SAN FRANCISCO — It’s the bottom of the ninth and the score is tied. Oracle Park is quiet when a Giants fan shouts, “Wow, the outfield grass looks awesome!”

Giants head groundskeeper Greg Elliott loves to hear that. It’s his job to keep the field in perfect shape for every home game.

“Oracle Park’s field grass is sourced from local farms — Delta Bluegrass and West Coast Turf from California’s Central Valley,” he said. “We use Kentucky Bluegrass. The specific blend name is 365SS from Mountain View Seeds,” a Salem, Ore., company. Called Bluemuda, the variety is tailored for sports fields.

In general, he prioritizes how the grass fills in, its disease resistance, how it handles traffic, drought tolerance and color. The color of the grass is important, he said.

“I find it is important to have green grass because I believe that if it looks good, then it plays and feels good,” Elliott said.

“We work with the sod farms,” he said. Each roll of sod is 42 inches wide and up to 50 feet long.

All the sod is raised from seed or stolonized at the farms. Stolonizing is taking the stolons of the grass plant and spreading them on the surface of the dirt. A stolon is a reproductive structure in grass.

The sod is harvested, hauled to Oracle Park on trailers and installed.

Sod is delivered as needed but the largest order is in the spring or for a specialized event like a soccer match or football game.

About 94,600 square feet of sod is used.

“Our goal is sod installation once a year,” he said. “Many factors determine how often. These factors include weather, event load and traffic (event and foot).”

Installation takes three days — longer if the weather is uncooperative.

“Each sod company has a different process, but they are similar,” Elliott said. “They harvest on the farm site, truck it over, unload, then start rolling it out onto the field. We can move it side to side by rakes or utilizing a machine called a sidekick.”

He has a crew of three full-time employees and 60 part-timers. They prepare the field on game day and after the game fix any areas that were damaged.

They mow the grass on game day and every other day when the team is out of town.

Though the growing conditions are not conducive to pests, Elliott monitors for insects and fungi using a biological nutrition program called Performance Resource Management that adds beneficial organisms to the irrigation water.

“The goal is to use zero pesticides,” Elliott said. “However, our high visibility and traffic necessitates keeping the option open.”