Giants begin Daniel Johnson Era with a 6-5 win

The San Francisco Giants took extreme measures Wednesday to respond to their two-week offensive slump. LaMonte Wade, Jr,. and Sam Huff were designated for assignment and the team added first baseman Dominic Smith and outfielder Daniel Johnson directly into the starting lineup, along with new backup catcher Andrew Knizner. The result? The team erased a five-run deficit, scoring more than five runs for the first time in 19 days in a 6-5 victory.

Vallejo’s own Daniel Johnson had two hits and scored two runs in his big-league debut, scoring the tying run in the Giants’ decisive three-run 7th inning. Matt Chapman hit a two-run homer, Heliot Ramos had two RBI, and Jung Hoo Lee had two hits and the go-ahead RBI in the 7th.

It wouldn’t be a Giants win without unnecessary drama. Ramos had to book it to third to keep Lee’s sacrifice fly from turning into a double play. Tyler Rogers appeared to lose control of his muscular system on a far-from-routine groundout in the 8th inning.

In the 9th, Bob Melvin went to former closer Ryan Walker, one night after former-and-current closer Camilo Doval blew the game in the 9th inning. He got hit hard, first with a Tatis single and then a Luis Arraez drive to the gap. Johnson played Triples Alley like he had far more than eight innings experience in right by running the ball down for the first out.

But after a Manny Machado infield single, Randy Rodriguez relieved Walker and retired Jackson Merrill and Gavin Sheets to end it and give the Giants their first win over the Padres this season. Maybe he’s the closer now?

The game didn’t start wonderfully for the Giants and starter Kyle Harrison. The San Diego Padres scored two runs in the first inning when a double and a walk led to a bases-clearing triple from Gavin Sheets, which took a truly unfair bounce of the wall in front of Johnson, playing his first game in right field at Oracle Park and paying the defensive toll. He’d prove later that he’s a quick learner.

Based on recent history, a 2-0 deficit would be an insurmountable lead for our heroes in black and orange. Logan Webb has started placing alcoholic beverages and burnt offerings on his locker room altar to the baseball gods in hopes that he could get two runs from his offense in nine innings, much less three!

It almost spiraled pout of control for the young left-hander in the second inning, when Brandon Longridge singled, but got erased stealing third. Elias Diaz singled, then Jung Hoo Lee tracked down a Fernando Tatis, Jr. drive into the gap to end the inning.

The main problem with Harrison’s outing was that he wasn’t making the Padres miss with his four-seam fastball. Of the 31 four-seamers the Padres swung at, they made contact with 25. That led to some long at-bats, an inability to get punch-outs (87 pitches and only 3 Ks in 4 ¹⁄₃ innings) and an early exit. The end came in the 5th inning, when Tatis reached on an infield single and Arraez followed with a bunt hit. After striking out Machado, Jackson Merrill jumped on Harrison’s first-pitch fastball and hit a double down the left-field line. One pitch later, Sheets had his third and fourth RBIs of the game with a single.

Sean Hjelle got out of the 5th with no more damage and worked through the 7th for his first win of the season, retiring the final seven Padres he faced. He went 2 ²⁄₃ innings and yielded only a walk in an efficient 28-pitch performance.

The Giants started their comeback in the bottom of the inning, after Johnson singled and stole second. Then Patrick Bailey, who has hit like an All-Star during the month of June in his brief career, blasted a double to right field that brought home home Johnson.

Bailey has a five-game hitting streak and is 6-for-17 in his last five games, with three doubles. For his career, he’s hitting .289 in June and slugging .462. He’ll probably sit Thursday for Knizner, promoted because he hit .367 in eight games with Sacramento and because his name might be hilariously hard to pronounce for the broadcast team.

In the sixth, Jung Hoo Lee got his first extra-base hit in two weeks with a one-out double, then Matt Chapman drove him home with his 11th home run of the season to cut the lead to 5-3. Clearly Chappie was motivated by Heliot Ramos taking the team home run lead from him Tuesday night, and muscled one out that just barely cleared the left field wall.

One inning later, the Giants chased starter Nick Pivetta when Adames led off the 7th with a walk and Johnson singled. Jason Adam (5-2) came in to face Tyler Fitzgerald, who singled to load the bases. Then Ramos pounded a slider off the left field wall to tie the game and set up Lee’s game-winning sac fly.

After his big hit, Ramos very much looked like he was aware of how many games it had been since the Giants put up five runs. (16!)

The Giants are now undefeated in the Daniel Johnson era. They’re also undefeated in the Dominic Smith era, after the 29-year-old first baseman went 0-for-4 but did snag a foul ball in the third to mercifully end an 11-pitch at-bat from Arraez.

Tomorrow the four-game series wraps with Robbie Ray facing Dylan Cease, in a matchup of two dominant pitchers who don’t mind handing out a few walks. As far as this author’s concerned, the 2025 San Francisco Giants will go as far as Daniel Johnson can take them.