Perfection hard, as blown saves show
DENVER — A reporter was interviewing Will Smith on Wednesday morning when Pablo Sandoval walked by and declared that Smith can’t talk because he’s on “timeout.” Why? “Because he made me play an extra inning last night,” Sandoval said, with Smith and all the surrounding players bursting into laughter.
Yes, the Giants have gotten to the point where they can joke about blown saves — with the closer —to help keep the clubhouse loose, which is a Sandoval specialty.
It helps that Smith was perfect before the AllStar break: 23 saves in 23 chances. It also helps that the Giants won both games on this trip after Smith surrendered the tying runs in the ninth inning. In between, Smith saved Monday’s onerun win in the doubleheader nightcap.
Smith’s two failures underscore just how tough a perfect record for a closer must be. He made one fastball mistake to Christian Yelich in Milwaukee on Sunday and gave up a leadoff triple in a onerun game. That’s hard to overcome, and hard not to do occasionally to a good hitter.
On Tuesday night in Denver, Smith inherited a 41 lead and gave up a solo homer to Trevor Story and a tworun homer to Ian Desmond to tie the game. But he kept the winning run from scoring with two strikeouts.
The natural question was whether Smith is fatiguing. He said no.
“You don’t need to get too deep into this,” Smith said. “I’ve faced some goodhitting teams and left some pitches up, and they’ve done what they’re supposed to do with them.”
Smith, in his first full season after Tommy John surgery, has pitched in 40 games, putting him on pace for 68. He led the league with 78 in 2014 and threw 76 more a year later, so he is not wading in uncharted waters.
Still, manager Bruce Bochy does not want to drive Smith or any other reliever into the ground. The bullpen's Big Three, Smith, Tony Watson and Sam Dyson, have worked a lot lately. They were considered offlimits Wednesday.
“I’ve got to give them a break,” Bochy said. “They’ve been used a lot. That’s a good thing. It means we’re winning and we need them.”
Bochy gave in and had Smith warm up in the ninth to face Daniel Murphy if a Colorado rally got that far. But Mark Melancon entered for a oneout save, his first save of the year, getting Nolan Arenado to line out to center.