Canha delivers walk-off win vs. his old team in his home debut for SF

SAN FRANCISCO -- Mark Canha has always felt at home at Oracle Park.

A San Jose native, Canha grew up a huge Giants fan and has fond memories of coming to this waterfront ballpark as a kid to watch Barry Bonds whack countless home runs into McCovey Cove.

Canha made plenty of trips here as a visiting player over his 10-year career, but Friday marked his first official game at Oracle Park as a member of the Giants, who acquired the 35-year-old veteran from the Tigers at the July 30 Trade Deadline.

Canha certainly made his home debut one to remember, lifting a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Giants a 3-2 walk-off win over his old team in Friday night’s series opener.

“I grew up coming to this place,” Canha said. “It means a lot to me. It’s a special, special stadium. I kind of got goosebumps last night when we got in. We got in late and all the lights were off, and it was just dark. I was like, ‘I’ve never seen it like this before.’ I hold this stadium near and dear to my heart. It’s awesome. I’m proud to be a part of all of this.”

A late comeback felt improbable earlier in the night, as the Giants -- who endured two rain delays, extra innings and a cross-country flight from Washington on Thursday -- were no-hit by Tigers right-handers Beau Brieske and Kenta Maeda through six innings on Friday.

Tyler Fitzgerald finally broke up the combined no-hit bid with a leadoff single in the seventh and came around to score on Michael Conforto’s sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 2-1. The Giants tied the game on another sacrifice fly by Patrick Bailey in the eighth and then completed their comeback in the bottom of the ninth.

Heliot Ramos reached on an error by Colt Keith, Conforto walked and Matt Chapman took a first-pitch sinker from James Foley off his helmet to load the bases for Canha, who fell behind 0-2 before drilling a 2-2 fastball to the warning track in left field to score the game-winning run and give the Giants their MLB-high 10th walk-off victory of the year.

“Pretty cool that his first game here at home, he’s the guy that walks it off,” manager Bob Melvin said. “A lot of good things happened late.”

San Francisco (60-58) has now won 12 of its last 16 games to climb a season-high-matching two games above .500 and pull within two games of the final National League Wild Card spot.

“Even when we were getting no-hit there in the sixth or something, guys were in the dugout, still very positive, still hungry to do something,” Canha said. “Nice job to Robbie [Ray] to keep the game as close as he did, even though we weren’t helping him early offensively. He just kept us in there, and then we found it. Eventually we found it.”

Ray gave up two runs on five hits over six innings in his fourth start of the year for the Giants. The 32-year-old left-hander walked three and struck out seven while throwing a season-high 105 pitches.

The Tigers got on the board in the second, when Gio Urshela led off with a double, advanced to third on a wild pitch and came home on Ryan Vilade’s sacrifice fly to left field. Detroit extended its lead to 2-0 thanks to Javier Báez, who reached on another leadoff double in the fifth and then stole third. Curt Casali, who started behind the plate after being reinstated from the paternity list on Friday, fired to third to try to nab Báez, but his errant throw deflected off Chapman’s glove and bounced into left field, allowing the Tigers shortstop to score on the play.

Casali, who committed another throwing error in the first inning and also drew a catcher’s interference call in the sixth, became the first Giants catcher with three errors in a game since Gus Mancuso on May 8, 1937, against the Cardinals.

Casali’s final miscue put a pair of runners on with two outs in the sixth and resulted in a brief injury scare for Ray, who was visited on the mound by Melvin and head athletic trainer Dave Groeschner after Bligh Madris was awarded first base by home-plate umpire James Hoye. Ray said he’s still getting used to the mound at Oracle Park and slipped on his final pitch to Madris, but he stayed in the game and coaxed a flyout from Vilade to emerge from the jam unscathed.

“It was a good team win all around,” Ray said. “Being able to get through the sixth inning for me was huge. … All around, great baseball.”