Mercury News
It took an uncomfortably long while, but the Giants returned home and unpacked the heavy baggage of a fitful trip Friday night with a stirring 4-3 walk-off victory over Colorado.
When the Rockies struck for three early runs against Matt Cain, and Giants hitters let struggling and winless starter Ubaldo Jimenez off the hook several times over the first six innings, things didn't look promising for the opening game of a three-game series against the N.L. West front-runners.
But the Giants chipped away with a run in the sixth, tied the score in the bottom of the eighth on a huge two-out double by Nate Schierholtz, then won it in the ninth on a rally ignited by last year's postseason poster boy, Cody Ross.
Ross, who was 5 for 30 on the Giants' 10-game trip and came into the game hitting .200 with one RBI, lined a double down the right-field line to open the ninth against reliever Felipe Paulino. Freddy Sanchez delivered the winner with a one-out single up the middle.
"This was a key game for us, and hopefully it will give us the spark we've needed," Sanchez said.
The toughest part was determining which hit was the biggest. Ross, to be sure, was a leading candidate. After opening the year on the disabled list, he simply hadn't been able to get untracked in his first 14 games since coming off the D.L. Without question, his double might have been his most satisfying hit since last October.
"It's not fun when you're scuffling," Ross said. "And the last thing you want to do is be timid in a situation like that, so I just wanted to be aggressive. I also changed my approach and went back to my old stance. I just closed it up a little bit and looked to try to hit the ball the other way." The Giants were back to their old ways in more ways than one. Considering the opponent and the recent offensive woes, it might have been their most important victory of the young season. For most of the game, it looked as if it would be a dispiriting homecoming before a packed house of 41,982 that turned out to celebrate Willie Mays' 80th birthday and energize a team in desperate need of some local love. The Giants managed just two hits against Jimenez over the first six innings even though they had their share of baserunners, thanks to five Jimenez walks. The Giants finally broke through in the sixth. Mike Fontenot, pretty much the only consistent hitter the Giants have had of late, tripled into the gap in right-center to open the inning, and Buster Posey got him home on a weak grounder to first. The Giants got no more, but the best was still to come. With one out in the bottom of the eighth, Posey blooped a single to right, and Pat Burrell hammered a double to right-center to put runners at second and third. With Darren Ford running for Burrell, up came Schierholtz, who battled reliever Rafael Betancourt to a 2-2 count before hitting a liner down the left-field line to score both runners easily. "That was the at-bat of the night," said Ross. "Nate really battled, and when he hit that ball, everybody in the dugout was jumping up and down and screaming."
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