Giants’ Callihan powers comeback with career homers as Tatis’ latest shot lifts Padres

The day’s loudest finishing plays belonged to two teams that needed late offense more than they needed style points. The Giants erased the feel of a routine outing with a walk-off grand slam, handing their opponent the kind of ending that forces managers to replay the final at-bats in their heads. It also made Tyler Callihan the center of the moment, with two home runs that were the first of his major league career.

Callihan’s impact was immediate and complete, with both of his homers arriving to change the game’s momentum rather than simply fill the stat line. A walk-off grand slam is rare in the modern, bullpen-heavy rhythm of a long season, and it usually indicates a specific kind of late-inning execution, where a single mistake becomes a full-course correction. For San Francisco, that made the comeback feel complete.

In Cincinnati, the Padres were also chasing a finish. Fernando Tatis Jr. delivered just his second home run of the season, but he did it in a way that mattered, by turning a pitch into a decisive outcome on the third pitch of the ending that counted. The description of the play is blunt: Tatis took Chase Petty’s hanging slider and sent it over the left-field wall to walk off the Reds.

For Tatis, the timing is as notable as the power. A low home-run total at this stage of the year puts extra pressure on every chance that comes with runners on and late counts, especially when the team’s offensive flow depends on a few swing decisions changing outcomes. His homer, coming after a season where he had not been consistently finding the ball in the air, served as a reminder that even when a star’s season numbers dip, his bat can still compress late games into single moments.

The headline references also point to another familiar name in the league’s late-game picture, with Jacob deGrom? (No), the article title includes “Scherzer,” suggesting that Max Scherzer was part of the broader day’s storyline across the slate. However, without additional verified details beyond the game summaries, it would be speculative to connect his role to a transaction, decision, or specific inning outcome.

What to watch next is how these late swings translate to the next few games. For the Giants, the question is whether Callihan’s two-homer burst is a one-day surge or the start of a steadier offensive role, particularly with matchups that often reward players who can punish mistake pitches. For the Padres, the focus is whether Tatis’ walk-off changes his confidence and workload patterns, or whether it remains a standout night amid otherwise uneven production. In both cases, the league’s immediate postseason math is still too early for sweeping conclusions, but walk-offs and first career power tend to carry over as organizational indicates, not just highlight reels.