Coors Field madness strikes as Giants fall to Rockies in 10
DENVER >> Coors Field is baseball’s version of a theme park, a fantasy land of roller coaster rides where ERAs are destined to rise and lategame lead changes are certain to rock the core of a bullpen back and forth.
The final outs of a game will leave teams feeling like they’ve endured the type of motion sickness more commonly associated with spinning tea cups.
The Giants came to know that sensation all too well during Monday’s 6-5 walkoff loss against the Rockies.
When Chris Ianetta delivered a softly hit walkoff single in the 10th inning off Hunter Strickland, a day at the park left the Giants feeling ill.
“There’s good hitters across the league, it doesn’t matter where you’re at, I’ve still got to make good pitches,” Strickland said. “I didn’t do that.”
The Giants’ stomachs twisted when Rockies closer Wade Davis loaded the bases and escaped a jam in the ninth, and turned over when David Dahl stole second base off of Tony Watson in the ninth. They flipped when Austin Jackson failed to lay a bunt down in the 10th and flopped one final time when Strickland issued a leadoff walk to Nolan Arenado in the ninth.
“You’re in a tough situation there with the bases loaded and (Ianetta) placed it just right,” Bochy said.
After Reye Moronta, Will Smith and Sam Dyson combined for two innings of scoreless work, Watson entered in the eighth and failed to protect a one-run lead. An Ian Desmond sacrifice fly left the game all square heading to the ninth, when an up-and-down adventure was ready to reach its climax.
The first two Giants to hit in the 10th reached base, but Jackson missed two bunt attempts before bouncing into a fielder’s choice.
“You’re trying to take the lead late in the ballgame and you’re doing what you can to take the lead there,” Bochy said. “You start hopefully doing things that set yourself up to win a ballgame
and that’s a tough at-bat.”
The late loss spoiled a go-ahead single from infielder Pablo Sandoval, who appeared as a pinch hitter Monday with two on and two out in the top of the sixth.
Though Sandoval regards pinch hitting as one of the most difficult assignments a player encounters, he made the job look easy with a poke through the opposite side of the infield that plated shortstop Brandon Crawford to give the Giants a 5-4 lead.
Sandoval’s job responsibilities have multiplied exponentially during his second stint with the Giants, as he even gave bench coach Hensley Meulens the night off and brought out the lineup card to the umpires before Monday’s game.
The two-out pinch hit single came four hitters after Evan Longoria launched his second RBI double of the contest to tie the game at 4-4. After posting just one multi-RBI game in the month of May, Longoria recorded his second three-RBI day as a member of the Giants.
For the second straight day, the Giants took a multi-run lead in the first inning as Longoria pounded a two-run double into the left center field gap. Longoria’s first two-bagger of the night rolled deep enough to score Buster Posey from first base, who was back in the lineup after missing the past two games with right hip soreness.
But just as Ty Blach did on Sunday, starter Andrew
Suárez squandered the advantage and served up a hanging breaking ball to Rockies cleanup hitter Trevor Story. With two on and one out in the bottom of the first, Story unloaded on a 409-foot three-run shot to push the Rockies out in front 3-2.
“We score two and the last thing a pitcher wants to do is give up three with a three-run homer,” Bochy said. “But he didn’t cave in and settled down to pitch a pretty good ballgame.”
Despite allowing the home run to Story, Suárez didn’t surrender an earned run over the next four innings and only gave up one unearned run after an error by Longoria in the bottom of the third.
By retiring the final eight hitters he faced, including six via strikeouts, Suárez may have inspired enough confidence in the Giants’ brass to remain in the rotation.
“I mean the first inning, that happens,” Suárez said. “I’m just glad I got to go deep in the game and just give my team a chance.” BUMGARNER SCHEDULED TO PITCH IN SAN JOSE >> Giants ace Madison Bumgarner is tentatively scheduled to make a rehab start for the Single-A San Jose Giants on Thursday.
Bumgarner tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings in his first rehab start and could still skip the outing in San Jose, but Bochy said the Giants will tentatively pencil him in to pitch once more in the minors before he makes his 2018 major league debut.