Giants survive critical errors in big win over Angels originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Just when it looked like two critical errors might sink the Giants, their fortunes turned, leading to an 8-3 come-from-behind win over the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night at Angel Stadium.
With a runner at first base and one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, Angles outfielder Mickey Moniak singled on a sharp line drive to center fielder Luis Matos who misplayed and bobbled the ball, allowing a less-than-blazing C.J. Cron to score all the way from first, giving the Angels a 2-1 lead.
Fortunately for the Giants, their misfortunes were erased when J.D. Davis blasted a game-tying homer in the top of the seventh.
However, the Giants were hurt once again by a defensive miscue after AJ Pollock misread a fly ball and then nearly tripped in right field in the bottom of the seventh which allowed a speedy Randal Grichuk to race to third with one out. Grichuk then scored on a Luis Rengifo single that gave the Angels a 3-2 lead.
After two errors hurt the Giants in a frustrating loss to the Athletics on Sunday, San Francisco’s sloppy defense — at least for a moment — appeared to have doomed them once again.
In speaking to reporters after the game, Giants manager Gabe Kapler was pleased his team was able to overcome the costly errors and pointed to the Giants’ defensive woes last season as an example of how these miscues can negatively impact a team.
“It’s challenging; we’re not always going to be able to overcome defensive miscues, so you really want to limit those,” Kapler said. “I think we’ve played overall good defense over the course of the season and the last couple seasons have been less so. We want to limit when we have rough games on defense because — as we saw in (2022) — they have a cascading effect (and) forced more pitchers into the game.
“It’s challenging, but I don’t anticipate that lasting long and we’ll turn the page quickly on the defensive games over the last couple and get ready to play good D tomorrow.”
Giants catcher Patrick Bailey, who collected two hits and three RBI, including the go-ahead knock in the top of the ninth, was relieved to get the win after two disappointing losses.
“That was huge. With the A’s we had two close games, one where we threw the ball well and didn’t swing it and the other where we swung it and didn’t throw it well,” Bailey told Laura Britt, Ron Wotus and Travis Ishikawa on “Giants Postgame Live.” “That’s baseball, it happens, but to come out here against a really good Angels team and get a win like we did tonight was huge.”
It certainly wasn’t easy, but the Giants finally escaped with a win on the road, snapping their previous eight-game losing streak away from Oracle Park.
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