Wilmer Flores drew a walk-off walk from Drew Smyly to cap a three-run rally in the ninth inning as the San Francisco Giants overtook the visiting Chicago Cubs 5-4 on a night devoted to the late Willie Mays.
All of San Francisco’s players wore No. 24 in honor Mays, the Hall of Famer who died last week.
Matt Chapman and Nick Ahmed homered for the Giants, but they nonetheless trailed 4-2 entering the last of the ninth.
A bloop double by Chapman and bunt single by Thairo Estrada set the stage for the uprising, which included sacrifice flies by Michael Conforto and Austin Slater, the latter drawing the Giants even at 4-4 with two outs.
After Heliot Ramos was intentionally walked to load the bases, Flores drew Smyly’s third walk in a five-batter stint to end it.
Spencer Howard (1-1), who pitched 4 2/3 shutout innings in relief, was credited with the win. Smyly (2-4) took the loss.
For 8 1/2 innings, it appeared that Cubs starter Justin Steele, who was winless in 10 starts this season, would end the drought. He limited the Giants to just four hits, other than the solo home runs by Chapman, his ninth, and Ahmed, his first, in his 7 1/3 innings. He walked one and struck out a season-high nine.
After failing to score against Giants starter Erik Miller and the host’s first reliever, Spencer Bivens, for three innings, the Cubs broke through against Raymond Burgos on a bases-loaded infield single by Michael Busch in the fourth.
The visitors made it 4-0 in the fifth against Luke Jackson, getting an RBI single from Cody Bellinger, a run-scoring infield out from Ian Happ and an RBI double from Dansby Swanson. But that was the last of their scoring.
Ramos collected a double and two singles while Chapman had two hits and scored twice for the Giants, who snapped a five-game losing streak.
Bellinger had two singles and scored twice for the Cubs, who took two of three when the clubs met last week in Chicago. Swanson and Nico Hoerner also collected a pair of hits as the Cubs out-hit the Giants 10-9.
–Field Level Media