Dazzling play, Sandoval's homer lift Giants

PHOENIX -- Brandon Crawford and Pablo Sandoval have been two of the Giants’ most reliable players of the past decade. They’ve spent seven seasons as teammates, twice winning the World Series championship together.

On Sunday afternoon, the 32-year-old veterans combined for one of their most impressive sequences ever.

Crawford made a game-saving defensive play to force extra innings, which was immediately followed by Sandoval’s pinch-hit, go-ahead home run in the 10th that lifted the Giants to a 3-2 win over the D-backs at Chase Field and their first series victory since April 29-May 1.

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The heroics came after both Crawford and Sandoval weren’t in the game for the first seven innings. But the duo came off the bench to ignite San Francisco in a memorable victory.

Crawford’s clutch stop

Crawford can’t remember a defensive gem that came during a more important moment of a game in his nine-year career.

“That might be the only one in that situation, where you either make a play or the game’s over,” said Crawford, a three-time National League Gold Glove Award winner.

The game was on the line as the D-backs had the winning run on third base with two outs and five-time All-Star outfielder Adam Jones at the plate. On the mound for San Francisco was right-hander Sam Dyson, who relies on a sinker that had Crawford alert for a potential grounder coming his way.

Crawford knew Jones could likely be pulling the ball to the left side, but he didn’t want to shade too far to the third-base side, knowing the veteran Jones could also line a ball up the middle.

As a hard-hit ball came Crawford’s way -- leaving Jones’ bat with an exit velocity of 89.7 mph per Statcast -- the shortstop got a good jump to his right side. However, it was going to take more than that to make a play on it.

“At that point, you just kind of dive and hope the ball goes in your glove,” Crawford said. “I figured, with how hard he hit it, I had time to get up and throw.”

That’s just what Crawford did, as he gloved the ball in the shallow-left-field grass, stood up and made a throw to first baseman Brandon Belt that beat Jones by a step. The veteran shortstop then jogged back to the Giants’ dugout -- where he spent the first seven innings before entering as a pinch-hitter in the eighth -- and prepared for the Giants to try to win the game in the 10th.

“It was an unbelievable play to set the tone for me to get an opportunity to go hit,” Sandoval said. “If we don’t make that play, they win it. He was the key of the game.”

Panda in a pinch

While Sandoval grabbed his helmet and bat and stepped onto the field to enter as a pinch-hitter for the second game in a row -- after he came off the bench to homer in Saturday’s win -- Crawford was in the dugout making a prediction before Sandoval led off the 10th.

“I was kind of joking in the dugout like, ‘Come on, Pablo, when’s the last time you hit a pinch-hit homer for us?’ Just kind of messing around,” Crawford said. “Obviously not thinking that he’d hit another one.”

But Sandoval is locked in. With a 1-2 count, he deposited the sixth pitch he saw from D-backs right-hander Yoshihisa Hirano into the left-field seats, swatting a 415-foot home run the opposite way.

It was the Giants’ first hit since Donovan Solano singled with no outs in the third, and the third pinch-hit homer of Sandoval’s 12-year career.

“You have to be prepared every day,” Sandoval said. “You have to be a professional to do it and be ready for every situation in a game.”

No matter what role he serves, Sandoval has raked over the past nine days. He has a seven-game hitting streak, during which he is 9-for-20 with four home runs and seven RBIs.

“Amazing, it really is, what he’s doing,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “With two strikes, you don’t expect good things to happen. That’s how good he’s been. It’s really incredible what he’s done off the bench, but also when he’s playing. He’s just playing unbelievable baseball.”