S.F. wins on squeeze in 11th
DENVER — Sunday marks 20 years since the first game at Coors Field. All the biggies from the 1995 team will be here: Larry Walker, Dante Bichette and Ellis Burks, to name a few.
The Giants will show up, too, maybe with a blowtorch, a jackhammer and forged demolition orders.
The Giants have had many miserable memories at this yard. Even their successes, such as Saturday night’s 5-4, 11-inning victory, feel like root canals.
“Anytime you go into extra innings in this park, you’re never comfortable,” Tim Hudson said after Santiago Casilla’s blown save in the ninth cost the starter his first career victory at Coors.
“When you have a one-run lead here, it feels like a tie ballgame. You don’t want to go into extra innings against this club. They’ve got a good lineup, and this is the best hitters’ park in the league. That’s a bad combination. It was good to get the win,” the Giants’ first in five games against the Rockies this year.
Nori Aoki slid home with the winning run on Joe Panik’s one-out safety squeeze in the 11th.
Panik was freelancing. He recalled hitting a groundball the last time he faced pitcher Brooks Brown and did not want to end the inning with a double play. So he pushed a bunt to the right side, a bit too hard, forcing Aoki to beat a quick throw from first baseman Justin Morneau.
“I’ve laid down better, but Nori is a fast runner,” Panik said.
How about Aoki’s night? The leadoff hitter scored the winning run after drawing his career-best fourth walk and advancing on a Matt Duffy sacrifice and Angel Pagan’s fourth hit, a single.
Then, moments after Jean Machi got the final three outs, Aoki and Justin Maxwell received their 2014 American League championship rings in a clubhouse ceremony. Kansas City sent the rings, which Giants executive Jeremy Shelley presented in a room full of players who caused the duo to settle for runner-up bling.
The Giants gave Aoki and Maxwell a hard time about it, too. Aoki said one player told them, “Our rings are made of ALL gold.”
“It was nice, but I’d like to a win a championship this year,” Aoki said.
Maxwell hit his second homer in two nights, a strange moment in the sixth. He hit an opposite-field drive that bounced atop the out-of-town scoreboard, over the yellow line, but the umpires did not see it that way. Unbeknownst to Maxwell, they ruled it a live ball after it bounced back to the field. He was tagged and thought he was out until the call was reversed on video review.
Hudson is 0-2 with seven no-decisions at Coors over 11 seasons, although he pitched well enough to win and was two outs away from getting a 4-3 victory when Casilla allowed ninth-inning singles by Nick Hundley and D.J. LaMahieu.
The infield was at double play depth when Drew Stubbs hit a soft roller to the second baseman Duffy. Duffy looked home, which cost him any shot at a game-ending double play. That would have been tough anyway given Stubbs’ speed.
Duffy tagged LeMahieu for the only out, and Hundley scored to tie it 4-4. Later, bench coach Ron Wotus and shortstop Brandon Crawford huddled with Duffy on what to do if that play occurs again.