SAN FRANCISCO — It couldn’t happen again. It wouldn’t, right? Surely, the thoughts racing through the heads of so many of the 41,257 Giants fans in attendance Saturday afternoon when Mike Yastrzemski stepped in against Brewers reliever Jandel Gustave with the bases loaded, tied at 1, in the bottom of the eighth.
A night after he played the hero with a walk-off grand slam, Yastrzemski had his chance at an encore (albeit an inning early). If you liked that, how about … a balk? It was no grand slam, but Wilmer Flores jogged home to score the go-ahead run when home plate umpire Pat Hoberg called a balk on Gustave before his 1-2 offering to Yastrzemski.
Powered by Alex Cobb’s best outing in orange and black, the Giants beat the Brewers, 2-1, securing at least a split in this four-game series with the NL Central leaders and further correcting course from an all-time skid with one game to go until the All-Star break. After dropping 14 of 18, the Giants have won six of their past eight games.
