Giants beat Rangers on Ramos' wild walk-off Little League home run

Justice delos Santos, The Mercury News on Apr 27, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants have found a lot of different ways to win ballgames this season. Sunday was something new.

Heliot Ramos hit a walk-off “Little League home run” as the Giants beat the Texas Rangers, 3-2, at Oracle Park, scoring the game-winning run on his own weakly hit ground ball thanks to two throwing errors from the Rangers.

Similar to Saturday’s walk-off win, the Giants and Rangers entered the ninth inning tied at two runs apiece. With Ryan Walker having pitched on Friday and Saturday, manager Bob Melvin entrusted the top of the inning to Camilo Doval, who pitched a scoreless frame. That set the stage for Ramos, who took advantage of shoddy defense from the Rangers to win the ballgame.

On the first pitch of the bottom of the ninth, Ramos chopped a slider from Rangers reliever Luke Jackson in front of the plate and took off running to first. Jackson’s throw to first baseman Jake Burger went wide up the right-field line, so Ramos took off to second. He stopped briefly there before being waved on to third base. Burger’s throw to catch him there also went wayward, and Ramos sped down the third-base line, sliding head-first into home for the win and sending the Oracle Park crowd into ecstasy.

Jordan Hicks rebounded from his recent rough stretch, allowing two runs over five innings with three strikeouts despite his sinker velocity being about three mph slower than normal. Hicks allowed two runs in the first inning but held the Rangers scoreless over the next four frames.

Hayden Birdsong followed Hicks with three scoreless innings of relief, totaling five strikeouts to no walks. Birdsong hasn’t allowed a run in six of his seven relief outings this season and his ERA stands at 1.13 with 18 strikeouts over 16 innings.

The Rangers scored two quick runs in the top of the first inning when Ramos got a bad jump on Marcus Semien’s flare to left field, allowing the ball to find grass and two runners to score. The Giants responded with one run in the bottom of the first, slicing the deficit to 2-1, but left runs on the table after drawing three walks against the Rangers’ Jack Leiter. LaMonte Wade Jr., who entered play hitting .114, hit a 107.1 mph line drive, but right into the awaiting glove of second baseman Marcus Semien.

San Francisco got the equalizer in the bottom of the fourth inning when Christian Koss drove in Ramos with a single, recording the first RBI of his major-league career.

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