SAN FRANCISCO — Reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell was removed after a 42-pitch first inning, and San Francisco rallied to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-2 Thursday behind an walk-off double in the ninth from Patrick Bailey, who drove in all three Giants runs.
Arizona sent eight batters to the plate in the first inning, taking advantage of defensive sloppiness. Shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald threw wide of second for a run-scoring error on Josh Bell's grounder and Corbin Carroll scored from third on a passed ball as Jake McCarthy reached on the dropped third strike.
Snell said that he knew when facing his final batter of the inning that he was probably done after the first.
''It was just too many pitches," Snell said. "It was just not smart to go back out. I've done it before, but I never felt good after. It was just a lot of risk, not a lot of reward.''
Melvin agreed that Snell's pitch count was too high to send him back out, noting the defensive miscues were costly.
''A lot of times, a starter's not quite in his rhythm in the first and hen we don't make some plays for him, next thing you know he's got 42 pitches,'' Melvin said.
Snell allowed two hits and walked two, stranding a pair of runners when Kevin Newman grounded out. He entered with a 1.30 ERA over his last 10 games. Only one of the runs off him were earned.
''It's tough to be so critical on myself right now because it's one inning,'' Snell said. ''It wasn't like the fourth inning. It was the first inning. We're getting it going. I felt good. Stuff felt good. It was just a weird inning.''