SAN FRANCISCO — Buster Posey shook things up on Wednesday morning. His team responded to said shakeup on Wednesday night.
Following a shocking flurry of roster moves, the Giants erased a five-run deficit against the San Diego Padres to beat their divisional rival, 6-5, snapping a streak of 16 consecutive games without scoring more than four runs.
Daniel Johnson, a Vallejo native who was one of three players added to the roster this morning, made an instant impact in his Giants debut, totaling two hits, scoring two runs and stealing a base. First baseman Dominic Smith, another addition, went hitless in his Giants debut but made a nice play by snagging Luis Arraez’s line drive.
The Giants found themselves in an early deficit as Kyle Harrison allowed a pair of runs in the first inning as the Padres’ Gavin Sheets tripled on a towering fly ball that took a friendly hop off the right-field brick wall, giving the Padres an early 2-0 lead.
San Diego tacked on three more runs off Harrison in the fifth, expanding San Francisco’s deficit to 5-0. Jackson Merrill drove in a run with an opposite-field double, then Sheets followed him by bringing home two more runs when he hit a grounder that deflected off Harrison’s back and rolled into shallow right field.
Harrison departed the game following Sheets’ single alongside trainer Dave Groeschner and was replaced by right-hander Sean Hjelle, though his evening may have been over regardless.
Down by five, the Giants started chipping away.
Johnson helped manufacture the Giants’ first run of the game in the bottom of the fifth by singling, stealing second, then scoring on Patrick Bailey’s double to trim the deficit to 5-1. Chapman trimmed the Padres’ lead to 5-3 the following inning with a two-run shot that barely cleared the left-field fence, his 11th home run of the season.
In the seventh, San Francisco landed its decisive blow.
The Giants led off the bottom of the seventh with a walk from Willy Adames and a single by Johnson, the latter knocking the Padres’ Nick Pivetta out of the game and prompting manager Mike Shildt to go to reliever Jason Adam.
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A one-out single by Tyler Fitzgerald against Adam loaded the bases for Heliot Ramos. Over the last 16 games, the Giants consistently wasted these types of opportunities. Not tonight.
Ramos delivered one of the biggest swings in recent weeks, driving in two runs with a double that one-hopped the left-field wall and tying up the game at five apiece. After Ramos tied the game, Jung Hoo Lee provided the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly, giving the Giants a 6-5 lead that they’d never lose.
With Camilo Doval likely unavailable after blowing last night’s save, manager Bob Melvin assigned former closer Ryan Walker the ninth inning.
Walker allowed a leadoff single to Fernando Tatis Jr., instantly allowing the tying runner on base. Johnson took away extra bases from Luis Arraez by tracking down a deep drive, but Manny Machado gave the Padres runners on first and second with a one-out single when Ramos and Adames converged on a shallow fly ball and nearly collided.
With the tying run on second, Melvin went to Randy Rodríguez for the night’s final two outs. Rodríguez recorded the second out of the night by striking out Merrill swinging, then iced the game by getting Sheets to hit into a game-ending pop out.
