Johnson helps Giants find spark in emotional win vs. Padres
SAN FRANCISCO — Standing on second base and staring straight into the Giants' dugout, Heliot Ramos pounded his chest twice and finished his fiery moment of pure excitement with the three best words in sports: 'Let's f–king go!'
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Ramos had just hammered the hardest-hit ball of the night, a one-hopper off the left-field wall with the bases loaded to tie the game at five runs apiece in the bottom of the seventh inning. The Giants once had trailed the San Diego Padres — a team they hadn't beaten in four tries this season and had a seven-game losing streak against since September of last season — 5-0 before coming back to earn a 6-5 win Wednesday night at Oracle Park.
Jung Hoo Lee's sacrifice fly right after Ramos' double gave San Francisco the lead, and the bullpen slammed the door shut on San Diego.
The talk of the town had been the Giants' reeling offense, leading to a major roster shakeup earlier in the day. They needed a jolt; a spark had to be lit. Multiple players had a hand in igniting a wick and lighting a fire in front of the home fans.
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None brought pure adulation quite like Ramos' swing after the seventh-inning stretch.
'It was not only in our dugout, but the crowd went … I mean, that's as loud as we've heard them all year,' Giants manager Bob Melvin said after the win. 'It's pretty inspiring when you haven't scored any runs and you're down 5-0 to one of the better pitchers in the National League. Now we get into a situation where we got a chance, and it was pretty loud.
'Big hit, big response by the crowd. Obviously a huge win for us.'
Ramos joined NBC Sports Bay Area's Laura Britt and Shawn Estes on 'Giants Postgame Live', and called the win 'a very emotional game, mostly mentally.'
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'When they scored those five runs, it was really tough,' Ramos said. 'Then we started putting at-bats together. We always have the support of the fans, and that's what we love. Honestly, it was an emotional at-bat. It was an emotional game, for sure.'
The Giants on Wednesday morning designated LaMonte Wade Jr. for assignment as part of multiple roster moves. They had lost the first two games of the series against the Padres, almost exclusively because of a sputtering offense that hadn't scored five or more runs since May 16. Ramos, their All-Star left fielder, is supposed to be a bat the Giants can lean on, and San Francisco did when it mattered most.
The same goes with Matt Chapman. Defense always will come first for the glove manning the hot corner, but as the Giants' cleanup hitter, Chapman also has a spotlight on him at the plate.
Prior to the Giants scoring three runs in the seventh inning to tie the game and take the lead, Chapman got them within striking distance the inning before with a two-run homer that nearly was erased from the unfriendly confines of his home park.
Chapman's blast just barely cleared the left-field wall, literally bouncing on top of it and back into the field. He felt like he got enough of it off the bat, but there's no telling unless it's a no-doubter in San Francisco.
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'I thought it was gone, and then by the way the left fielder started looking like he was camping under it, I was getting a little nervous there,' Chapman admitted. 'I knew I hit it well, but sometimes here with the wind and it being cold, you don't always know if it's going to go. But I'm glad it did. We needed that.'
Though Willy Adames' 0-for-3 night dropped his batting average down to .201, his walk to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning wound up sparking the pivotal rally. The rest of the Giants' big-name bats — Ramos, Chapman and Lee — came up big.
Yet it was a fresh face who had just arrived from Sacramento that lit a flame as much as anybody else.
Mac Dre's 'Since '84' blasted across the speakers when Vallejo native Daniel Johnson first walked up to the plate. He grew up coming to Giants and Athletics games, recalling memories of Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi. It was easier to get to A's games, but he couldn't hide his smile before or after the game to be wearing the Orange and Black. His night began with a strikeout but only got better from there.
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Johnson went 2-for-4 at the plate with two liners to center field, two runs scored and a stolen base. He had eight people in the stands for his Giants debut, including his mom, dad, brother, sister and a couple of friends. His season began in the Mexican League, where he hit the cover off the ball, and his night ended in a victory celebration, two outs after making the play of the game defensively.
With his speed, Fernando Tatis Jr. almost was assured to score from first base when Luis Arráez launched a ball 372 feet into the right-center gap with a .520 expected batting average. Johnson opened his hips, changed his cleats for track spikes and ran down a ball that was waiting to bounce off the warning track.
'I got to go. I have to run,' Johnson remembers telling himself. 'He hit it — we were playing kind of in — I was running and I'm just like, 'I have to run. I have to go.' That was my only thought: Go get to the ball.'
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There are no words for a night like Johnson had or the kind of win the Giants could finally relish in, just feelings and unbridled emotions.
'Speechless,' Johnson said. 'Just enjoyed every moment of it.'
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