Gaudin Masterful in 4-1 Loss to Dodgers

Jul 7, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher Chad Gaudin (57) follows through on a pitch against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the fourth inning at AT

Let’s get this out of the way right now. Chad Gaudin deserved to win this game. He pitched 7 strong innings, giving up 4 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk, and 9 strike outs. Unfortunately, he was pitching against Clayton Kershaw who also pitched, well, Kershaw-like. Kershaw went 8 innings, giving up 3 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk, and 3 strike outs. It was indeed a pitchers’ duel.

I honestly felt good and had hope the Giants would win the game in the end. I wanted that elusive first win against Kershaw (at least where he actually gets credited with the Loss). But the Giants just couldn’t leave well enough alone. A rare bumbled in the top of the 9th by 2012 MVP Buster Posey at 1B allowed Yasiel Puig, the Giants new enemy #1, to reach third base on a routine grounder by Adrian Gonzalez. Following that was Hanley Ramirez grounding out, an intentional walk to Andre Ethier to load the bases, and a pitch sequence to Juan Uribe that ended in a strike out. With 2 outs, you were sure Sergio Romo had it in the bag, and all the Giants needed to do was score 1 run in the 9th.

But God must have given the baseball remote to Satan today because A.J. Ellis proceeded to hit a bases clearing double off a hanging slider from Romo. The only batter to reach base in the bottom of the 9th was Buster Posey, with 2 outs, who was left stranded by Hunter Pence.

Good Guys-1; Bad Guys-4

So, this series could have been worse, I suppose. I mean, at least we got a win in yesterday and didn’t get swept. Truthfully, it was a good game up until the 9th inning, despite the Dodgers and Don Mattingly‘s antics. In the top of a the 4th, a ball hit by Gonzalez that was CLEARLY to the foul side of the left field foul pole, was asked to be reviewed by Mattingly. It resulted in a lengthy review by the umpires. It really couldn’t have been anything other than a tactic to get Gaudin cold, as he was lighting up the Dodgers at that point. The plus side to that is right after the umpires said it was indeed a foul ball, Golden Boy Puig got thrown out at 3B with some pretty shabby base running. Guess the rook still has a thing or two to learn, contrary to his own and MLB’s belief.

Speaking of Puig, there was quite a bit of chirping between Puig, Ramirez, and Romo tonight. Clearly the Dodgers were upset about being embarrassed by Romo last night, and the trash talking that started last night, continued on the field tonight. I’m pretty sure after the show Puig put on, he’ll be looking at some chin music the next time the Dodgers face the Giants.

Mets come to town tomorrow and Tim Lincecum and the Giants will look to get back on track against Mets’ ace Matt Harvey.