Story by
A familiar Grant McCray outfield assist in extra innings helps Giants snap skid
- Story by
- A familiar Grant McCray outfield assist in extra innings helps Giants snap skid
A familiar Grant McCray outfield assist in extra innings helps Giants snap skid originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — The orange jersey was the same. The destination — his third baseman — was the same. The inning was the same, and the end result — a double play — matched as well. Even the celebrations looked similar.
Advertisement
But for Grant McCray , there's no comparing his dart to third to end the 10th inning on Friday night with a similar throw last September that capped a double play in the 10th. What made the previous one better?
"It was against the Dodgers ," McCray said late Friday night.
McCray's laser last year led to a walk-off, just like Friday night's. Last year, it was Patrick Bailey with a game-winning grand slam. On Friday, it was Rafael Devers with a walk-off single that gave the Giants a 7-6 win.
So much was the same, but so much has also changed. The win last year got the Giants to 75-72 and briefly had them thinking of a miracle run to the postseason. This time around, it snapped a five-game losing streak, inching them back to 17 games under .500.
Advertisement
The Los Angeles Angels share nothing with the Dodgers except a location, and even that's a bit of a stretch given their history of name changes. This was a matchup of two of the worst teams in baseball, but for McCray, that doesn't matter. He's a young player trying to prove that he belongs, and he showed a lot to his manager on Friday.
Tony Vitello knows what the standings say, but that won't change the way he manages or views any individual day. In the seventh inning Friday, he made the type of move you would expect in a close race in September, choosing McCray to pinch-run for Drew Gilbert .
On paper, it wasn't a slam-dunk decision. McCray is certainly faster, but Gilbert is an average runner, not someone who sees lots of pinch-runners come out to take his place. On a night when Drew Cavanaugh was a late scratch with an illness, the bench was also short.
Vitello wanted to run, though, and he said later that McCray is more confident in his jumps right now. He stole second and scored an insurance run, which would quickly be given back by the Giants bullpen.
That move, however, meant that it was McCray in center field in the 10th. Gilbert has a good arm, but McCray's is the best in this outfield, and his 94-mph strike to third ended the top of the inning and set the stage for the top of the lineup. With the bases loaded, Devers ended a game that was threatening to go down as a sixth consecutive loss when holding a lead.
Advertisement
Vitello was all smiles after, and not just because his team won. This one gave him a bit more energy than some of the others, and he was eager afterward to shout out contributors. When the questions stopped, Vitello threw two more bullet points in there, crediting Heliot Ramos with a crucial catch and Logan Webb with a clean sixth inning that made life easier for a manager who has had to navigate a minefield late in games.
Most of all, though, Vitello seemed happy with the way the Giants played. He's here in part because the quality of play didn't get any cleaner last season when it appeared San Francisco was done, but on Friday he liked the way his pitchers attacked and the way his players ran the bases. The first McCray sequence was one of the better small-ball moments of the year for Vitello's Giants: Walk, stolen base, wild pitch, sacrifice fly.
"It's just good baseball, and we're capable of it," Vitello said. "We haven't done it as well as we'd like. You can kind of paint a picture like the storyline is blowing a four-run lead, but I thought it was really good baseball tonight."
