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The Giants’ starting left fielder dropped a routine fly ball in the first inning. Their superstar trade acquisition ran into an out in the third inning. And their four-run seventh-inning rally was made possible because their opponent’s second baseman allowed a potential rally-killing line drive to pop out of his glove and trickle into right field.
The Giants have their flaws. They make plenty of mistakes. But nearly halfway through the regular season, they’re 10 games above .500 (44-34) and it’s easy to see why Buster Posey made a blockbuster trade for Rafael Devers a week ago.
With a 9-5 win on Sunday at Oracle Park, the Giants secured a series victory over the Boston Red Sox and rewarded the 40,350 fans in attendance with an impressive display of the resilience that’s become a hallmark trait of this 2025 team.
The Giants entered the bottom of the seventh inning trailing 5-4 before Willy Adames singled and Casey Schmitt doubled to threaten Boston’s lead. Catcher Patrick Bailey bounced out to reliever Greg Weissert, but second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald followed with a safety squeeze that brought Adames home to score the tying run.
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Right fielder Mike Yastrzemski stepped up with a chance to give the Giants the lead and hit a 98.5-mile per hour liner directly at Red Sox second baseman Romy González. Instead of securing what looked like a surefire catch, González watched as the ball clipped off his glove and rolled into the outfield, enabling Schmitt to score the go-ahead run.
“It’s not the easiest play in the world, even though it looked like it was hit right at him,” manager Bob Melvin said. “When given extra outs, especially here at home, late games, we’ve been able to take advantage of that.”
Schmitt finished 4-for-4 on Sunday as he launched a fifth-inning home run off starter Lucas Giolito and raised his OPS .831. He’s excelled as the fill-in for injured third baseman Matt Chapman, who is expected to return from a hand injury at some point in July.
When healthy, Chapman will take back his starting post at third base. Schmitt, meanwhile, is building a strong case to remain in the Giants’ lineup as the versatile infielder could slide over to second base, where Fitzgerald has struggled this season.
Fitzgerald posted a lackluster .644 OPS in May, and his numbers have continued to suffer in June as he entered Sunday’s game with a .132 average and .354 OPS this month. Despite laying down a successful sacrifice bunt and the game-tying safety squeeze against Boston, Fitzgerald has appeared overmatched at the plate in recent weeks while Schmitt is emerging as a key bat for a lineup that was starved for offense prior to Posey’s blockbuster trade for Devers.
“I think he’s really coming into his own,” Yastrzemski said of Schmitt. “I think he maybe needed a little bit of pressure applied to him in terms of extra motivation. Sometimes when you get your back pushed against the wall, you come out swinging, and I think [Casey] has done that.”
After homering in a 3-2 win over his former team on Saturday, Devers went 1-for-3 with a walk on Sunday and kept the Giants’ seventh-inning rally alive with a sharp single into right field after Yastrzemski gave San Francisco the lead.
He scored on Heliot Ramos’ opposite-field double, which brought home two insurance runs and helped atone for a brutal first-inning error.
Ramos’ inability to snag a lazy liner to left field cost starter Robbie Ray an unearned run and was the latest example of his inconsistencies in the field. But with the bases loaded and two out in the third inning against Giolito, Ramos yanked a pitch into left field that scored two and gave the Giants a 2-1 advantage.
“We’ve seen that all year,” Melvin said. “Whether there’s a base running mistake or something like that, he feels like, ‘Alright, I’ve got to make up for it.’ So one thing about Heliot, and he proved it last year, he can hit, and he can hit in big situations.”
Devers tried advancing from first to third on the play, but was easily tagged out when left fielder Jarren Duran’s throw was cut off between second and third.
With help from Boston’s defense, the Giants hit their way through the outfield gaffe and base running mistake and showed a sellout crowd why Posey didn’t wait until the July 31 trade deadline to make a move that immediately ratcheted up expectations.
The Giants have strong starting pitching, an elite bullpen, and enough dangerous hitters to make a deep run in October. They have plenty to clean up on defense and their base running remains a glaring issue, but Posey’s philosophy is to seize opportunities when they arise.
He feels this year’s team is capable of greatness, but it needed tweaks.
At the beginning of the month, he designated LaMonte Wade Jr. for assignment amid a flurry of roster moves. Then, he shipped out promising young pitcher Kyle Harrison and 2024 first-round draft pick James Tibbs III in a four-for-one deal with Boston that netted Devers.
Next up? It’s possible Schmitt will take over as the full-time second baseman when Chapman returns.
If Posey and the Giants have proved anything this month, it’s that when there’s an issue holding the team back, their top baseball executive will be aggressive in pursuing a solution.
The Giants dealt with plenty of self-induced problems on Sunday. But by the time Randy Rodríguez recorded the final out, they’d figured out the Red Sox, just as they have with most teams on their schedule so far.