SAN FRANCISCO—Wilmer Flores drew a two-out, bases-loaded walk in the ninth inning Monday night, capping a wild comeback as the San Francisco Giants snapped a five-game losing streak with a 5–4 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
Matt Chapman, who hit a home run earlier, started the game-winning, three-run rally with a bloop double off Colten Brewer.
Flores was the eighth Giants player to bat in the ninth, his walk scoring Patrick Bailey with the winning run. Pinch hitter Michael Conforto hit a sacrifice fly to score Chapman and pull San Francisco within 4–3. Austin Slater’s sacrifice fly two batters later tied the game.
“We all got to wear No. 24, and that’s pretty cool,” Giants Manager Bob Melvin said, acknowledging the win was especially meaningful on a night when the team held a pre-game tribute for franchise legend Willie Mays, who passed away at age 93 on June 18. Monday marked the Giants’ first home game since Mays died.
“All the stuff pregame, it certainly gets your attention, and we’ve been thinking about this all week, and finally win a game for him,” Melvin said. “Whether it was Rickwood [in Birmingham, Ala., on Thursday] or whatever, we had trouble winning games during his tributes, so it was good to be able to do it at home here.”
Reliever Drew Smyly (2–4) took the loss.
Giants reliever Spencer Howard (1–1) struck out eight and walked one in 4 2/3 scoreless innings of four-hit ball.
Dansby Swanson’s RBI double highlighted a three-run fifth inning in which Chicago opened up a 4-0 lead.
Chapman hit his ninth homer of the season leading off the fifth, and Nick Ahmed hit his first leading off the sixth.
Cubs starter Justin Steele, who was seeking to end a streak of 14 straight winless starts going back to last season, struck out nine and walked one in 7 1/3 innings of six-hit ball in which he gave up two runs.
“There’s no question we left runs on the bases for sure, and that plays into it as well,” Cubs Manager Craig Counsell said. “We could have had five, six, seven on the board by just moving the ball forward and we didn’t do it, and we’ve got to do better at that.
