What we learned as Chapman’s heroics salvage Giants’ win vs. Marlins

What we learned as Chapman’s heroics salvage Giants’ win vs. Marlins originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — Matt Chapman has done it all for the Giants this season. Late Friday, he saved what was shaping up to potentially be the worst loss of another disappointing season.

Chapman’s hard double to the gap cleared the bases in the bottom of the eighth and sparked a 3-1 win over the Miami Marlins, the worst team in the National League. San Francisco had just three hits through seven but old friend Mike Baumann loaded the bases when Marlins manager Skip Schumaker tried to get a second inning out of him. After Michael Conforto struck out, Chapman smoked a two-out, two-strike slider from right-hander George Soriano.

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San Francisco (68-68) sits 6.5 back of Atlanta for the National League’s third and final wild card spot with 26 games to play.

The Giants’ playoff hopes are on life support, and they certainly need a sweep this weekend. They got the first one out of the way, although they didn’t make up any ground. Earlier in the day, the Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, the New York Mets beat the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs beat the Washington Nationals.

Here are three takeaways from Friday’s game.

Snells Good

Since coming off the IL in early July, Blake Snell has made five starts at Oracle Park and pitched about as well as humanly possible. In 31 1/3 innings, he has allowed just one run and 10 hits. With eight more strikeouts Friday, he got up to 42 in those five starts. He hasn’t been the winning pitcher in any of them, though.

Snell flashed his typical second-half brilliance on Friday, allowing just four hits and walking one. Two of the hits were well-sequenced, putting a run on the board in his final inning. Still, he lowered his ERA to 3.56, an impressive feat given that it was 9.51 at the end of June.

#ForeverGiants

The Marlins had Derek Hill batting cleanup and Otto Lopez hitting a spot behind him. In the seventh, they turned to Baumann. It was a hell of a night for Giants fans who like to remember some guys.

Lopez, a second baseman, was in camp with the Giants but never appeared in a big league game. Hill made five appearances for San Francisco last month and has four homers and 17 RBI through his first 23 games in Miami. He scored the first run of the night after reaching with a leadoff single in the seventh.

Baumann, who has appeared for five teams this season, took over in the bottom of the inning against the team he made one appearance for in July. He threw 45 pitches, 13 more than in any previous outing this season, and inexplicably was left in the game long enough to load the bases on a pair of walks.

Not Exactly Cy Young

On Thursday, Milwaukee‘s Aaron Civale threw a season-high seven innings and allowed a season-low two hits while handing the Giants a series defeat. The offense wasn’t any better back home against right-hander Adam Oller, who had a 6.90 ERA in 30 previous big league appearances.

In his third start of the season, the 29-year-old struck out a career-high eight and allowed just two hits in six shutout innings. It was just the second scoreless start of his career, the other coming when he was with the Oakland A‘s in 2022.

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