Oh, what a relief it isn’t: Bullpen collapses in seventh
SAN FRANCISCO» Wasted chances and a bullpen collapse wrecked the Rockies on Sunday at AT&T Park.
The Giants pummeled relievers Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee, turning a nail-biter into a breatheeasy 9-5 victory. Colorado, rather than winning a four-game series in San Francisco for just the second time in franchise history, had to settle for a 2-2 split.
“We had some chances to add on today, and we couldn’t do it,” manager Bud Black said. “We couldn’t get the big blow, which was sort of the opposite of what the Giants did.”
Shaw relieved starter Tyler Anderson in the sixth inning with the Rockies clinging to a 4-3 lead. But Shaw couldn’t get the job done, giving up a two-run triple to Kelby Tomlinson. The Rockies, who banged out 13 hits, tied the game 5-5 in the seventh on a single by Nolan Arenado, his third base hit of the game.
The knot didn’t last very long, because Shaw gave up a single to Gorkys Hernandez and walked Evan Longoria in the bottom of the seventh. At the point, manager Bud Black summoned McGee, a lefty, to face dangerous left-handed slugger Brandon Belt. On a 1-0 pitch, Belt mashed McGee’s center-cut, 91 mph fastball toward McCovey Cove for a three-run homer to right field.
“I went into the inning with the idea of throwing a first-pitch curveball and maybe (Belt) would chase it, maybe roll over it,” McGee said. “I missed my spot with the curveball and fell behind, 1-0. I had to come into the zone. I threw a fastball away, and it leaked back over the plate too much. I missed my location.”
Said Black: “I saw a fastball left over the plate.”
To compound the meltdown, catcher Nick Hundley then drilled McGee’s 94 mph fastball into the left-field seats, icing the game.
Though both Shaw and McGee have had their moments this sea-
son, the bottom line doesn’t not look good for the two relievers, both of whom signed three-year, $27 million contracts in the offseason. Shaw’s ERA is 5.01, while McGee’s is an unsightly 5.82.
In the fifth inning, the Rockies wasted a chance to blow the game open. Yes, they scored twice on Trevor Story’s bases-loaded infield single, followed by a bases-loaded walk by Noel Cuevas, to take a 4-1 lead. But slumping catcher Chris Iannetta (0-for-4, .212 average) popped out to second with the bases jammed. The inning ended with Carlos Gonzalez committing a cardinal sin. With the bases full, two outs and facing a full count, he struck out looking at Cory Gearrin’s 83 mph slider. Gonzalez (1for-4) is batting .219.
“It’s tough, because runs are at a premium here,” Story said. “It’s just that one hit or that one at-bat that we need to kind of bust us loose.”
Anderson was on cruise control until the bottom of the fifth when a one-out single by pinch-hitter Miguel Gomez set up a tworun homer by Hernandez. The Giants’ right-fielder didn’t hit the ball all that hard, but it got caught up in the AT&T jet stream and drifted over the center-field wall and the outstretched glove of Charlie Blackmon. Colorado’s 4-1 lead was suddenly cut to 4-3.
“Sometimes this place plays really big, and then sometimes in the day games it plays a bit smaller,” Anderson answered when asked if he thought the wind carried Hernandez’s homer over the wall. ” To hit a ball out to center field here, you have to hit it pretty good. But from the looks of it, it looked like Chuck had a bead on it and he just kept drifting back and back.”
Anderson’s 5L-inning start is best described as uneven. San Francisco tagged the left-hander for five runs on six hits. He struck out four and walked one.
Buster Posey ambushed Anderson with a first-inning triple and scored on Longoria’s sacrifice fly. Colorado responded and took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on a run-scoring single by Story to score Arenado and a single by Cuevas to plate Story. Cuevas, however, was thrown out at the plate attempting to score on Pat Valaika’s double to left. Shortstop Brandon Crawford made an excellent relay throw to Hundley at the plate to nail Cuevas.