CINCINNATI — Jerar Encarnacion’s late injury aside, the Giants had an objectively great spring. They went 21-6. They were third in ERA and OPS. They excelled in every facet of the game.
Down to their last out on Thursday afternoon, they took the right swings in the right moments to win their first real game of the season, too.
The Giants opened their first season under president of baseball operations Buster Posey with a 6-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park, scoring four runs in the ninth on Patrick Bailey’s game-tying single and Wilmer Flores’ three-run, go-ahead homer.
The Giants entered the ninth inning trailing, 3-2, but put runners at the corners with one out as Jung Hoo Lee drew a walk and Matt Chapman singled to right field. Ramos struck out and brought San Francisco down to its last out, but Bailey shot a single into right field past the diving Matt McClain to tie the game up at three apiece. That set the stage for Flores, who sent the crowd into a cacophony of boos with a go-ahead, three-run homer to complete the comeback. McClain nearly had a game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth, but his fly ball faded at the warning track and the Giants escaped with a win.
Logan Webb, starting in his fourth consecutive Opening Day, was shaky in his first start of the season, allowing three earned runs over five innings with three walks to five strikeouts.
Heliot Ramos, the Giants’ 19th different Opening Day left fielder in the last 19 seasons, concluded an 11-pitch battle against Hunter Greene by hitting a two-run homer, fouling off five straight pitches before launching a four-seam fastball into the right-field bleachers.
Willy Adames, who signed a franchise-record seven-year, $182 million contract, went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in his Giants debut.
Webb began his afternoon by striking out the first two batters he faced, then getting ahead in the count against Elly De La Cruz, 0-2. Despite the two-strike advantage, Webb walked De La Cruz, then walked Gavin Lux. That set the table for Jeimer Candelario, who drove in De La Cruz on a single to right field despite Mike Yastrzemski’s diving effort. Webb struck out Spencer Steer to end the inning, but ended up throwing 27 total pitches. As Webb walked back to the dugout, he emphatically yelled into his glove.
The right-hander pitched a clean second inning but allowed two more runs in the third inning when Candelario struck again, smashing a bases-loaded single to right field that drove in two runs and extended the Giants’ deficit, 3-0.
Those three runs felt as if they’d be more than enough for Greene, who struck out seven batters through three scoreless frames. Greene was one strike away from putting a fourth straight zero on the board, but Ramos proceeded to turn in an early candidate for at-bat of the season.
With Jung Hoo Lee on first after drawing a walk, Ramos got himself into a 3-2 count and proceeded to foul off five straight fastballs. On the 11th pitch of the plate appearances, Ramos stayed with an outside fastball and deposited it into the right-field bleachers. At 344 feet, Ramos’ first homer of the year benefitted from the dimensions of Great American “Small Park.” Ramos provided a much-needed jolt of energy, roaring at the Giants’ dugout and pounding his chest as he rounded third, but that swing would be the extent of San Francisco’s offense. That is, until Bailey and Flores’ ninth-inning heroics.