SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Joc Pederson homered three times and drove in a career-high eight runs, including a tying single with two outs in the ninth inning…
Joc Pederson turned a pair of pregame chats with home run king Barry Bonds into the best night of his career. Pederson homered three times and drove in a career-high eight runs, including a tying single with two outs in the ninth inning, and the San Francisco Giants outslugged the New York Mets 13-12 on Tuesday in one of the wildest games imaginable.
“Just getting knowledge from such a good hitter and the way he thinks about baseball and hitting, it just helped to connect some dots to free my mind up at the plate,” Pederson said. “I’m not ever going to be Barry Bonds. He’s the best hitter to touch a bat. But it definitely helped free my mind up in the box.”
Brandon Crawford hit a game-winning single off closer Edwin Díaz and the Giants — after blowing a late six-run lead — somehow recovered to pull off two improbable comebacks of their own. Francisco Lindor homered and drove in six runs for the Mets, including a bases-loaded triple that put them ahead in a seven-run eighth. Pederson was preparing for the game when he and teammate LaMonte Wade Jr. spent 30 minutes with Bonds in the Giants’ clubhouse. Pederson and Bonds chatted again in a private office before Pederson politely excused himself.
“The next thing you know it was like 6:25 p.m. and I was like, `I gotta go,’” Pederson said. San Francisco squandered an 8-2 cushion by giving up two runs in the seventh and seven in the eighth to fall behind 11-8. Pederson tied it with a three-run homer in the bottom half, but the Giants trailed 12-11 in the ninth before rallying with two outs and none on to stun New York and end their five-game losing streak.
“He was joking about it after his first one, about talking to Barry,” Giants starter Logan Webb said of Pederson.
