Blach unable to contain the damage against Milwaukee
Posey homers, but Brewers rally to end lefty’s win streak
MILWAUKEE — There is a viral photo making its way across the Internet of a man in Alberta casually mowing his lawn as a massive funnel cloud swallows the horizon behind him.
It’s not a photo of Ty Blach. But it could be. The Giants’ rookie left-hander continues to show no fear of challenging hitters even in the league’s cozier ballparks. When he got knocked on his backside while trying to bunt a fastball at his ear, he dusted himself off. Then he calmly put down a clean sacrifice on the next pitch.
“Yeah,” Blach said in a flat voice. “That’s a little scary sometimes.”
But sometimes the storm cuts a path that you cannot avoid, and the fence boards begin to fly. The Milwaukee Brewers ended Blach’s four-start winning streak, and a two-run home run from Buster Posey couldn’t overcome enough of the damage in the Giants’ 6-3 loss Wednesday at Miller Park.
Blach gave up five runs on nine hits in six innings — the first time he hasn’t thrown a quality start since he got torched for 10 runs May 6 at Cincinnati. Blach was able to rebound from that start. It’s a good bet he’ll recover from this one, too. As unflappable as he is, he finds a way to a soft landing.
No less an authority than Madison Bumgarner would agree.
“It’s been fun to watch him go out there and have a role where he knows when he’s going to pitch every fifth day,” said Bumgarner, whose dirt bike accident on April 20 opened up a rotation slot for Blach. “He took it and ran with it.”
Blach will continue to run with it even after Bumgarner returns to the rotation after the All-Star break. Bochy confirmed that much after Wednesday’s loss.
“Oh, I think so,” Bochy said. “You’d have to look at the job he’s done. It doesn’t get talked about, but he’s got enough velocity and enough movement on the ball. The thing you like about him is he never gets rattled.”
Blach was coming off his first career shutout, when he threw a season-high 112 pitches at Philadelphia. He said that workload did not affect him. He just left a couple pitches up, and the Brewers worked deep counts to get a better frame of reference against him upon a third viewing.
In some ways, Blach’s ability to keep the Giants in the game on a night like this was as impressive as his shutout in South Philly.
“I love strike throwers,” Bochy said. “The breaking ball was an area he had to improve, and he’s done that. No, he’s a major league starter. He competes so well.”
If only the Giants could develop that kind of poise in one of their left field candidates. Orlando Calixte made another error while going hitless with a double-play grounder, a strikeout and a pop-up.
The Giants have tried 10 starters in left field — Calixte and recent callup Austin Slater have split time there on this road trip — and have received the worst production in the National League. Funnel clouds are one thing. Black holes are another.
“It’s been a black hole for us,” said Bochy, who sounded unwilling to cut bait with either of his rookies yet.
“We’ve got to get these guys to relax,” the manager continued. “Trust me, they’re good players. I don’t know why they’re pressing. We’ve got to get these guys settled down.
“I don’t know what I’ll do (in left field) tomorrow. We need some help there. We need somebody to step up. They came up because they’re having a good year in Sacramento. You’d like to throw one of them out there and let them relax.”
Posey sent one into the event horizon to help the Giants grab a 3-1 lead in the third inning. He followed Brandon Belt’s RBI double with a mammoth shot that struck halfway up the black batter’s eye in center field. It was his eighth home run of the season, and his first that wasn’t a solo shot. He hadn’t hit a home run with a runner on base since Sept. 16 of last season.
The Brewers rallied to tie in the fourth. Jesus Aguilar singled, took second on Calixte’s error and scored on Travis Shaw’s single. Hernán Perez followed with a double and Manny Piña hit a sacrifice fly.
Santana and Aguilar had solid approaches all night against Blach, and they provided the Brewers a 4-3 lead in the fifth. Santana singled and never stopped running as Hunter Pence tried to dig out Aguilar’s RBI double that he poked into the right field corner. Milwaukee added another run in the sixth when Piña doubled and scored on Orlando Arcia’s threaded double down the line.
Newly acquired righthander n Sam Dyson will join the club on Friday in San Francisco, Bochy said.