SAN FRANCISCO — Buster Posey is out of the lineup today after catching 14 innings last night. Brandon Crawford is out because Bruce Bochy preferred Kelby Tomlinson to face clayton Kershaw. Ditto with Pablo Sandoval replacing Brandon Belt.
But Andrew McCutchen is in there, of course, and he’ll try to keep the good vibes going after one of the best individual games in Giants history. Here’s a rundown of some of what McCutchen did in a 7-5 win Saturday night …
- He became the eighth San Francisco Giant to hit a walk-off homer in the 14th inning or later. Posey was the last one to do it when he walked the Reds off in the 17th inning last year. (The next day he explained it was dad strength.)
- McCutchen is the first player since Detroit’s Jim Northrup in 1969 to have six hits and a walk-off homer (per Elias).
- He’s the first since Guillermo Quiroz in 2013 to have his first homer as a Giant be a walk-off. Quiroz also walked off the Dodgers.
- He became the fourth San Francisco Giant to have a six-hit game. Crawford, of course, had seven hits against the Marlins two years ago.
- McCutchen became the first big leaguer to hit a walk-off with his team trailing in the 14th inning or later since July 11, 2015 … when Andrew McCutchen did it to the Cardinals.
- Per Mark Simon of Sports Info Solutions, he’s the first big leaguer with a walk-off at least 12 pitches into a plate appearance since John Flaherty of the Rays in 2000. And finally, from Daren Willman of Baseball Savant, that was the longest plate appearance o McCutchen’s career.
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So yeah, that was one hell of a moment. And it led to some varied celebrations.
--- I wrote last night about the bullpen, and Bochy today raved about Reyes Moronta. He said Moronta has the equipment to throw in the eighth or ninth, he just needs to tighten up his mechanics a bit. At times, he overthrows.
--- The Giants have hit 10 homers and allowed two. The latter is more impressive, and more important given how often they got hit by the long ball last year. “That’s two mistakes to this point,” Bochy said. “That’s pretty impressive against the guys we’ve seen.”
--- No, Belt was not preparing to pitch last night. Derek Holland had his spikes on and would have followed Roberto Gomez. Instead, Gomez got his first big league win. He had the ball in his locker this morning.
