NEW YORK — It wasn’t a pretty win, but given how the last couple weeks have gone, the Giants will take wins however they come.
The Giants snapped a six-game losing streak on Friday night at Citi Field with a 4-3 victory in 10 innings over the New York Mets. All-Star Randy Rodríguez, the team’s new closer after Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval were traded, recorded his first save (and second overall) in his new role.
“I feel like we’ve been losing a lot of games because we haven’t been playing clean baseball,” said shortstop Willy Adames. “We haven’t been playing our best baseball. We know that we have to be better and play more games like that and try to execute. For us, today is a big game to start getting in a different mood because it’s been tough.
“The boys are feeling it. They knew that tonight, we had to make an adjustment and go out there and try to win that game, no matter how. It went our way. It almost didn’t. It was crazy, but we found a way to end up on top.”
Robbie Ray turned in his best start of the second half, pitching seven innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts. The left-hander was backed up by a defense that played one of its crisper games in recent memory.
In the third, Adames snared Tyrone Taylor’s one-hopper to kickstart an inning-ending double play. In the fifth with runners on first and second, third baseman Matt Chapman fielded a spinning bloop from Taylor and made a difficult throw while drifting to his left for the out at first. In the seventh, Patrick Bailey caught Vientos’ pop fly in foul territory while falling backwards.
“We talked before the game. What happened, happened,” Ray said of the trade deadline. “We got ourselves into this situation, but we still have the big pieces that we brought in. We got Rafi still. Chappy’s here for a long time. Willie’s here for a long time. The core group of guys are here. We didn’t do a major overhaul. This team is still good enough to win, and to be able to come out after the rough home stand and win the first one here is big.”
Casey Schmitt generated the game’s first run in the top of the second with an RBI double that gave the Giants a 1-0 lead. Jung Hoo Lee immediately doubled that lead to 2-0 by driving in Wilmer Flores with a groundout.
The Giants continued padding that lead in the top of the seventh when Patrick Bailey scorched a line drive over the outstretched glove of first baseman Pete Alonso to drive in Lee and increase the lead to 3-0. For Bailey, it was a bit of vengeance after Alonso made a leaping catch to rob Bailey of a game-tying RBI last Saturday.
The Mets finally scored their first run of the ballgame in the bottom of the seventh when Alonso hit an opposite-field solo homer, slicing the Giants’ lead to 3-1. New York continued threatening when Jeff McNeil lined a two-out double to left-center field, prompting a mound visit from pitching coach J.P. Martinez.
On Ray’s 102nd and final pitch of the evening, the Mets’ Luis Torrens smashed a 105.1 mph line drive directly at right fielder Luis Matos, ending the inning and preserving the two-run lead.
With Rogers wearing a different uniform, former Met Joey Lucchesi was handed the top of the eighth inning with the Giants leading by two runs. By the end of the frame, the game would be tied at three apiece.
Lucchesi began the eighth by getting Taylor to fly out, but Brandon Nimmo drew a walk and Francisco Lindor singled to set the table for the heart of New York’s order. Juan Soto, the Mets’ $765 million man, singled home a run that bounced off Lucchesi’s foot to bring the score to 3-2. If the ball didn’t deflect off Lucchesi, Adames is confident the Giants would’ve turned an inning-ending double play.
“It was coming straight at me. That’s why we were like, ‘What the heck? What’s going on?’” Adames said. “That was an easy double play. He didn’t hit it hard and I was right there. I would’ve done it myself. It was crazy. I couldn’t even dive for it because I had no more reach.”
“A little unlucky with Lucchesi on the Soto ball. … We’re going through a lot of stuff right now, and that one felt like, ‘What else can go wrong?’”
With runners at the corners and Pete Alonso coming up, manager Bob Melvin summoned Buttó for his first appearance as a Giant.
Talk about a soft landing.
Buttó couldn’t protect the lead. Alonso hit a towering fly ball to center field, and Lindor scored easily from third to tie the game. Buttó prevented further damage, but the lead was gone. Neither team scored in the ninth, and the game headed to extra innings.
Dominic Smith entered the game off the bench in the top of the 10th and gave the Giants a 4-3 lead with an RBI single. In the bottom of the 10th, Rodríguez would be tasked with facing the top of New York’s order — Nimmo, Lindor, Soto — with the automatic runner on second base.
Rodríguez began the 10th by getting Nimmo to pop out but then plunked Lindor, putting the go-ahead run on base with one out. Soto harmlessly popped out to second, but Alonso drew a walk to load the bases for Ronny Mauricio, who homered off Rodríguez last week in San Francisco. This time, Rodríguez got his revenge by striking out Mauricio to end the game.
“For him to be named the closer and come in first game after being named the closer in a pressure situation — extra innings, up one — and to be able to lock it down was huge,” Ray said.
Flores removed from ballgame early
Wilmer Flores was pulled from the ballgame after beating out an infield single in the top of the eighth inning due to left hamstring tightness.
Flores, 33, walked very gingerly back to first base after beating out the single and was soon met by manager Bob Melvin and trainer Dave Groeschner. Christian Koss, who was activated from the injured list prior to the game, served as Flores’ replacement.
Melvin said the team doesn’t think the injury is too bad and will see where they go from here.
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