SAN FRANCISCO -- It's important not to get too high or too low over a 162-game season, but the Giants sure made that difficult during a six-game homestand.
Three of their four wins came on walk-offs, including Mike Yastrzemski's two-run Splash Hit in the 10th inning Wednesday that gave them an 8-6 victory over the Cincinnati Reds and prevented a sweep. The two losses were both shutouts, though.
It was a roller coaster week, but ultimately the Giants ended it 4-2, and they're 9-3 as they head out for a tough three-city trip that will start Friday night at Yankee Stadium. The win Wednesday came after a big comeback in the middle innings.
YAZ CALLED GAME 💪 pic.twitter.com/AdolFakTW7
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 9, 2025
The Reds put a five-spot on Justin Verlander in the third and added an insurance run in the sixth, but the Giants had their own big rally. After getting shut out in back-to-back games, they scored on a Jung Hoo Lee triple in the fourth inning and then scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth, getting back within one.
All four runs came with two outs, and the last three hits came with two strikes. A sloppy throw by Elly De La Cruz put the tying run on second, but Willy Adames grounded out. An inning later, Lee's double again put the tying run on second, but rockets by Matt Chapman and Heliot Ramos found gloves.
San Francisco Giants
The Giants finally completed the comeback in the eighth, when Wilmer Flores curled the first pitch just inside the pole in left. With a runner on and one out in the 10th, Yastrzemski hit the first pitch he saw into McCovey Cove.
Hit And Miss
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It was an odd one for Verlander, who has a 6.92 ERA through his first three starts in orange and black.
Verlander struck out nine and threw his hardest pitch since 2023, and with a little defensive help, he would have walked away with a quality start. But he also had some big misses and got charged with six runs -- five earned -- in 5 2/3 innings.
Verlander needed just 20 pitches to get through the first two and he struck out the side in the second, hitting 95 mph to Gavin Lux and then throwing sliders past Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Will Benson. But he was nearly knocked out in the third inning for a second straight start.
The Reds hit three balls off gloves in the long five-run inning, including a two-run single from Lux that Tyler Fitzgerald couldn't stop. That backbreaker came on a 97.9 mph fastball -- Verlander's hardest since July of 2023 -- that was left out over the plate. There was also a double off the wall from TJ Friedl on a 94 mph fastball that missed its location by a couple of feet.
Verlander retired eight straight after the Lux single, but the damage had been done.
Patty Triples
The four-run rally in the sixth came with two outs and included Patrick Bailey's third career triple. He has one in each of his three big league seasons, and now has 150 games to set a career-high.
The Reds brought Taylor Rogers in to turn Bailey around, but he worked the count full and then smoked a sinker into Triples Alley. That brought Flores home from first, and Bailey scored on a two-strike single by Fitzgerald.
Jung Hoo Crew
The homestand felt like a bit of a coming-out party for Lee, who never fully got to show off his game last season before the shoulder injury. With 10 hits over six days, Lee raised his average to .333. He was a homer shy of the cycle on Wednesday and was robbed of a fourth hit -- and third extra-base hit -- by a diving Will Benson in the bottom of the ninth.
Every Lee at-bat at home is now accompanied by drum beats and a "Jung Hoo Lee," chant, and more often than not over the last week, he ended the at-bat by flying out of the box and losing his helmet somewhere along the way. With a double and triple Wednesday, he had five extra-base hits in the six games at home.
