Giants walk tightrope to beat Cubs in extras, finish road trip .500

CHICAGO — The Giants did what they couldn’t a day earlier: They plated the automatic runner placed at second base to begin extras and prevented the Cubs from doing so in their turn to bat.Jonah Cox, in as a pinch-runner, raced home on an opposite-field single from Matt Chapman for only the Giants’ second run of the game that proved to be the difference in a 2-1 win Sunday night against the Cubs, who walked them off in extras the previous afternoon.Chapman’s RBI single was only the Giants’ fourth hit of the night and their first since the fourth inning, completely stymied by Javiar Assad, who only entered the game after Jameson Taillon strained his hamstring one batter into the second inning.Dylan Smith, one of the only arms left in the Giants’ bullpen, struck out Michael Conforto to begin the bottom of the 10th and worked around a stolen base that put the tying run on third and forced the infield in with one out to earn his first career save.Willy Adames had to backpedal into the shallow outfield from the cut of the infield grass to secure a popup from Michael Busch for the second out and stranded the Cubs’ automatic runner 90 feet away with another popup from Alex Bregman for the final out.The Giants were in action early against Taillon, who walked Rafael Devers and allowed him to come around to score on an opposite-field single from Jung Hoo Lee to open a 1-0 lead.But as soon as Assad entered, the Giants went silent. Assad allowed only three Giants to reach base while tossing 6 ⅓ shutout innings of surprise relief, putting the Cubs in position to break the 1-1 tie in the eighth.A walk and an error by Erik Miller had put runners at the corners with nobody out, but pinch-runner Kevin Alcantara was doubled up at third on a broken-bat line drive that went straight to Devers.They survived the eighth and got around a walk from Winn in the ninth that put the potential winning run in scoring position and brought Pete Crow-Armstrong to the plate.Crow-Arms...