Willy Adames homers twice as Giants walk off Cubs for series sweep

SAN FRANCISCO — Willy Adames touched home twice by his own accord and was the first person to meet Christian Koss as he dove across the plate.

The Giants’ shortstop homered twice, drove in three runs and made a mad dash from the dugout railing as soon as it became clear Koss would score from second base on Jung Hoo Lee’s line drive into right field in the bottom of the ninth Thursday afternoon.

The throw from Owen Cassie wasn’t close, and the Giants got to celebrate a rare 4-3 walk-off win, as well as a three-game sweep of the Cubs that came with even more scarcity. It was the Giants’ first walk-off win since the start of July, their first sweep since the start of June and the first time any team has broken out the brooms against the North siders all season.

“It feels like old times,” manager Bob Melvin said.

Melvin’s club had been on the wrong side of five sweeps since they took all three games from the Braves during the first week of June. They won nine games on their final at-bat through the season’s first three months but none since Patrick Bailey’s inside-the-park homer during the first week of July. Their playoff hopes have taken such a hit that the manager laughed at a pregame question about their slim chances that remain, seven games back entering the day.

All of a sudden, though, the Giants are making some noise.

Their sweep of the Cubs comes on the heels of taking two of three from the team with MLB’s best record in Milwaukee and extends their win streak to five games.

“We just went and beat the two best teams in the NL Central two series in a row, so yeah, it feels good,” said Logan Webb, who allowed a pair of solo home runs but exited the game after seven innings with the score tied at 3 with an assist from Adames.

Adames ranged into the hole to his right, contorted his body in the air and fired a strike to Rafael Devers at first base to retire Nico Hoerner for the first out of the seventh inning, prompting Webb’s most exuberant reaction of the day. Adames’ do-it-himself double play in the first inning also helped Webb escape down only 1-0 after three of the Cubs’ first four batters reached base on soft ground balls that found holes.

The shortstop’s biggest contributions came at the plate, more specifically on a pair of letter-high fastballs on the outer half of the plate from Shota Imanaga. Adames deposited both into the left-field bleachers, the first answering the Cubs’ run in the top of the first and the second following a solo shot from Michael Busch that briefly put the Cubs ahead 3-2 in the top of the sixth.

It was the fourth time this season Adames has homered multiple times in one game, the most by a Giants player since Barry Bonds in 2004. As a team, the Giants have homered in 11 consecutive games dating back to Aug. 17, their longest streak since they went deep 12 games in a row from Sept. 5-17, 2021.

“We’re just going out there and having fun, without thinking that, here, the ball don’t fly,” Adames said. “That’s what people say. The ball don’t fly as much (at Oracle Park), but it still goes out. You’ve just got to change that mentality and be yourself. I feel like the guys are doing that.”

Adames’ big day followed Devers’ offensive show of force Wednesday night, going 4-for-4 with a walk, two homers and a double while driving in five runs and scoring four times in a 12-3 rout. Devers reached base safely in his first two trips to the plate Thursday before going down swinging on a splitter from Imanaga to lead off the sixth inning, snapping his personal on-base streak at seven plate appearances.

“These are guys we signed for quite some time here and we expect to produce,” Melvin said. “These are guys that we expect to be in (the middle of the lineup) for years to come. The way Rafi’s swinging right now, we try to get him up there as much as we can in the two-hole. And Willie’s been kind of the homer guy for a little bit now.”

Adames has contributed five of the Giants’ 22 total homers over the 11-game stretch. Six more and he would become the first Giants player since Bonds to slug 30 in one season. Harder to quantify, he might be closing in on the record for smiles, too.

“That’s one of the reasons we signed him, not only his production on the field but also his enthusiasm,” Melvin said. “It rubs off.”

If there was a challenger to Adames in enthusiasm, it might be Lee, who has played a central part in previous walk-off celebrations and got to have the tables turned on him Thursday. He spoiled a 99 mph fastball from Daniel Palencia one pitch before sending a slider screaming into right field.

Soon enough, Lee was being swarmed by his Giants teammates while the 32,187 on hand chanted his name in unison.

It was Lee’s first career walk-off hit, but he had some idea of what to expect. Which informed his next move.

“I was trying to run away from the boys because, No. 1, the water in the dugout is really cold,” Lee said through team interpreter Justin Han. “No. 2, I’m usually the guy who beats up the guys when somebody hits a walk-off. So I thought it was going to be a little bit of revenge.”

Lee’s lower half received the brunt of the celebration. His jersey escaped intact, to the delight of clubhouse manager Brad Grems.

“I tried,” Adames grinned. “I guess I didn’t try hard enough. Brad told me he was happy I didn’t rip it off.”