Samardzija gave it a go, but hitters disappeared
S.F. does next to nothing against starter Chatwood, loses ground to N.Y.
It wasn’t a must-win game, just a sure-would-be-wise-towin game.
The Giants played much of Wednesday evening with their out-of-town scoreboard showing the Cardinals were 2-1 losers to the Reds, so a Giants victory would have left them two games ahead of St. Louis for the National League’s final playoff spot with four to play.
In large part, Jeff Samardzija did his job.
But the Giants lost 2-0 to Colorado because they forgot all about Tuesday’s 12-run explosion and virtually were useless against pitcher Tyler Chatwood, who threw three-hit ball over eight innings.
The Giants remain a game ahead of the Cardinals but fell to 1½ behind the Mets, who beat Miami 5-2 to tighten their hold on the top wild-card spot.
“We’re a game up with four to go,” Buster Posey said. “So we control our own fate. If you were to tell us in spring training we’d be controlling our own fate with four to go — obviously, the goal is to win the division … we’re in a good spot.”
The season comes down to one more game against the Rockies and three against the Dodgers.
“They know what’s at stake,” manager Bruce Bochy said of his players. “They’ve been through this. They’re battletested. They know every game is so important, every pitch, every play, every at-bat.
“They knew what happened in the other games. It’s that time of year. But you have to put it behind you and hopefully get back to where we were (Tuesday) night and get these bats going again.”
Denard Span, Hunter Pence and Conor Gillaspie opened the first three innings with singles, but all were thrown out at second: Span and Gillaspie trying to steal, Pence on a force.
Chatwood’s ERA in his past three starts against the Giants is 0.45, and it’s a majors-low 1.69 on the road. He issued walks to Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford to open the seventh and eighth innings but wiped out both by getting Posey and Angel Pagan to bounce into double plays.
The Giants reached scoring position just once against Chatwood, and that was Pagan, only because of a wild pitch.
Samardzija said he’d be open to pitching in relief if needed and, just in case, will prep for a Monday tiebreaker game.
“This is the time of year, man,” he said. “It feels great to be out there pitching. The weather turns a little bit, and the season comes to an end. I always love being able to see the finish line and go a little harder, go back to wind sprints like back in the day. I enjoy staring down the tube when it’s about to be done and just let it all hang out.”
Samardzija struck out half the batters he faced through six innings, 11 of 22. While surpassing 200 innings for the fourth straight year, he struck out everyone in the Rockies’ lineup except old friend Nolan Arenado, who drove in the first run with a broken-bat single after Carlos Gonzalez doubled off the wall.
It was Arenado’s majorsleading 130th RBI of the season, 23 of which came against the Giants.
Samardzija got the best of Arenado in their next matchup. With runners at the corners and one out, Arenado bounced to third, and Gillaspie made a quick play to his left to begin an inning-ending DP.
The Rockies chased Samardzija two batters into the seventh when David Dahl doubled and scored on Gerardo Parra’s single.
In the ninth, the Giants were elated Chatwood wasn’t on the mound, and Kelby Tomlinson opened with a double off Boone Logan. Gorkys Hernandez and Span struck out, but Belt beat out an infield single when Logan failed to cover first on a grounder to the right side.
Adam Ottavino retired Posey on a grounder to end the game.