{"id":734967,"date":"2026-06-25T06:12:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T06:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/734967\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T06:12:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T06:12:19","slug":"giants-observations-victor-bericoto-hits-walk-off-homer-vs-as-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/734967\/","title":{"rendered":"Giants observations: Victor Bericoto hits walk-off homer vs. A\u2019s \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area &#038; California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/gameday\/athletics-vs-giants\/2026\/06\/24\/823208\/final\/box\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BOX SCORE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>SAN FRANCISCO &#8212; Victor Bericoto had to wait two weeks to get back in the lineup. The wait was worth it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The rookie blasted a no-doubter to left-center with two outs in the ninth at Oracle Park, picking up his first career walk-off and giving the Giants a 2-1 win over the A&#8217;s, who led heading into the bottom of the ninth. The Giants got homers from Bericoto and Rafael Devers, clinching the series after two hours of quality pitching on both sides.<\/p>\n<p>Tyler Mahle was sharp in his return, but rookie Gage Jump was even better. The lefty struck out nine in five innings, combining with Mahle to turn this into a bullpen game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There had been just six total hits in a scoreless game until the top of the eighth, when something familiar happened. A man named Max Muncy hit a big homer at Oracle Park. The A&#8217;s version took Dylan Smith deep, finally giving him an ERA after eight scoreless appearances to begin his Giants career.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Giants had the tying run on second with one out in the eighth, but hard-throwing righty Luis Medina worked past some command issues to strike out Bryce Eldridge and Casey Schmitt. An inning later, the Giants finally got their big hit.<\/p>\n<p>Devers went dead center with a 99 mph fastball from Elvis Alvarado. while leading off the ninth, tying the game.<\/p>\n<p>The solo blast came a couple of minutes after Jung Hoo Lee went into the corner to keep it a one-run game. Bericoto then jumped on a hanging slider to send everyone home happy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rally Mahle<\/p>\n<p>Mahle&#8217;s return to the rotation couldn&#8217;t have gone much better.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The right-hander threw 5 2\/3 shutout innings, allowing two hits and walking two. He struck out four, and his fastball was up 1.2 mph from his pre-injury starts. Mahle didn&#8217;t allow a baserunner through the first three innings, and when the A&#8217;s started putting some traffic on, he benefited from strong defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Schmitt made a slick toss to start a double play after a leadoff walk in the fourth and Jung Hoo Lee ended the inning with a running catch on the track in right-center. The A&#8217;s put two on in the fifth and Mahle gave up a bullet to Lawrence Butler, but Schmitt caught it and then threw the ball away. It rolled to Victor Bericito, who fired a strike to the plate to end the inning.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A double from Henry Bolte ended Mahle&#8217;s night in the sixth. Sam Hentges entered and gave up a rocket to Nick Kurtz, but it died on the track in center.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Time For The Rookies<\/p>\n<p>With a lefty on the other side and Luis Arraez sitting out with a sore foot, both Bericoto and Jonah Cox got to start, a rarity\u00a0of late. The 24-year-olds have been lightly-used backups with Schmitt starting in left field every night and Drew Gilbert soaking up nearly all of the at-bats in center.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bericoto had just one at-bat since June 10 and was 1-for-3 in his return to the lineup with a single to left until his late heroics. He also contributed to a strong defensive night for the Giants, making a 93 mph throw to the plate in the fifth inning to cut Jacob Wilson down at the plate on a wild play.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cox also had not started since June 10, although he got two at-bats off the bench Tuesday after Arraez departed. He had a single, strikeout and sacrifice bunt.<\/p>\n<p>The Giants will likely send one of the young outfielders back to Triple-A by the end of the week. Heliot Ramos (quad) is rehabbing with the River Cats and Tony Vitello said he&#8217;s &#8220;close&#8221; to returning to the lineup.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Back On Track?<\/p>\n<p>Ryan Walker has quietly shown his old form since returning from a lengthy minor league stint, which included a few days at the organization&#8217;s pitch lab in Scottsdale. Walker pitched a scoreless seventh, throwing nine of 14 pitches for strikes. He got two groundouts and a strikeout against the heart of the A&#8217;s lineup.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The scoreless outing was Walker&#8217;s fifth straight since returning, and he has allowed just one hit while striking out four. This is the first time all year he&#8217;s piled up more than two consecutive scoreless outings.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/giants-talk-a-san-francisco-giants-podcast.simplecast.com\/episodes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOX SCORE SAN FRANCISCO &#8212; Victor Bericoto had to wait two weeks to get back in the lineup.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,4932,91,72305],"class_list":["post-734967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-giants-observations","tag-tyler-mahle","tag-victor-bericoto"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116809272120951575","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}