The Ukiah Daily Journal

Giants blow early lead, lose extra- inning game to Rockies

- Ky Kerry arowley

SAN FRANAISAO >> For all the entertainm­ent and excitement the San Francisco Giants have provided cardboard cut- outs and television viewers this season, the 2020 club has suffered no shortage of gut- wrenching and heartbreak­ing losses.

The Giants watched reliever Trevor Gott blow three consecutiv­e save opportunit­ies in August, saw their former center fielder, Kevin Pillar, crush their hopes with a go- ahead triple in Colorado at the beginning of September and squandered a chance at a comeback victory over Arizona the same week when rookie center fielder Mauricio Dubón committed a terrible baserunnin­g mistake.

The Giants’ ability to bounce back from such discouragi­ng losses put them in control of their own playoff destiny with four days left in the regular season, which is precisely why a 5- 4, 11- inning defeat against the Colorado Rockies is so crushing.

“We had some opportunit­ies early in that game to blow it open, to deliver a knockout punch, and we weren’t able to do it,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “I think that’s the most important story from the game to me.”

Armed with a chance to enter a four- game series against the San Diego Padres with a lead in the National League wildcard standings, the Giants squandered an early 3- 0 lead in a loss that will jeopardize the team’s playoff hopes. First baseman Brandon Belt rescued the team from a 4- 3 deficit with a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth, but the Giants lineup failed to take advantage of a basesloade­d, one- out situation in the 10th inning and another opportunit­y to tie the score in the 11th.

With Dubón standing on third base and Darin Ruf at first in the 11th inning, designated hitter Austin Slater bounced into a game- ending 5- 4- 3 double play that dropped the Giants back to .500 with four games to go.

“That’s definitely a tough loss right there,” Belt said. “Especially thinking we had that one in the bag. We let up a little bit too early. We needed to keep pushing, and we ended up paying for it.”

The Giants had an opportunit­y to put the Rockies away in the 10th inning after Colorado manager Bud Black called for backtoback intentiona­l walks and employed a five- man infield, but third baseman Evan Longoria hit a 104 mph one- hopper right into the glove of diving shortstop Trevor Story, who fired a strike home from the cut of the infield dirt for a force out.

C olorado didn’t need a hit to score a runner from second in the 11th as a sacrifice f ly and groundout did the job against reliever Trevor Cahill. Then the Giants couldn’t match the

Rockies with right- hander Jairo Díaz on the mound.

After the Giants took an early 3- 0 lead, the Rockies rallied for two runs in the fourth against Giants starter Kevin Gausman and two more in the seventh against reliever Sam Coonrod to stun San Francisco en route to a series split.

“I think the way we’ve been playing here, we were hoping to come in and continue that and to get an even series. It’s a little bit disappoint­ing because we feel like we’re the better team,” Belt said. “But there’s not much we can do about it now.”

At 28- 28, the Giants were to end the day either in sole possession of the second wild- card spot or tied with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Kapler’s club now faces a tougher road to the postseason as it must pad its win total against a Padres club that has already locked up the fourth seed in the playoffs.

It doesn’t bode well for the club that the Giants are 1- 5 against the Padres this season, 0- 4 in doublehead­er games, and will need to cover at least 14 innings Friday, a day after playing 11 against the Rockies.

Gausman struck out nine over six innings, recording his second consecutiv­e quality start and holding an opponent to two or fewer runs in his fourth straight outing. The veteran righthande­r lowered his ERA to 3.68 and isn’t scheduled to start again during the regular season.

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