Giants tie Diamondbacks in 9th, win 5-4 in 10th

SAN FRANCISCO - The Arizona Diamondbacks got what they deserved when they lost 5-4 to the Giants Wednesday afternoon.

It was the bottom of the 10th inning and there were two outs. Andrew McCutchen was on second base - he represented the tying run. He had hit a fly ball to the warning track which should have been caught, but center fielder Jarrod Dyson drifted back casually, reached up and whiffed.

Diamondbacks left-handed reliever Andrew Chafin fell behind the next hitter, Brandon Crawford, 2-0 with two quick sliders. Diamondbacks pitching coach Mike Butcher walked to the mound to talk things over with his pitcher.

On deck was Evan Longoria, who’s in a slump - he’s hitting .105 in June. Warming up in the bullpen was right-handed reliever Fernando Salas. The Diamondbacks could have walked Crawford intentionally and brought in Salas to face the right-handed-hitting Longoria.

But the Diamondbacks chose to pitch to Crawford instead. “I knew they would be careful,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. “He is playing so well and swinging the bat so well. They were going after him with breaking balls, and got him to chase a couple.”

Chafin threw only sliders to Crawford, hoping Crawford would chase one out of the strike zone. And he did. He chased two.

“I was trying to look for a pitch up,” Crawford said. “I probably got a little too big, a little too anxious for a pitch to hit. Then, after I got to two strikes, I just kind of shortened up a little bit and used my hands.”

That’s exactly what Crawford did. On a 3-2 count, he roped a hanging slider to right field and McCutchen scored the game-winning run from second base. Chafin took the loss and Giants closer Hunter Strickland got the win.

Crawford is hitting .423 since May 1 - tops in Major League Baseball during that span. The Diamondbacks probably should have walked him.

“I try not to think about that a whole lot,” Crawford said. “Longoria is a good hitter on deck, whether or not he’s struggling or doing well. I don’t think they want to face him, either.”

Teams probably don’t want to face the Giants in general right now. They won five of the six games on their homestand, and have won six of their past seven games overall. And while their record is a modest 31-31, they’re only 1½ games behind the Diamondbacks for first place in the NL West.

“We’re right there in the hunt,” Bochy said.

Crawford wasn’t the only hero on Wednesday. Other players made his final hit possible.

The Giants were losing 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth, and Brad Boxberger, the Diamondbacks closer, was trying to close. With one out, Mac Williamson worked a seven-pitch walk. After Nick Hundley struck out swinging, switch-hitting pinch hitter Alen Hanson walked to the plate. The Giants were down to their last out.

Hanson, 25, is on his third major league team. He got a shot with the Giants this season when Joe Panik got hurt, and played so well the team kept him around. He came into Wednesday’s game hitting .333 overall and .571 as a pinch-hitter.

Maybe the Diamondbacks didn’t do their homework on Hanson. Because on an ?0-1 count, Boxberger grooved an 87-mph fastball down the pipe, and Hanson launched it into the right-field seats for a game-tying two-run homer.

Hanson ground Boxberger into hamburger. Hello, extra innings.

“He’s a pretty nice weapon coming off the bench,” Bochy said with a grin.

After the game, Hanson spoke to the media through an interpreter. He speaks no English, just Spanish. “In a situation like that, I don’t think home run,” Hanson said. “I just think about getting a good swing, putting the ball in play. If I go up there thinking of hitting a home run, that’s not my game. I’m not a home-run hitter. It’s just putting the ball in play.”

The Giants put the ball in play a whole lot during this six-game homestand. As a team, they hit .284 and scored 4.8 runs per game, all without Brandon Belt, the team’s best hitter. He had his appendix removed and missed all but the first two innings of the home stand.

Buster Posey also missed Wednesday’s game - he’s slightly banged up. “Hip tightness,” Bochy said, “and his elbow has bit him a couple times. It’s not something we think is going to be chronic, but I noticed a couple swings where he got hit by a pitch. So that should clear up in a couple days, too.”

Without Posey or Belt in the lineup, the Giants started Hundley at catcher and Pablo Sandoval at first base. And in the bottom of the first inning, Sandoval crushed a home run 447 feet to right field. It was his fourth home run of the season.

But the Diamondbacks took a 3-2 lead in the top of the fifth, when Giants starter Chris Stratton gave up an RBI double to Paul Goldschmidt, who finished the game 4 for 5 at the plate. The Giants pulled Stratton after he walked the next hitter, Jake Lamb. Stratton left runners on first base and second base with no outs.

Left-handed relief pitcher Will Smith replaced Stratton, struck out two hitters and got the Giants out of the jam without giving up a run. The Giants bullpen pitched five innings and struck out 10 batters.

“Good way to end this homestand, a very nice homestand, as we head on to Washington,” Bochy said. “The boys fought hard. The whole game, they kept coming back. Great win for us.”