One of the San Francisco Giants’ top prospects of the present honored one of the most admired from the past when Joey Bart hit a home run in a 5-4 victory over the visiting Chicago Cubs on Saturday night.
Luis Gonzalez also homered, and Dominic Leone survived a wild ninth inning, sending the Giants to their second win in three nights in the four-game series.
Down 5-1, the Cubs rallied for three runs in the ninth, each coming on a bases-loaded grounder to shortstop. Leone then got a fourth straight grounder, this one to second base off the bat of Ian Happ, to end the game.
The Giants never trailed in the game, which started immediately following the retirement of six-time All-Star Will Clark’s old No. 22 Giants jersey.
Bart, who like Clark was also a No. 2 overall draft selection by the Giants, smacked his seventh homer in a three-run fourth inning against Cubs starter Drew Smyly (3-6). It followed a David Villar single and a two-run shot by Gonzalez, his fourth, pushing the San Francisco lead to 5-0.
The Giants opened the scoring an inning earlier when Austin Slater doubled home a run and Yermin Mercedes followed with an RBI single.
Smyly was pulled after four innings, having allowed all five Giants runs on seven hits. He walked two and struck out five.
Right-hander Jakob Junis went the first four innings for the Giants, managing to throw shutout ball despite allowing five hits and a walk. He struck out four.
Tyler Rogers (2-3) was credited with the win after retiring all six batters he faced in the fifth and sixth innings. Jarlin Garcia, Yunior Marte and Leone finished up from there, with Leone earning his third save.
The Cubs’ only run of the first eight innings came in the seventh, when Nelson Velazquez singled in Yan Gomes with one out.
The Cubs outhit the Giants 10-7 but stranded nine baserunners and went just 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position.
Mercedes had two hits for the Giants, whose win was just the second in their 10 games since the All-Star break.
Velazquez drove in two runs, Gomes scored twice and Willson Contreras and David Bote had two hits apiece for the Cubs, who have lost two of three since a six-game winning streak.
–Field Level Media
