Giants still standing show their mettle taking down D'backs in 6-1 win

Rebounding after rough losses hasn't been a strong suit for the San Francisco Giants . Thursday, though, against one of the team's top 2026 tormentors, it all came together.

A night after blowing a six-run lead in the largest ninth-inning collapse in franchise history, San Francisco protected a one-run lead into the later innings (before adding four more in the eighth) and getting good work from the bullpen in a 6-1 victory over the Diamondbacks.

"Some sort of karma or baseball gods or whatever involved," manager Tony Vitello said. "If you're just talking about the circumstances from (Wednesday) and what we've struggled with this year with bouncing back appropriately, the team we played today is an excellent team and they've played more confident than we have when we've matched up - you wrap it all into one, and it stacks up."

Thursday's victory had a little bit of everything. Drew Gilbert hit a leadoff homer, Christian Koss blazed from first to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Gilbert's sac fly, Landen Roupp snapped his five-game losing streak and the bullpen chipped in with four scoreless innings after Wednesday's disaster to help the Giants improve to 2-8 against Arizona.

"It was a great answer for a tough inning (Wednesday)," said rookie reliever Trent Harris, who worked two scoreless innings. "But you know there's a lot of unspoken words. Nobody really had to say anything. We knew what happened and we just came out ready to play today."

Given the collapse against the Reds the previous day, the biggest at-bat of the night might have come from Jung Hoo Lee. Lee hadn't started two games in a row because of a bruised right elbow, but he pinch hit in the eighth and drew a 10-pitch walk, getting the sellout crowd going along with the rest of the lineup.

LOB: Arizona 7, San Francisco 4. 2B: Eldridge (16). HR: Moreno (11), off Roupp; Gilbert (8), off Cabrera. RBIs: Moreno (66), Gilbert 2 (36), Eldridge (36), Cox (7), Hill (4), Whitcomb (8). SB: Perdomo (18), Cox (5). CS: Moreno (2). SF: Gilbert. S: Furman, Whitcomb.

Runners left in scoring position: Arizona 4 (Vargas, Fernandez, Waldschmidt 2); San Francisco 3 (Whitcomb, Cavanaugh 2). RISP: Arizona 1 for 8; San Francisco 3 for 8.

Inherited runners-scored: Clarke 1-1, Burgos 2-1. HBP: Cabrera (Koss).

ABS Challenge: Cabrera (Ball-Confirmed); Perdomo (Strike-Overturned to Ball).

Umpires: Home, Alex MacKay; First, Alan Porter; Second, Jim Wolf; Third, Roberto Ortiz.

"As soon as he walked to the plate, I think (the fans) added a little energy to the whole thing," Vitello said. "The fact he battled the way he did and got on base, the guys in the dugout even at this level turn into cheerleaders when you put together an at-bat like that and you're spoiling a bunch of pitches. When you put everything into a little box, it was kind of like dynamite for us to start the inning."

After a single by Rafael Devers, Lee scored on Bryce Eldridge's double; rookie outfielders Jonah Cox and Turner Hill provided RBI singles that inning, while third baseman Shay Whitcomb sent Cox in with a safety-squeeze bunt.

"We haven't really done that all year, come back from a tough loss and really show the grit that we still have," Koss said. "Drew sparking that right away in the first inning kind of helps, but we knew as a team that we needed to really bring it today, and we kind of saw it throughout the game."

With Willy Adames likely out for the rest of the season with an elbow injury, Koss has started 27 of the past 28 games and has a plus-2 outs above average (OAA), an advanced Statcast metric. Adames, who has played through back issues this season, had a minus-17, tied for worst in the majors.

The Giants have Marcelo Mayer, acquired from Boston at the deadline, waiting in the wings. When he's ready to come off the injured list - he expects to be out of a walking boot for a bruised foot soon - Koss is likely to shift back to third, where he has also played well.

Gilbert has gotten onto a tear and he's looking comfortable in the leadoff spot, going 11-for-27 with three homers in eight games. Gilbert has also improved defensively after a bit of a slow start; he's now at a plus-3 OAA and his arm and range are both in the top 20%.

Roupp, now the team's No. 2 starter, has had his wobbles, but Thursday, he allowed only one run, a homer by catcher Gabriel Moreno, who clouted a changeup on the ninth pitch of his at-bat in the fourth. Roupp went five innings but he walked only two batters after he'd walked 19 over his previous five starts and had a 6.20 ERA in that stretch.

The focus for him Thursday was to pitch in the zone, particularly after some mechanical changes to keep his weight back and keep himself from flying open. "I figured some small things out," he said. "Tonight feels like a step forward."

Maybe, too, for the Giants as a whole, responding to one of the worst losses in team history with contributions from everywhere in a well-played game.

"That was rough," Roupp said. "It's never how you want to end a game, obviously, and it was just a good all-around game tonight. … We've just got to keep playing like that."