San Francisco Giants' Matt Chapman (26) is congratulated by San Francisco Giants first base coach Mark Hallberg (91) after hitting a grand slam home run in the sixth inning of their MLB game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, May 3, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
SAN FRANCISCO — On the afternoon of May 4, 2024, Kendrick Lamar released the diss track “Not Like Us” to the shock of the music industry, the victory lap to his historic rap beef with Drake. The song became omnipresent, an inescapable instant classic. Matt Chapman made it his walk-up song shortly after, and the record continues to blare throughout Oracle Park roughly four times per game.
On Saturday afternoon, there was nothing minor about Chapman’s game-saving swing.
Chapman whopped his third career grand slam — a 402-foot line drive with just enough mustard to clear the center-field fence — and flipped a one-run deficit into a three-run lead, rescuing the Giants from an embarrassing loss to the last-place Colorado Rockies. Instead of an afternoon of agony, San Francisco (21-13) escaped with a 6-3 win over Colorado (6-27) thanks to Chapman’s second homer in as many days — a sign that their cornerstone could be popping out of his slump.
“A lot of his home runs — a lot of his hits — have been impactful,” said manager Bob Melvin. “His defense is always impactful. We have quite a few guys we feel like we can get more out of offensively, but pretty timely hit today. Hopefully that boosts his confidence at the plate.”
Chapman entered the Giants’ four-game set against the Rockies in search of days like today.
In San Diego, Chapman went 0-for-8 with six strikeouts against the Padres’ pitching and saw his batting average dip below .200 as San Francisco was swept. He’s far from the only hitter who’s underperforming, but with a solo home run on Friday and a grand slam today, Chapman looks more like the impact bat that the Giants’ offense requires.
“The more you play, the more you understand that it’s a long season,” Chapman said. “If you continue to work on and do the right things, over the course of the season, you’ll end up where you need to be and your numbers will look close to what you think they should be. … For me, it’s just about staying within myself and taking good at-bats.”
As has been the case on 10 other occasions, Chapman and company had to climb themselves out of a deficit to emerge with a win.
Jordan Hicks cruised through his first five frames, not allowing a hit until the fifth, but the right-hander’s day ended after he failed to retire the first three batters he faced in the sixth. Hicks began the frame by walking Brenton Doyle, putting the tying run on base. He followed up with two straight balls to Jordan Beck, necessitating a mound visit from Chapman and catcher Patrick Bailey.
Beck singled to put runners on first and second with no outs, prompting pitching coach J.P. Martinez to make his own mound visit — and give reliever Randy Rodríguez time to get warm in the process. Soon enough, Melvin needed Rodríguez’s services. Ryan McMahon drove in Doyle with a single, tying the game up at one apiece, and Hicks’ afternoon was over.
Rodríguez inherited runners at the corners with no outs but he was unable to put out the fire. The right-hander allowed both runners to score on RBI singles from Hunter Goodman and Farmer, the later of which deflected off Rodríguez’s foot, and the Giants found themselves trailing 3-1.
For all his early excellence, Hicks finished with a fine line score: five-plus innings, three earned runs, two walks, season-high seven strikeouts. Despite the bitter finish, Melvin said Hicks threw “probably as good as we’ve seen all year, really.”
With the possibility of a second loss to Colorado looming, San Francisco’s offense found much-needed life in the bottom of the sixth.
Three of the Giants’ first four batters in the sixth — Luis Matos, Mike Yastrzemski, Willy Adames — drew walks. Jung Hoo Lee cut the deficit to 3-2 by lining a sharp single to center field to drive in Matos, whose solo homer in the third inning was San Francisco’s only run up to that point.
With the bases still full, the Rockies’ Jake Bird left a sinker right over the heart of the plate. Chapman sent it 402 feet into the Rockies’ bullpen, flipping a one-run deficit into a three-run lead — a lead they’d never lose as Camilo Doval, Erik Miller and Ryan Walker pitched three scoreless innings.
“It was incredible. Amazing,” Matos said through team interpreter Erwin Higueros. “Obviously, all of us were very happy.”
“We’ve definitely had a lot of come from behind wins this year,” Chapman said. “I don’t think it’s something we want to make a habit of because it catches up to you sometimes, but it shows that no matter what the score is, this team keeps fighting. … It just shows that our team has a lot of fight and we’re going to grind until the very end.”
Originally published at Justice delos Santos
