Gillaspie’s homer caps unlikely comeback
In a game that the Giants gave up a big lead, they score three twoout runs to force extra innings
The Giants slogged through one of the ugliest games in recent memory Friday night. They gave back a four-run lead to a San Diego Padres team that was designed to finish in last place. They trailed by three runs with the bases empty and two outs in the ninth.
Then Buster Posey drew a walk. He took second base on defensive indifference. He jogged home on Brandon Crawford’s single. And Conor Gillaspie delivered a bolt from the blue off the bench.
Gillaspie’s pinch home run forced extra innings. The Padres led 10-9 in the 11th when this edition went to press. For the complete story, go to merurynews.com.
It was Gillaspie’s first home run since his shot that delivered the Giants a victory over the New York Mets in the NL Wild Card Game last Oc-
tober.
How the Giants have fallen since then. Before Gillaspie’s homer, they were poised to slip to 37-61 this season — officially below the awful 1985 team for their worst record through 98 games in the franchise’s San Francisco history.
San Diego’s Wil Myers hit a tiebreaking home run against Hunter Strickland in the seventh inning, and the Padres – who are trying to tank this season, by the way – were set up to beat the Giants for the 16th time in 21 games since last year’s AllStar break
Nobody could’ve seen that coming. Nobody could’ve predicted Hector Sanchez, either. The former Giants backup catcher hit a solo home run in the fourth inning. Then he lined an RBI double in the fifth that knocked a bewildered Jeff Samardzija from the game.
Samardzija appeared lost in a fog as he handed over the baseball. He wasn’t alone. How could anyone process the fact that Sanchez, the one-time understudy to Buster Posey whose best claim to fame was catching one of Tim Lincecum’s no-hitters, was 11 for 22 with five home runs and 13 RBIs against his former team?
Sanchez also took Samardzija deep from the left side last week at Petco Park. He connected as a righthanded hitter against Steven Okert for a walk-off shot in that series, too.
His inexplicable inferno was the most interesting part of a game between two teams that entered a combined 36 games under .500 and looked even worse. There can only be one lastplace team in the NL West, even if both the Giants and Padres are deserving of the title.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy told reporters during his afternoon session that he goes back to his office after every game and watches a condensed version, sped up so that he can review each pitch and play. Even in this lost season, he hasn’t shirked those duties.
It might serve him better to open a bottle of cabernet and listen to some Waylon Jennings, instead. Test patterns would be more aesthetically pleasing than the absurd theater Friday night.
The Padres contributed a throwing error from right field as part of the Giants’ four-run first inning. They also twice botched a rundown in the fourth inning that allowed Gorkys Hernandez to reach third base safely before he scored on a wild pitch.
The Giants made inexcusable mistakes, too. Samardzija had to be rescued in the fifth before he could give away the last bit of a four-run lead. Right-hander Cory Gearrin finished the task in the sixth when he issued a four-pitch walk to Padres reliever Craig Stammen, who went on to score the tying run.
Then Strickland, who has been the Giants’ best reliever this season, served up the tiebreaking shot to Myers. It was only the second homer that Strickland had surrendered this season, and his first to a right-handed hitter since Mark Trumbo hit one Aug. 14 of last season. Strickland entered with a 1.85 ERA in 39 appearances, and is drawing interest on the trade market.
There were a few positive signs. Hunter Pence, who entered with just four extra-base hits and eight RBIs all season in games at AT&T Park, laced an RBI double as part of the four-run first inning, he knocked in another run with a single in the third and then stole second base.
Pence also threw out a runner at third base to end the sixth – just the eighth outfield assist by a Giant all season, the third fewest in the major leagues.
Pence almost contributed a running catch in right field in the eighth inning, too. But the ball whipped out as if his glove were a jai alai cesta, and then it deflected off his bare hand before hitting the ground. The juggling act resulted in an RBI triple for Jose Pirela, who scored on Carlos Asuaje’s single.
But the Giants always seem to get the tying run to the plate in the ninth, even though it leads to false hope most nights. Not this time.
• Amateur reporters with camera phones captured shots of Sandoval boarding a nonstop flight from Boston to SFO on Friday.