Schmitt cranks walk-off Wade continues tear as Giants take series from Reds.
Afive-run fifth inning and Casey Schmitt‘s walk-off double proved to be all the offense San Francisco needed as they snuck past the Cincinnati Reds with a 6-5 victory to take the rubber match Sunday afternoon.
Despite scoring five runs to beat the Reds on Saturday, the Giants (19-23) entered Sunday slashing .226/.291/.342 over their last 16 games. The inconsistent offense has largely resulted from a handful of players in the middle of the order struggling to find their rhythm.
LaMonte Wade Jr. hasn’t been among them.
After Matt Chapman ripped an RBI single off his former A’s teammate and Reds starter Frankie Montas to put the Giants closer at 3-1, Wade caught up to a 96 mph fastball near his eyes and deposited a soaring fly ball just barely over the right field wall. The 321-foot blast would have cleared the fences only at Oracle Park.
The game-tying two-run blast was Wade’s second homer of the season.
Wade now has reached base in 13 consecutive games and is slashing .344/.479/.462 with five doubles, two homers and 14 RBI in 40 games. Entering Sunday, Wade’s .479 on-base percentage and 19.5% walk rate were both the best in baseball (min. 100 PA). He also extended his hitting streak to nine games.
Later in the fifth, the Giants added more on a Heliot Ramos go-ahead RBI single and later came across to score from first when Blake Sabol‘s infield single turned into a circus around the bases as shortstop Elly De La Cruz‘s throw to first sailed down the right field line to make it 5-3.
With the Giants leading by one run in the eighth, former Giant Mike Ford crushed a game-tying shot to straightaway center off reliever Ryan Walker to knot the score at 5-5.
Bob Melvin turned to Camilo Doval with two outs in the eighth inning to face De La Cruz, arguably Cincinanti’s most dangerous hitter. Doval started out De La Cruz with a 101.8 mph fastball and finished him off on strikes with a 101.7 mph fastball — an epic matchup to retire the side.
With the ghost runner on second base in the bottom of the tenth, Schmitt, who was called up earlier this week from Triple-A, roped a walk-off ground-rule double to bring home the victory. It was Schmitt’s first career walk-off hit.
