Subscribe
Follow Us
Zach Neto didn’t wait for a sign. He didn’t need one. The moment Jo Adell scorched a double down the left-field line, the Angels shortstop was off — and there was no stopping him.
“I knew I was the winning run, so I was scoring,” Neto told Trent Rush after the game. “I don’t know if [third base coach Eric Young] was holding me or not. I was scoring.”
That daring decision sealed a thrilling 5-4 walk-off win for the Los Angeles Angels over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday, capping a wild four-run ninth inning and ruining Justin Verlander’s bid for his first win in a Giants uniform.
Trailing 4-1 entering the bottom of the ninth, the Angels mounted an improbable rally off closer Ryan Walker, who hadn’t allowed a run all year. Mike Trout started the inning with a walk, followed by a Jorge Soler single. Logan O’Hoppe added a one-out hit to load the bases, and Walker then hit Neto with a pitch to bring in a run.
With the bases still juiced, Jo Adell delivered the final blow — a bases-clearing double on a 1-2 pitch that hugged the third-base line. Neto’s all-gas-no-brakes approach was the exclamation point.
The Giants blow the lead as the Angels rally late
“I tried to put a tag on him but he got his hand in there at the last second,” Giants catcher Sam Huff said of the close play at the plate. “Good throw, good relay, bang-bang, just unlucky.”
Adell finished the game with three hits and now has five RBIs in the last two games, further fueling his case as a potential breakout star for the Angels in 2025.
The walk-off hit erased what had been a masterful outing from Verlander, who looked vintage in his sixth start of the year. The 42-year-old right-hander allowed just one run over six innings, striking out six and touching 97 mph on the radar gun while fanning Trout twice. It was easily his best start since joining San Francisco on a one-year, $15 million deal this offseason.
“It felt great to get out of that,” Verlander said, referencing a fourth-inning jam in which he loaded the bases but escaped unscathed. “I feel like I’ve been trending in the right direction.”
Despite the loss, Verlander earned praise from Giants manager Bob Melvin and catcher Huff for his command and presence on the mound. But the Giants' inability to finish the job — including stranding 11 runners and going just 2-for-8 with men in scoring position — proved costly.
“Verlander deserved the win,” Walker said postgame. “To be the guy who gives it up isn’t fun, especially for a guy like him.”
Neto, however, had no intention of letting anyone else write the ending. With the win, the Angels (10-11) snapped the Giants’ streak of undefeated road series and closed out their homestand on a high note. They'll now welcome the Pirates to town, while San Francisco heads home to face the Brewers in a four-game set.
And if there’s one moment that encapsulated the Angels’ never-say-die mindset, it was Neto blowing through the stop sign with the game on the line — eyes on home, heart full throttle.
