SAN FRANCISCO -- Jung Hoo Lee saw Willy Adames running straight towards him with his arms outstretched. He turned and tried to run the other way, but Adames still got to him. He grabbed a hold of Lee’s jersey, pulling and tugging at it as he tried -- unsuccessfully -- to rip it off his back.
“I tried,” Adames -- fresh off a two-homer day -- said as a smile beamed across his face. “I guess I didn’t try hard enough.”
Adames had first sprinted full-speed out of the dugout to meet pinch-runner Christian Koss at home plate almost immediately after he scored, then turned past him to get to Lee, who had driven him in to cap the Giants’ 4-3 win over the Cubs with his first career walk-off.
“I remember last time when I got hit by the water, it was really, really cold. It was freezing,” Lee said through interpreter Justin Han, as to why he ran away from Adames and the rest of his teammates. “And number two is, I’m usually the one that I beat up the guys when somebody has a walk-off. So, I felt like it was going to be a little bit of revenge over there.”
Adames was a lot more successful on the field during the game itself than during the celebration. He hunted Shota Imanaga’s fastball at the plate, ambushing the Cubs starter with a big swing on a first-pitch fastball up in the zone and driving it 417 feet for a two-run home run that gave the Giants an early lead.
He came through in the clutch again in the bottom of the sixth, answering Michael Busch’s go-ahead home run in the top half of the frame with another one of his own. This time, Imanaga was conscious of his fastball and elevated it way above the zone to set up for his next pitch, but Adames still got to it.
The ball sailed to deep left-center field as Pete Crow-Armstrong leapt up to nab it, but it went just over his outstretched glove to tie the game. Adames flexed as he rounded first.
He then showed off the defense in the next half inning with a Derek Jeter-esque jump throw on a grounder from Nico Hoerner. Adames fired off the throw from the shallow outfield, reaching Rafael Devers at first base just in time to prevent what would’ve been a leadoff base hit. That play had starter Logan Webb fired up.
“That was a big play,” said Webb, who pitched seven innings on Thursday. “I don’t think I had an inning where I didn’t have a guy on base, so having that play to start the inning I think set up the rest of the inning to go well, and set the tone for the whole rest of the game.”
With the first-inning homer, the Giants have now gone deep in 11 consecutive games dating back to Aug. 17. In that span, they’ve hit 22 home runs. Adames said he’s out to disprove the traditional thinking that the ball doesn’t fly at Oracle Park.
“That’s what people say,” he said. “... Yeah, it doesn't fly as much, but they still go out. Just have to change that mentality and go out there and be yourself. I feel like the guys are doing that, and it’s been fun.”
It doesn’t get much more fun than the Giants’ 10th walk-off win this season, tied with Boston and Milwaukee for the most in the Majors. But it was also their first in almost two months, when Patrick Bailey walked it off with a rare inside-the-park home run against the Phillies on July 8.
For manager Bob Melvin, it felt more like the Giants team he saw in the first half of the season.
“We were doing that a lot early on,” he said. “And it just felt like any time we got into that position earlier in the season, we were going to win the game, especially here at home. Close game, that’s kind of our calling card.”
The Giants keep winning. All the more reason for Adames to keep smiling.
“It’s the same every day, no matter what,” Melvin said. “Winning, losing, playing well, not – it’s the same. That’s one of the reasons we signed him. It’s not only the production, what he does on the field, but also his enthusiasm. And it rubs off.”