What we learned as Matt Chapman delivers Giants’ game-winning hit to defeat Cubs

SAN FRANCISCO — For a second straight day, the Giants went to extra innings at Wrigley Field. This time they were able to avoid a walk-off. Matt Chapman drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th and right-hander Dylan Smith kept the Chicago Cubs off the board in the bottom of the inning as the Giants won 2-1, taking the three-game series and finishing with a 5-5 road trip. The road trip was their best by record since their first one, when they won two of three against the San Diego Padres. Chappy puts the Giants in front pic.twitter.com/oZ2JhhZLzg — SF Giants on NBCS (&commat;NBCSGiants) June 8, 2026 Smith picked up his first career save in his third appearance for the Giants. He struck out Michael Conforto and then got a pair of pop-ups with the tying run on third. The Giants had a historic offensive day on Friday and then went down quietly Saturday. In the series finale, they didn’t waste any time getting back on the scoreboard.A walk of Rafael Devers and single by Luis Arraez got them going in the top of the first, and Jung Hoo Lee drove Devers in with a single. The Cubs tied it up in the third, setting up a battle of two tired bullpens.After starter Jameson Taillon left in the second with a hamstring strain, the Cubs got 6 1/3 dominant relief innings from Javier Assad, who allowed just one hit and took the ball to the top of the eighth. Trevor McDonald handed it over to JT Brubaker and Caleb Kilian, who took the tie game to the bottom of the eighth, which turned into a wild frame. Erik Miller ran into trouble right away, walking the leadoff batter and then making an errant throw on an infield single, which put runners on the corners with no outs. Alex Bregman hit a liner to first that found Devers, and pinch-runner Kevin Alcantara inexplicably broke for the plate. He was easily doubled off and the Giants escaped. The Cubs got the winning run to second in the bottom of the ninth, but this time Keaton Winn won the battle with Pete Crow-Armstrong. A day after hitting a game-tying homer in the ninth, the center fielder grounded out to first. The Giants had just one hit over the final eight innings of regular ball, but Chapman opened the 10th with a single to right that brought Jonah Cox home from second. He’s Going StreakingLee didn’t waste any time extending his hitting streak, lining a single to center in the first inning to put his hitting streak at 15 games. He finished the game with a .323 average, which is third in the National League. Jung Hoo Lee stays HOT and gets the Giants on the board pic.twitter.com/R4vINuMOr0 — SF Giants on NBCS (&commat;NBCSGiants) June 8, 2026 Lee was batting .265 at the start of the hitting streak, but the string of multi-hit days have given him at least an outside shot to be in consideration for the 2026 MLB All-Star Game if he can stay hot. He entered the day ranked 13th among NL outfielders in wRC+ and 17th in fWAR.Lee also stole his second base of the series — and the season. He didn’t even have an attempt until Saturday, and that’s certainly an area where the Giants hoped Lee would be much more impactful. Lee is right at league-average in sprint speed, but he stole 10 bases last year and regularly reached double-digits in the KBO.Trevor DeliversMcDonald had allowed at least three runs in each of his previous three starts, but he went five innings Sunday night and gave up just the one early run. The rookie allowed four hits, walked three and struck out six while leaning heavily on his slider. McDonald got six whiffs on the pitch, and it finished off half of his strikeouts. The biggest one came in the fourth, when he loaded the bases ahead of No. 9 hitter Carson Kelly. The catcher has been an ABS master, but he expanded the zone and swung through a filthy slider that ended up well out of the zone glove-side. McDonald has allowed exactly one earned run in three of his seven starts. He lowered his ERA to 4.15 and his FIP to 3.51.Everyday BryceTony Vitello certainly has changed the way he’s handling Bryce Eldridge, and that helped the Giants have a huge offensive trip, even if it wasn’t a season-altering one overall. Eldridge appeared in all 10 games and started nine of them, including all three at Wrigley Field.Eldridge was 0-for-3 with a walk on Sunday but still returns home in a much better place. He had 15 hits and four walks on the trip, raising his average to .280 and his wRC+ to 126. Most importantly, Eldridge continued to somewhat limit his strikeouts, going down eight times in 41 plate appearances.Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast

What we learned as Matt Chapman delivers Giants’ game-winning hit to defeat Cubs

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