'I’m so sorry.'
“I said, 'Hey, nope, you don’t need to say sorry, it’s all good. Don’t listen to everyone booing here, everything’s fine. Have fun, put a smile on your face.' I have him a fist bump and hopefully that made him feel better.”
As frustrated as Cobb was that Nimmo wasn’t placed back at third, he couldn’t help but appreciate Sabol’s gesture to the fan. “He’s a big puppy,” Cobb said of Sabol. “He’s a great kid.”
The next inning, Mets outfielder Tommy Pham, who slapped Pederson on the field pregame at Cincinnati last year over a fantasy football rules flap, homered off Taylor Rogers.
Wilmer Flores, the “Friends”-loving ex-Met who still gets a warm reception when he plays here, homered in the fifth to tie things 2-2. Brandon Crawford drove in the first run with a single in the second; he's 9 for his past 15 with runners in scoring position.
Cobb gave up single runs in the first and second along with the interference-influenced run in the fifth. He got some splendid defense behind him, too, with Luis Matos making two terrific plays — a diving grab to his right in the third and a back-handed catch on the warning track while racing away from the plate and looking over his shoulder to rob Francisco Lindor of extra bases. Sabol also turned in a good diving play in the third.
Cobb noted that the conditions at Citi Field weren’t easy for the outfielders, what with the haze from the Canadian wildfires and the stadium lights. “Those plays weren’t easy,” he said.
The Giants didn’t get to their hotel in New York until 4 a.m. after Thursday’s night game at Toronto, and they’ll play a 4:10 p.m. game Saturday, Eastern time, and then at 7:10 p.m. local on Sunday before flying coast-to-coast overnight to get back for a homestand that starts against Seattle on Monday.
Reach Susan Slusser: sslusser@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @susanslusser
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
