SAN FRANCISCO -- Officially, Ryan Walker remains the Giants’ closer. But his grip on the job may be weakening following a recent surge from Camilo Doval.
With Walker unavailable, Doval converted his second save opportunity in as many days by closing out the Giants’ 6-5 comeback win over the Brewers on Thursday afternoon at Oracle Park.
After the Giants gained the lead on former Brewer Willy Adames’ sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth, manager Bob Melvin once again handed the ball to Doval, who also bailed out Walker by leaving the tying run stranded at second base in Wednesday night’s 4-2 win.
Doval got off to a shaky start after he issued a four-pitch walk to Caleb Durbin to lead off the ninth and then fell behind, 2-0, against the next batter, but Adames and third baseman Matt Chapman helped settle him down by coming out for a brief mound visit. Doval went on to retire Brice Turang and Sal Frelick before giving up a two-out single to Christian Yelich, though he got Rhys Hoskins to fly out to leave the runners stranded and pick up his fifth save of the season.
“We went there just to calm him down, just to give him some time to breathe,” Adames said. “Just to give him some time to take it easy and get himself back together. I feel like that really helped and we ended up winning the game.”
Doval closed out each of the Giants’ three wins during this four-game series, but Melvin said the club hasn’t lost faith in Walker, who is expected to get a shot at the next save opportunity.
Walker replaced Doval as the Giants’ closer after logging a stellar 1.91 ERA over 76 appearances last season, but he’s allowed six runs while retiring just two of the 11 batters he’s faced over his last two outings, which has ballooned his ERA to 7.27 over 8 2/3 innings this year.
Doval, meanwhile, hasn’t allowed a run over his last seven outings, lowering his ERA to 2.25 on the season.
“We like them both,” Melvin said. “We’ll figure it out as we go along. It’s too early for me to say anything. But we’re in a great position that we have two guys that can close games.”
While the Giants aren’t ready to make a concrete change at closer, they’ve certainly been encouraged by what they’ve seen recently from Doval, who looks more like the version from his first career All-Star campaign in 2023 rather than the one that was demoted to Triple-A Sacramento amid a nightmare season last year.
“I’ve always said that the key is to trust yourself,” Doval said in Spanish. “You have to trust in yourself no matter what. That’s what I’m doing. I’m trusting my pitches and controlling what I can control.”
The Giants trailed 5-2 before Chapman cranked a two-run home run off Abner Uribe to cut the deficit to one in the bottom of the fifth. Chapman’s fifth home run of the season came on a 100.4 mph sinker from Uribe, which was the hardest pitch a Giants player has homered off of since the pitch-tracking era began in 2008.
"I know for him it was probably chill," Adames said. "But for the whole team, it was insane. He's been hitting the ball really well. He hasn't had a lot of luck getting the hits, but it's very impressive going dead center here."
San Francisco completed its comeback in the eighth. Tyler Fitzgerald drew a leadoff walk and advanced to third on an opposite-field single from pinch-hitter Wilmer Flores to put runners on second and third with one out for Mike Yastrzemski.
Yastrzmeski, who also launched a third-inning solo shot off Brewers starter Tobias Myers, brought home the tying run by bouncing a fielder’s choice grounder to the right side, allowing the speedy Fitzgerald to race home and beat Turang’s throw to the plate. The Giants then seized a 6-5 lead on Adames’ sacrifice fly to left field, which was dropped by Yelich.
“It’s always great to win a series, obviously,” Adames said. “Obviously, facing my former team, it makes it a little bit better. But we’ve been playing really good baseball this whole month. After that series in Anaheim, losing that game [on Sunday], I feel like it says a lot about the team, coming over here at home and winning a series like that.”