 09/07/2002 9:53 pm ET
Giants again save best for last
By Chris Shuttlesworth / MLB.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- In 1997, the Giants started the year with the rather innocuous marketing slogan "Giants baseball: Anything can happen." Anything did happen, and they won the National League West title.
Five years later, it seems like San Francisco has dusted off that mantra. Saturday, the Giants shaved a game off their NL Wild Card deficit with their NL-best 22nd last at-bat victory, a 4-3 walk-off win against the Diamondbacks.
"We have to work hard for all of them," said manager Dusty Baker, whose club has 33 comeback wins this season. "This year has just been a grind, so why should it be any different down the stretch? We just keep grinding and grinding."
Those among the 41,016 in attendance who left early missed the Giants' bottom-of-the-ninth triumph against Byung-Hyun Kim (8-3). With shadows cutting across home plate as the game neared the four-hour mark, Jeff Kent led off with a single and moved to second on Barry Bonds' comebacker.
"It was real tough, because Barry couldn't see," said Baker, whose point was confirmed by Bonds shouting the exact same thing as he passed Baker's office. "I'm surprised Jeff saw the ball, especially with Kim throwing from down under."
Benito Santiago saw the ball just fine, recording his third RBI of the day with a soft liner over second baseman Junior Spivey for the game-winning hit.
"I always love situations like that," said Santiago, who had been 2-for-10 off Kim. "The worst that can happen is they just get me out and I put my stuff on and go back and catch, but since I started playing in this league, I like those opportunities. [Hitting behind Bonds] I've got chances to do some good things up there and put the ball in play and win some games."
The catcher's heroics gave the Giants their second consecutive walk-off win over the Diamondbacks, who now lead the Dodgers by 4 1/2 games and the Giants by 6 1/2. Of greater note for the Giants, the Dodgers lost earlier in the day, allowing San Francisco to close to two games back of Los Angeles for the Wild Card.
"We were hoping that they'd be maybe two up when they came in here, and now we've got a chance to maybe be one out," said Baker, whose club starts a three-game set against the Dodgers on Monday. "The main thing is, if we win [Sunday], no matter what they do, they're still [at most only] two ahead."
Saturday's comeback became necessary, however, because Ryan Jensen again struggled out of the gate. He allowed three runs in the first three innings, eventually burning through 96 pitches in 4 2/3 innings. He allowed six hits, with two of them coming against his recent nemesis, the leadoff batter.
"I know the leadoff hitter's hitting a lot off me, but they really didn't bring it to my attention until a couple of games ago," said Jensen. "Then it was starting to become a little thing in my head. I would try to get them out even more, and it's starting to backfire on me."
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Baker mentioned that very thing during his pregame media session, and his concern became manifest when both leadoff hits turned into Arizona runs and a 3-1 D-Backs lead through 4 1/2 innings.
"It's probably as much a mental thing as anything, because once something starts happening and then the more you worry about it, the more it continues to happen," said Baker. "I remember when we were playing, everybody used to tell us, 'Don't walk Rodney Scott and don't walk Frank Taveras.' We ended up walking them every time."
But the Giants tapped Rick Helling for two runs in the fifth to tie the game. The bullpen and sparkling defense kept San Francisco in the game, including Reggie Sanders' stellar catch with his glove against the fence to end the eighth and key inning-ending strikeouts by Manny Aybar and Tim Worrell.
"I know things are going to happen during the game that we don't expect, but we'll stay in the game," said Santiago. "Always coming back is a plus for us. I know a lot of teams can't do that, and we've been able to do it this season. Let's continue to do it if we have to."
Chris Shuttlesworth is an editorial producer for MLB.com and can be reached at sitecontent@giants.mlb.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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Benito Santiago
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