Rookie Jesus Rodriguez gives Giants a 12th-inning walk-off, series-clinching win against Pirates
Everyone loves a redemption arc and the San Francisco Giants had so many of them Sunday they could rival a prestige drama.
Ryan Borucki, ineffective against his former team the night before, came through with two key innings of work. Rookie Jesus Rodriguez, finishing his first week in the big leagues, struck out with the bases loaded to end the 10th, then delivered the winning blow in the 12th inning, his single to right sending in Heliot Ramos to beat the Pirates 7-6. And even the fans got into the act; after booing the team in a stinker the night before, they went nuts as Ramos belatedly ran in to score after waiting to make sure Ryan O'Hearn didn't catch Rodriguez's soft hit.
The Giants as a whole took a step forward, too. Sunday's victory was their first walkoff win of the season and they came from behind three times to do it. While they're still just 16-24, they won their first series this month just in time to head to Los Angeles for four games.
More For You
Giants shake up bullpen, demote struggling Ryan Walker and Gregory Santos
Buster Posey optioned former closer Ryan Walker to Triple-A Sacramento on Sunday, the latest signal the San Francisco Giants' president of baseball operations is not messing around.
The Giants need a closer. You might be surprised where they could find one
The San Francisco Giants have multiple woes, but perhaps nothing has been more frustrating than their late-game pitching. Columnist Bruce Jenkins suggests they turn to history to find a fix.
"I feel like this was a big win for us, especially coming from behind," Rodriguez said. "I feel like everybody's going in the same direction and we're going to get out of this struggle."
Rodriguez had a lot on his plate Sunday, catching 12 innings, the last few particularly stressful, but he learned from his 10th-inning strikeout against Yohan Ramirez. When Rodriguez came to the plate the next time, with one out and Justin Lawrence on the mound, he was 0-for-5 but determined to have a better approach.
Giants 7, Pirates 6 (12)
Pittsburgh
AB
R
H
BI
BB
SO
Avg.
Totals
42
6
7
6
9
9
Cruz cf
5
2
1
1
1
2
.255
Lowe 2b
5
0
0
0
1
3
.259
Gonzales 3b
6
1
1
1
0
0
.316
O'Hearn rf
6
1
1
0
0
1
.289
Ozuna dh
2
1
0
0
3
1
.194
2-Triolo pr-dh
0
0
0
0
0
0
.194
Horwitz 1b
5
0
2
3
1
1
.261
Griffin ss
5
1
1
1
1
1
.256
Yorke lf
3
0
0
0
0
0
.205
a-Reynolds ph
1
0
0
0
0
0
.246
Cook lf
1
0
0
0
0
0
.190
Davis c
3
0
1
0
2
0
.163
San Francisco
AB
R
H
BI
BB
SO
Avg.
Totals
47
7
13
7
5
8
Lee rf
6
1
2
0
0
1
.270
Arraez 2b
4
1
1
1
2
0
.310
Schmitt 1b
4
0
0
0
0
1
.285
b-Eldridge ph-1b
1
0
0
0
1
1
.143
Devers dh
4
1
2
0
1
0
.232
1-Koss pr-dh
1
1
0
0
0
0
.071
Ramos lf
6
3
2
2
0
0
.272
Adames ss
6
0
3
2
0
1
.209
Chapman 3b
5
0
2
1
0
1
.235
Gilbert cf
4
0
0
0
1
1
.231
Rodriguez c
6
0
1
1
0
2
.353
Pittsburgh
110
011
000
200_6
7
1
San Francisco
001
102
000
201_7
13
2
One out when winning run scored.
a-lined out for Yorke in the 8th. b-struck out for Schmitt in the 10th.
1-ran for Devers in the 10th. 2-ran for Ozuna in the 12th.
E: Chandler (1), Rodriguez (2), Arraez (1). LOB: Pittsburgh 13, San Francisco 16. 2B: Horwitz 2 (6), Adames (12), Lee (9), Devers 2 (8), Ramos (10), Chapman 2 (8). HR: Griffin (3), off Mahle; Cruz (10), off Mahle; Ramos (4), off Chandler. RBIs: Gonzales (18), Griffin (19), Cruz (29), Horwitz 3 (19), Arraez (14), Ramos 2 (18), Chapman (13), Adames 2 (8), Rodriguez (3).
Runners left in scoring position: Pittsburgh 6 (Griffin 3, Gonzales, Reynolds, Cook); San Francisco 8 (Chapman, Gilbert, Rodriguez 3, Ramos 2, Schmitt). RISP: Pittsburgh 2 for 15; San Francisco 7 for 22.
Runners moved up: Horwitz, O'Hearn 2, Adames, Gilbert, Ramos, Lee. LIDP: Lowe. GIDP_Horwitz.
DP: San Francisco 2 (Adames, Schmitt; Adames, Eldridge, Adames).
Pittsburgh
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
NP
ERA
Chandler
5
5
2
2
1
3
77
4.62
Mattson, BS, 0-2
1-3
3
2
2
0
0
18
4.67
Montgomery
1
2-3
0
0
0
0
1
19
2.87
Santana
2-3
2
0
0
0
0
19
3.63
Soto
1
1-3
0
0
0
0
1
15
1.33
Ramírez, BS, 1-3
2
1
2
1
3
2
34
4.12
Lawrence, L, 0-2
1-3
2
1
0
1
1
14
6.46
San Francisco
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
NP
ERA
Mahle
5
2-3
5
4
4
2
8
97
5.18
Winn
1
1
0
0
0
0
7
2.60
Hentges
1-3
0
0
0
1
0
9
0.00
Kilian
1
0
0
0
2
0
19
1.50
Peguero
1
1-3
1
2
1
1
0
30
2.70
Smith
2-3
0
0
0
1
0
9
0.00
Borucki, W, 1-1
2
0
0
0
2
1
24
5.14
Inherited runners-scored: Montgomery 1-0, Soto 2-0, Winn 1-0, Hentges 1-0, Smith 1-0, Borucki 2-0. IBB: off Ramírez (Arraez), off Ramírez (Eldridge), off Borucki (Ozuna), off Lawrence (Gilbert). HBP: Peguero (Ozuna), Ramírez 2 (Chapman,Gilbert). WP: Smith.
ABS Challenge: Chapman (Strike-Confirmed); Mahle (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Devers (Strike-Overturned to Ball); Mattson (Ball-Confirmed).
Pitch timer violations: Ramírez (pitcher); Borucki (pitcher); Lawrence (pitcher).
Umpires: Home, Tom Hanahan; First, Scott Barry; Second, Manny Gonzalez; Third, Jacob Metz.
T: 3:51. A: 41,085 (41,915).
"Before, I just got caught up in the moment, I felt like I went too aggressive," Rodriguez said of his four-pitch strikeout against Ramirez. "That's just not me. I'm aggressive, but not that aggressive. But I thought about that, and I tried to be myself and hit the ball the other way. It worked."
He was mobbed by teammates in short right as cheers rang around Oracle Park.
The previous night, the fans let the Giants have it in a 13-3 loss, especially after an inning that featured a sloppy error by shortstop Willy Adames. After that dismantling, manager Tony Vitello said the fans had every right to express their displeasure after spending their money and time at the ballpark. "I think it got to the point where it wasn't an acceptable effort," Vitello said, adding later, "I think it's pretty realistic and if anything, maybe in a reverse psychology, provides a little extra motivation."
Adames also had his moment of atonement Sunday, roping a two-run single to left in the 10th to tie the game after the Pirates had taken their third lead of the game in the top of the inning. The booing? Yes, it did had an effect.
"I never had that before, like in Milwaukee or Tampa, it was something new," said Adames, who went 3-for-6 Sunday. "But obviously, we played a terrible game yesterday, we deserved to be booed, to be honest.
"But for me, especially, it made me think like, ‘What am I doing? Am I sucking that bad? Do I have to be better?' That could go either way, depending on how much confidence you have. For me it was like, ‘Well, you better pick it up and do something!'"
The most perplexing of the Giants' hitters - Adames, Rafael Devers and Matt Chapman - all contributed. Devers doubled twice, and in the 12th, Chapman's bloop down the right-field line, his second double of the day, sent placed runner Ramos to third, setting things up for Rodriguez.
"I hope everybody understands that when you win a game like that, you see everybody involved," Adames said. "It's just something special,. It could change the momentum for this season. Hopefully we can pick up that and go into L.A. and keep going."
Then there's Borucki, a lefty specialist with extreme splits who struggles against right-handed hitters. Saturday he allowed two hits and a run, and his ERA stood at 6.00.
"Personally, it was my former team and it wasn't the outing I wanted yesterday," Borucki said. "I had to try to just forget about it and just go pitch my game and got it done."
Sunday, he turned in the Giants' grittiest performance: With men at the corners and no outs in the 11th, Borucki struck out Oneil Cruz, then got Brandon Lowe to line softly to short for an inning-ending double play. Back out for the 12th, Borucki got two quick outs before walking Marcel Ozuna, but then he had to face Konnor Griffin, a right-handed hitter. Borucki got Griffin to line to third; Borucki hollered in approval as Chapman made the play.
"I'm not a very emotional guy in the moment, but I think just some frustrations for myself this year and it had just been a tough kind of month," Borucki said. "I just kind of let them all out probably once. Hopefully those frustrations are behind me and we just kind of go forward from there."
Devers doubled to open the sixth, Ramos followed suit to send him in and with one out, Chapman did the same to tie it up, but that was the Giants' last hit to travel out of the infield until Adames' single off Ramirez in the 10th. The teams traded zeroes in the 11th, with Christian Koss, who'd had only 13 at-bats all season, in the cleanup spot after running for Devers the previous inning. With the bases loaded and one out, he tapped into a force that erased a runner at the plate, then Ramirez also got Ramos to hit a tapper to end the inning.
Bryce Eldridge, 21, hit his first big-league homer in Saturday night's loss but was not back in the lineup Sunday, with Devers at DH and Casey Schmitt at first base; the thinking there, Vitello said, was that would allow for the left-handed-hitting Eldridge to slot in at first base if needed to pinch hit at some point while Schmitt could shift anywhere around the infield. Eldridge pinch-hit for Schmitt in the 10th and struck out.
Giants starter Tyler Mahle was OK in the final game of the homestand. He allowed solo runs in four different innings, two of them on homers (Griffin in the second, Cruz in the fifth). Cruz's stolen base in the first, with Rodriguez behind the plate, set up Pittsburgh's first run.
After winning a series for the first time this month, the Giants move on to four games at Dodger Stadium. There will be an interesting subplot: Dalton Rushing, the Dodgers' backup catcher and agitator, appeared to say "F- 'em," after Jung Hoo Lee was tended to by trainers at home plate in a game at Oracle Park last month.
When Logan Webb hit Rushing two days later, Rushing then went in hard at second, taking out Adames with a slide that didn't exactly change the Giants' impressions of him. Nor, one suspects, will Rushing's most recent incident, calling Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya a "fat f-."
Trevor McDonald, recalled Saturday amid the Giants' flurry of moves, will start Monday night, with Roki Sasaki going for Los Angeles and with the Giants hoping to ride the wave of good feeling from Sunday.
"I've been on teams where big wins like this that take everybody just kind of flips the script," Borucki said. "It can happen at any time, it's never too late to get hot, it's a long year. We've just got to take this momentum into the series against the Dodgers."
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.
This story was originally published May 10, 2026 at 7:14 PM.