Giant effort nets new-look SF gritty win vs. Mets

NEW YORK -- After offloading three core pieces -- setup man Tyler Rogers, closer Camilo Doval and outfielder Mike Yastrzemski -- ahead of Thursday’s Trade Deadline, the Giants seemed to signal a change in priorities.

Losers of 12 of their last 14 games entering Friday, the Giants’ front office grimly accepted their status as sellers and tacitly acknowledged that they were putting a greater emphasis on the future by acquiring a haul of young prospects in exchange for three of their longest-tenured players.

But inside San Francisco’s clubhouse, the trades weren’t taken as a waving of the white flag.

"We didn’t play well enough to put ourselves in a position to buy,” manager Bob Melvin said before Friday’s opener at Citi Field. “Obviously, we made some moves. But I don’t think it changes our mindset as a team. We have really good players here.

“All our core pieces that we’ve signed here for the long term are all still here, so the mindset of the team has not changed on how we go out there and play and what our goals are. For [president of baseball operations] Buster [Posey], it was tough balancing the now and the future, but he didn’t take enough of the now for us not to have the same aspirations that we do.”

If Posey meant for the subtractions to serve as a wake-up call for his struggling club, consider the message received. One day after the Deadline, the Giants responded with one of their most resilient games in weeks, riding a gem from All-Star left-hander Robbie Ray and a go-ahead single from Dominic Smith to a 4-3 win over the Mets in 10 innings.

With the win, the Giants (55-55) snapped their six-game losing streak and climbed back up to .500 heading into the final two months of the regular season.

"What happened, happened,” Ray said. “We got ourselves in this situation, but we still have the big pieces that we brought in. … We didn’t do a major overhaul. This team is still good enough to win. To be able to come out after the rough homestand and win the first one here is big.”

Ray was among the Giants players who were viewed as possible trade candidates this week, but Posey said he “would have had to been blown out of the water” to consider moving the 33-year-old veteran, who is signed through 2026.

“I don’t really think a whole lot about that,” Ray said. “I’ve been traded at the Deadline before, so I know it’s possible. Things happen. But I enjoy being here. I enjoy this team. I want to win here.”

Ray certainly seemed determined to set the tone for the Giants on Friday. He allowed only a solo shot to Pete Alonso over seven strong innings before turning a 3-1 lead over to a Giants bullpen that was suddenly without two back-end arms in Rogers and Doval.

The Mets rallied to tie the game behind an RBI single from Juan Soto that deflected off lefty Joey Lucchesi and a sacrifice fly from Alonso in the eighth, though newcomer José Buttó -- who was acquired from New York as part of the Rogers deal -- managed to coax an inning-ending forceout from Brett Baty to leave a pair of runners stranded and preserve the 3-3 deadlock.

The game remained tied until the 10th, when Smith -- another former Met -- came off the bench to drive in automatic runner Willy Adames with a pinch-hit single off Edwin Díaz.

All-Star right-hander Randy Rodríguez, who is expected to replace Doval as the Giants’ closer, took over in the bottom of the 10th and coaxed a quick popup from Brandon Nimmo, though he drilled Francisco Lindor on the thigh and then issued a two-out walk to Alonso after a check-swing call didn’t go his way, loading the bases for Ronny Mauricio.

Still, Rodríguez came back to strike out Mauricio swinging on a 100.1 mph fastball to close out the win and pick up his second career save.

"Randy coming in in that situation and shutting the door -- that was amazing,” Adames said. “That showed the courage that he has and the kind of pitcher he is.”

For Adames, Friday’s win showed that the Giants can still reclaim the identity they had earlier in the year, when they used a blend of pitching, defense and just enough timely hitting to consistently pull out close games.

“We’ve been losing a lot of games because we haven’t been playing clean baseball,” Adames said. “We haven’t been playing our best baseball. We know that we have to be better in order to play more games like that and try to execute. I feel like today was a big game to start getting in a better different mood because it’s been tough. The boys are feeling it, and they knew that tonight we had to make an adjustment and go out there and try to win that game no matter how. It went our way.”