San Francisco Giants push win-streak to nine games in comeback fashion

Jun 21, 2023, 9:16 AM

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 20: Joc Pederson #23 of the San Francisco Giants is congratulated ...

(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Sacramento Kings Beat Writer

The San Francisco Giants did it again.

24 hours removed from Monday night’s thrilling walk-off win over the San Diego Padres, the Giants erased a 3-1 deficit and delivered another walk-off on Tuesday.

Trailing 3-1 in the seventh inning, San Francisco chipped away by scoring runs in the seventh and eighth to tie things up at 3-3 entering the bottom of the ninth. San Diego ran into trouble as a walk to Luis Matos and a single allowed to Patrick Bailey put runners at first and second with one out.

Following a walk from Casey Schmitt, the stage was set for more late-game heroics as the Giants saw the winning run just 90 feet away as Joc Pederson stepped into the box.

Padres All-Star closer Josh Hader struggled to consistently find the zone during a seven-pitch at-bat against Pederson that ended with the left-hander throwing a 3-2 pitch outside of the zone to walk in the game-winning run.

Walk-off Joc walk pic.twitter.com/1zupuc1FaN

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) June 21, 2023

San Francisco’s win–the team’s ninth-straight–pushed their record to 41-32 on the season and 13-4 during June. The nine-game streak is the franchise’s first since 2021, when the Giants won nine in a row from September 5-14th.

“It’s been fun to be a part of,” Pederson said of the Giants’ impressive play. “It feels like we’ve got 26 guys pulling on the same string. It’s somebody new every night. We’ve dealt with some injuries, and we’re still able to overcome it and have someone step up. It’s really big.”

Pederson has been a force at the plate for San Francisco since returning from the injured list on June 6th, as the Palo Alto native holds a .326 average with three home runs and nine RBI while posting an impressive on-base percentage of .453 over 13 games.

Thanks to contributions from Pederson and the rest of an offense that seemingly refuses to quit, the Giants are arguably playing their best baseball since the 2021 season.

“I think we’ve struggled a little bit in the early parts of games recently, but I think it speaks to the tenacity of the team and also to the fact that if you get a bigger sample size and more at-bats in a game, eventually the true colors of the offense are going to come out,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said of his team’s resilience.

“I think they have, in a lot of ways and in the biggest moments, really swung the bats well when everything is on the line.”

"You can never count us out." – Joc

Giants Postgame Live is airing right now on NBC Sports Bay Area and streaming here: https://t.co/fRbS337XJx pic.twitter.com/XPqrRK31NO

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 21, 2023

The National League West is wide open as San Francisco now sits just 2.5 games behind the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks and one game ahead of the rival Los Angeles Dodgers.

There is still plenty of baseball to be played this season, but the Giants are beginning to look like a team that could pose problems for the rest of the league if this offense continues to produce.