By Morris Phillips
SAN FRANCISCO–The adjectives surrounding the disappointing 2022 Giants–streaky, weary, cranky, engaged–collided Monday night in an eighth inning pitching change that said everything about the club’s mindset entering the final weeks of a trying season.
What’s clear? They’re not calling it in.
The Giants built a three-run lead, and almost squandered it in the tumultuous eighth, only to emerge with a 3-2 win over the NL East-contending Braves. The Giants’ third straight win after a five-game slide was improbable, to say the least, given their circumstances.
Alex Cobb was the focal point for the first seven innings by scattering six singles and no walks. Cobb’s performance was critical as he was the only member of the team’s contingent to avoid a trying night of travel back from Chicago that saw the team arrive at SFO airport at 4:18am.
At 4:18am, Cobb was undoubtedly tucked away and asleep at his Bay Area home, as it’s common protocol to send the pitcher designated to start a home stand on an earlier flight, insuring him a regular night’s rest. In this case, that rest was apparent.
Also avoiding the difficult travel after a head-scratching Sunday night game on ESPN between two teams that have been eliminated from post-season contention was Willie Calhoun, a Vallejo native who posted credible numbers in his 41 games at Triple-A Sacramento since being acquired from the Rangers.
It was Calhoun that got the Giants ignited with an RBI hit off the bricks in right that scored Brandon Crawford with the game’s first run. Luis Gonzalez followed with a RBI single that gave the Giants a second-inning lead on Braves’ starter Spencer Strider.
Head scratching could describe the Giants’ breakthrough against Strider, unquestionably the hottest pitcher in the National League with a 6-1 record in his previous eight starts, including 16 strikeouts against the Rockies on September 1. Strider posted his typical strikeout numbers with nine but uncharacteristically allowed a season-high nine hits. He departed after the Giants scored an unearned run in the fifth trailing 3-0.
“For those guys to get a few hours of sleep, wake up, do their routines and go out there and get three runs off probably one of the better pitchers in all of baseball and play the type of defense they did, just gutsy,” Cobb said.
Zach Littell, not John Brebbia, was the first reliever to appear in the eighth and the departure from manager Gabe Kapler’s normal bullpen deployment created chaos. Littell allowed the first four Braves he faced to reach (two singles, a double and a four-pitch walk to No. 9 hitter Robbie Grossman) and the Giants’ cushion vanished.
Littell recovered by inducing the run-producing Austin Riley to hit into a double play and–in that moment–felt he had regained ownership of the inning.
Kapler felt otherwise and in a typical decision rooted in left-right matchups summoned Scott Alexander. As only the myriad of ballpark cameras can capture, the Oracle Park crowd was witness to the angry exchange of the baseball with Littell offering a few words to Kapler as he departed with the manager and catcher Austin Wynns left stunned.
“I wanted Olson,” Littell said afterwards, referring to the ensuing Braves’ batter. “Not that I pitched well enough to deserve it.”
“Obviously he’s a competitor and wanted to finish that inning. And I think it was just his wanting me to know that he wanted to finish that inning,” Kapler said. “We discussed it and it and he knows when I come out to get the ball he needs to put the ball in my hand and we’ll talk about anything later.”
The hero in the maelstrom? Alexander, who induced an inning-ending flyout, then returned for the ninth, and recorded the four-out save.
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