To call the start to this season a disappointment for the Giants would be a massive understatement.
San Francisco went into Wednesday's series finale with the Mets with baseball's worst record at 11-23. A few hours later, they were 12-23, thanks to a dramatic ninth-inning comeback against Jeurys Familia. San Francisco scored four runs in the ninth to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 6-3 lead. They eventually won by the score of 6-5 (box score)
Here's video of the ninth-inning rally, which was made possible by a Wilmer Flores misplay at third base. Christian Arroyo had the big blow, a bases-clearing double.
The Giants are used to being on the wrong end of ninth-inning rallies like that. They've lost eight games this season (eight!) when they were leading or tied after eight innings. The bullpen was a major issue last year, and the offseason overhaul that included signing Mark Melancon has yet to improve things significantly.
That said, Wednesday's win was about the offense, not the bullpen. (Derek Law made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth and allowed two runs before getting the final out.) This was the first time in exactly two years the Giants won a game they trailed going into the ninth inning. Two years!
Andrew Baggarly of the Bay Area News Group has more:
The Giants, amazingly, had had lost 133 consecutive games in which they trailed entering the ninth. Their last comeback win in their final at-bat had come on May 10, 2015, when Matt Duffy walked off the Miami Marlins.
"I … did not know that," said Arroyo, following a stunned look with a stammer. "That's news to me."
Goodness, that's a long time between ninth-inning comeback wins. For reference, the other 29 teams have 113 such wins dating back to Opening Day 2016. That's nearly 3.9 such wins per team. The Giants though? Zero before Wednesday.
Of course, a good way to limit the need for comeback wins is by not trailing going into the ninth inning in the first place. The Giants still have baseball's worst record following Wednesday's win, and if they're going to make a run back into the postseason race, they can't rely on comebacks. They have to play from ahead and do a better job protecting leads.
