SAN FRANCISCO – After his last start in Miami, left-hander Alex Wood expressed frustration that manager Gabe Kapler didn’t give him a chance to finish the sixth inning. Wood didn’t have much trouble convincing Kapler to let him pitch deep into the game on Wednesday, though.
Wood cruised through a season-high seven innings of one-run ball, and the Giants rewarded his effort by rallying for a 2-1 walk-off win over the Rockies in 10 innings at Oracle Park.
Luis González snapped a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the 10th by delivering a one-out single to right field that got past Charlie Blackmon, allowing automatic runner Donovan Walton to score the winning run from second base on the error.
It was a satisfying ending for Wood, who held the Rockies to five hits while striking out five and walking none in the 101-pitch gem. It marked the first time the 31-year-old veteran had completed seven innings since July 7, 2021, against the Cardinals.
“It felt great, I’m not going to lie,” Wood said. “I was really happy [Kapler] let me go tonight. I’m glad it worked out the way it did.”
The Giants had been reluctant to allow Wood to face lineups a third time through the order this season, as opposing hitters entered Wednesday batting .483 off him in those scenarios. But Wood remained effective and efficient against the Rockies, leaning on his sinker-slider combination to generate plenty of weak contact and go toe-to-toe with right-hander Antonio Senzatela, who gave up one run over six innings.
“It was super rewarding for everybody in the dugout because we knew he had that in him,” Kapler said. “We’d been talking about it for a long time. Obviously, there have been some challenges the third time through the order. I don’t think that’s any secret. He’s had a tendency to run out of pitches and then sort of be on the ropes the third time through. But he was able to actually get more in the strike zone, attack the strike zone even more effectively and efficiently and earn the opportunity to continue to pitch in that game. It was huge for us.”
Wood retired the first eight batters he faced before yielding three consecutive singles with two outs in the third inning, which gave the Rockies a 1-0 lead. Wood was visibly frustrated after watching several balls find holes through the infield, though he managed to maintain his composure and strike out C.J. Cron to end the inning and leave a pair of runners stranded.
“Obviously, a little frustrating there, but you’ve got to keep making pitches and grind through it,” Wood said. “They just scratched one across that inning, and I kept them there the rest of the night.”
Wood responded by retiring 11 of the final 13 batters he faced to cap his strongest start of the year. He surrendered his lone extra-base hit of the game to Blackmon, who doubled with one out in the sixth, but he escaped damage with the help of Mike Yastrzemski, who laid out to make a brilliant diving catch on Cron’s sinking liner to center field. Cron’s lineout came off his bat at 90.9 mph and had an expected batting average of .550, according to Statcast.
“He just made a great play,” Wood said. “He does it all. He’s playing really great baseball right now, so I’m always happy to have him roaming the outfield when I’m throwing, for sure.”
Darin Ruf doubled and scored on Thairo Estrada’s two-out single in the fourth to tie the game, 1-1, but the Giants couldn’t add on, sending the game into extras. Camilo Doval took the mound in the top of the 10th and worked a scoreless inning thanks to another big defensive play from left fielder Joc Pederson, who made a running catch at the warning track to rob Ryan McMahon and keep the automatic runner at second.
“This is one of our better defensive games in recent memory, both on the dirt and on the outfield,” Kapler said. “Joc’s jump was awesome. We really needed him to run that ball down, obviously.”
The Giants hadn’t produced a hit since the fifth inning heading into the bottom of the 10th, but González finally snapped the drought with his game-winning single off Carlos Estevez.
Blackmon had emerged as a thorn in the Giants’ side this week, crushing a go-ahead home run on Tuesday and throwing out González at the plate to keep the game deadlocked in the fifth on Wednesday, but his defensive miscue opened the door for San Francisco to even this three-game series, setting up a rubber match on Thursday.
“I’ve got Donnie on second base, so I know he can run,” González said. “Just trying to hit a line drive to the outfield somewhere and hopefully he scores. Thankfully Charlie bobbled that ball and he was able to get home.”