With walks, Giants can achieve walk-off victory over Cubs

Wilmer Flores drew a walk from Drew Smyly to cap a three-run rally in the ninth inning as the San Francisco Giants overtook the visiting Chicago Cubs 5-4 on a night dedicated to the late Willie Mays.

All San Francisco players wore No. 24 in honor of Mays, the Hall of Famer who died last week.

Matt Chapman and Nick Ahmed homered for the Giants, but nevertheless trailed 4-2 entering the last of the ninth.

A bloop double by Chapman and a bunt single by Thairo Estrada set the stage for the uprising, which included sacrifice flies by Michael Conforto and Austin Slater, the latter tying the Giants at 4-4 with two outs.

After Heliot Ramos was walked intentionally to load the bases, Flores drew Smyly’s third walk in a five-batter stint to end it.

Spencer Howard (1-1), who threw 4 2/3 shutout innings in relief, was credited with the win. Smyly (2-4) took the loss.

Through 8 1/2 innings, it looked like Cubs starter Justin Steele, who was scoreless in 10 starts this season, would end the drought. He limited the Giants to just four hits, not counting solo home runs by Chapman, his ninth, and Ahmed, his first, in his 7 1/3 innings. He walked one and struck out nine on the season.

After not scoring for three innings against Giants starter Erik Miller and the host’s first reliever, Spencer Bivens, the Cubs broke through against Raymond Burgos on a bases-loaded infield single by Michael Busch in the fourth.

The visitors made it 4-0 in the fifth against Luke Jackson, getting an RBI single from Cody Bellinger, a run-scoring infield out from Ian Happ and an RBI double from Dansby Swanson. But that was the last thing they scored.

Ramos had a double and two singles, while Chapman had two singles and scored twice for the Giants, who snapped a five-game losing streak.

Bellinger had two hits and scored twice for the Cubs, who took two of three when the clubs met in Chicago last week. Swanson and Nico Hoerner also collected a pair of hits as the Cubs defeated the Giants 10-9.

–Field-level media