David Villar's walk-off single lifts SF Giants to 4-3 win in home finale

The SF Giants played their final game of the year at Oracle Park and won 4-3 over the Dbacks in extra innings thanks to a walk-off single by David Villar.

The SF Giants defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday afternoon by a score of 4-3. In the team's final game at Oracle Park this year, the Giants bullpen kept them in the game despite a slow offensive start. Trailing by a run heading into the bottom of the tenth inning, the Giants offense capped off their season at home with a walk-off single by rookie David Villar.

Giants manager Gabe Kapler turned to another bullpen game with the front office choosing to prioritize the team's starters for next season. With the team mathematically eliminated from reaching the playoffs the Giants decided to skip Logan Webb's final start of the season.

In Webb's place, left-handed reliever Scott Alexander started for the second consecutive day. Alexander allowed a pair of hits, but stranded both runners and lowered his ERA to 1.07 with a shutout first inning.

The Giants took a 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the inning. Willie Mac Award winner Wilmer Flores doubled off Dbacks starter Zach Davies and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by third baseman Evan Longoria. However, despite working five walks against Davies over his five innings of work, that was the only offense the Giants could muster against the veteran righty.

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Rookie left-hander Thomas Szapucki threw two shutout innings to build off Alexander before Kapler handed the ball to a third lefty, Alex Young. Young worked around a pair of hits in the fourth with an inning-ending double play, but back-to-back doubles by Carson Kelly and Jake McCarthy put the Diamondbacks on the board and evened the score at one.

The Giants regained the lead in the seventh inning when Austin Slater connected with a 2-0 fastball from Caleb Smith for Slater's sixth home run of the season. The solo shot gave the Giants a 2-1 lead despite the fact that Arizona had three times as many hits as San Francisco by that point in the game.

The Dbacks did not take long to counter. Giants setup man John Brebbia was hit hard for the second consecutive outing, and it's worth wondering if his league-leading 74 appearances are starting to wear on him. McCarthy led off the top of the eighth with a single and came around to score on a double by Josh Rojas.

Brebbia prevented the Dbacks from taking the lead, but Arizona held the Giants scoreless in the bottom half of the inning. The Giants turned to closer Camilo Doval in the ninth, who retired Arizona in order.

That gave San Francisco a chance to walk things off against former Giants reliever Mark Melancon. Slater hit a shot off Melancon to lead off the inning, but McCarthy made an excellent running catch against the wall to rob the Giants of extra bases. After Slater, Melancon retired Jason Vosler and Mike Yastrzemski with ease, to force extra innings.

Recently acquired righty Jharrel Cotton entered from the bullpen in the tenth. Faced with a ghost runner on second base, Cotton allowed a single to McCarthy that gave the Diamondbacks their first lead of the game. Cotton surrendered an infield single to Christian Walker, but escaped the inning without allowing another run.

In the bottom of the tenth, the Giants sent their three of their best power hitters to the plate against Dbacks reliever Taylor Widener: Wilmer Flores, J.D. Davis, and Villar.

Flores worked a lead-off walk to put the winning run aboard for Davis. Widener fell behind Davis 2-0 and challenged him with two straight mid-90s fastballs in the middle of the zone. Davis swung threw them both, but eventually lined a grounder between third base and shortstop. Third baseman Sergio Alcantara made an incredible diving stop that forced Yastrzemski to stop at third and loaded the bases for Villar.

Villar hit a first-pitch slider into left field for a single that easily scored Yastrzemski. Flores raced around third, but McCarthy's throw beat him to the plate. However, Dbacks catcher Carson Kelly dropped the ball and Flores touched home plate for the walk-off victory.

The SF Giants improve to 80-79 heading into their final series of 2022. They finished this year with a 44-37 record at Oracle Park. They will now travel to San Diego for a three-game series with first pitch on Monday scheduled for 6:40 PM Pacific time.