SAN FRANCISCO -- Rookie outfielder Jaylin Davis got the opportunity to meet Hall of Famer Willie Mays during the Giants’ homestand last week. Later that day, manager Bruce Bochy approached Davis during batting practice and asked him about his meeting with the Giants legend.

“Did you ask him how he started his career?” Bochy asked Davis, who had been mired in a slump since receiving his first callup from the Giants earlier this month.

Bochy reminded Davis that Mays endured a 1-for-26 start to his own rookie season with the Giants in 1951. Sensing that Davis had been pressing at the plate in an attempt to make a good impression, Bochy advised the 25-year-old to simply relax and have fun.

On Wednesday night, Davis finally did, delivering his first career home run on a walk-off blast that sent the Giants to a dramatic 2-1 win over the Rockies at Oracle Park.

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With the game tied at 1 and one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, Davis hammered a hanging curveball from Rockies reliever DJ Johnson over the center-field fence for the game-winning hit. He became the first Giant to hit a walk-off home run for his first Major League homer since Fran Healy on April 15, 1971.

“I got the pitch I was looking for,” Davis said. “It felt really good off the bat, so I definitely knew I got it.”

Davis, one of three players acquired from the Twins in exchange for reliever Sam Dyson at the Trade Deadline, crushed 35 home runs in the Minors this season, but he had struggled to translate that power to the Majors over his first few weeks with the Giants. He entered Wednesday with no extra-base hits in 12 games and saw his average dip below .100 after grounding out in his first two at-bats against Rockies starter Tim Melville.

Still, Bochy knew it was only a matter of time before Davis began to turn it around.

“You know, what he was doing down there in Sacramento, it’s hard to do unless you have a tremendous gift to hit a baseball,” Bochy said. “It was pretty impressive numbers.”

“I knew coming up here, it was going to be hard,” Davis said. “Just trying to relax was the biggest thing for me. Once I started getting comfortable, I started feeling better.”

Davis led off the seventh by beating out a grounder up the middle for an infield single, snapping an 0-for-14 skid and giving him some confidence heading into his decisive at-bat against Johnson in the ninth. His 416-foot shot lifted the Giants to their eighth walk-off victory of the year and spared his club from playing another extra-inning game after dropping a 16-inning marathon to the Rockies in Tuesday’s series opener.

“It couldn’t have come at a better time, his first home run,” Bochy said. “I’m sure the team was gassed after last night and here we’re looking at extra innings and going through the pitching again. Great timing.”

Davis' memorable moment came after Jeff Samardzija put the finishing touches on an impressive comeback season by firing six shutout innings. The 34-year-old veteran departed with a 1-0 lead, but the Rockies came back after Josh Fuentes scored on fielding errors by shortstop Brandon Crawford and first baseman Brandon Belt in the seventh inning.

One year after posting a 6.25 ERA over 10 starts, Samardzija emerged as arguably the Giants’ most consistent starter, providing crucial stability at the top of San Francisco’s rotation alongside left-hander Madison Bumgarner. After holding the Rockies to only five hits while walking one and striking out five, Samardzija finished his 2019 campaign with a 3.52 ERA over 181 1/3 innings.