SAN FRANCISCO — When Joc Pederson drew a game-winning walk on Tuesday night, three Giants rookies had the quickest path to the second straight walk-off celebration.
Luis Matos was on third and scored the winning run. Patrick Bailey was on second after a single and Casey Schmitt was on first after a second straight night of drawing a walk in the ninth. But the most impactful rookie on this night was back in the clubhouse.
Like Keaton Winn a night earlier, Tristan Beck shut the powerful San Diego Padres down long enough for his own lineup to catch up. Beck took over with the Giants trailing 3-1 in the sixth. By the end of the night, it was 4-3, and the winning streak was extended to nine.
"We've talked a lot about Casey, Casey has gotten a lot of shine. So has Pat, for really good reason. Luis is now here and especially shiny. He's fun to talk about and does some cool things on the baseball field," manager Gabe Kapler said. "Tristan has been every bit as good as those guys and hasn't gotten nearly the amount of attention. That's normal, right? He's coming in in relief and maybe pitching (when we're down one or two) but he's giving us a lot of length. If you look up on the scoreboard, he's got tons of innings, he's got a high strikeout rate, he's got a low walk rate. That's the makings of a good major league pitcher and he deserves a lot of credit for where we are right now."
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Beck allowed one hit over three innings, lowering his ERA to 3.05 in 15 relief appearances. In those 15 games, he has thrown 38 1/3 innings. Winn can provide a similar workload and has been even more effective in his two outings. Combined, the rookies have saved a staff that's missing Alex Cobb and Ross Stripling, has been without Alex Wood at times, and has Sean Manaea pitching in an unfamiliar role.
"They've been awesome," pitching coach Andrew Bailey said. "We've been able to hold leads and also keep deficits where they are."
That latter part has been key lately. Beck made sure the hole didn't get deeper, and the Giants got a run back on Brandon Crawford's single and then tied the game on Pederson's eighth-inning homer.
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In the ninth, Kapler made what he said was "a particularly uncomfortable" decision. He sent Schmitt up for Crawford, who has come up big repeatedly in recent weeks, and the rookie rewarded the faith with a walk against Hader. After drawing just one walk in his first 133 plate appearances, Schmitt has come up huge the last two nights.
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A night after the Padres walked their way to a loss without their closer, Hader did the same thing. He wasn't particularly close against Pederson, missing far outside on a 3-2 pitch with two outs in the ninth.
The win was the fifth in the last nine games in which the Giants trailed in the seventh inning or later.
"It feels like we've got 26 guys pulling on the same string," Pederson said. "It's somebody new every night."
