SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants trailed the Padres after six innings Tuesday night. They were down heading into eighth, too.
Yet, a strong Tuesday night crowd of 32,060 wasn’t filled with dread. They were pregnant with anticipation. The energy was palpable: These fans had been paying attention as the Giants reeled off win after win, despite trailing in the late innings. The home team was losing, and the home fans still fully expected a win.
Joc Pederson paid them off, not once but twice.
After tying the game with a solo shot in the eighth, Pederson came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs against Padres closer Josh Hader. The at-bat ended after seven pitches. Pederson took ball four outside, flipped his bat and yelled. After tying the game with a solo homer in the eighth, Pederson drew the walk-off walk, forcing home rookie Luis Matos, to beat the Padres, 4-3, and extend their winning streak to nine games after erasing yet another deficit.
Trailing 3-1 entering the seventh, the Giants scored runs in each of the final three innings. They nearly blew a bases-loaded, no-outs opportunity in the seventh, but Brandon Crawford salvaged one run with a clutch single following what could have been a rally-killing double play.
Crawford’s ground-ball single up the middle, driving home Luis Matos (who scored his eighth run in five career games), gave Pederson the chance to tie the game with one swing of the bat in the eighth. Leading off the inning, Pederson sent a 2-0 fastball from Nick Martinez sailing over the right field wall. It echoed Mike Yastrzemski’s walk-off splash hit from a night before, only reaching the water on a bounce instead of on the fly.
The Giants’ winning streak reached nine games, matching their best stretch of baseball from their 107-win season in 2021 (Sep. 5-14). They haven’t won 10 in a row since May 20-31, 2004, under manager Felipe Alou.
Climbing a season-high nine games over .500, San Francisco (41-32) won for the 13th time in 17 games since the calendar turned to June, with seven of those wins coming after trailing entering the seventh inning.
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