Recap – Giants Baseball: Torture

Seriously – Duane Kuiper couldn’t have found a more useful term. These guys are simply torture. Like, horror movie style.

The day started off just lovely, which was ironic in itself as Todd Sinkhole Wellemeyer was starting for the Orange & Black, a result that usually ends in a loss. On the mound for the Reds was impressive rookie Mike Leake, and, well – Leake was far from impressive as the Giants gashed out to an early 4-0 lead behind Wellemeyer who actually pitched well. Well, I should say for two innings. Wellemeyer grounded into an inning ending, bases loaded, double play (that sounds familiar) and came up lame after he crossed first base. He didn’t return for the top of the inning. And then doom struck. Denny Bautista came in for the injured Wellemeyer and for some extremely odd reason, took an excessively long time to warm up – something bullpen guys really don’t need, especially on such a warm day. Was it a sign of things to come? You can yank your willy it was. Bautista was absolutely blistered by the Reds as they batted around in the inning. Bochy, fearful of, well, something – go figure – decided the best move was to keep Bautista on the mound to eat innings. And considering he was able to last all but two innings, well, backfire – but we’re use to that, right? The Giants four run lead was gone in about 10 minutes, which ironically is the same amount of time Buster Posey would need to fix the BP oil spill, if given the opportunity.

Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla both did their job, holding the Reds scoreless the next two innings before all hell broke loose again, this time on the shoulders of set-up man Guillermo Mota who ended up blowing the Giants two run lead in the bottom of the 8th. Brandon Phillips, who had an excellent series for the Reds, battled Mota with runners on 2nd and 3rd and took a solid pitch down the right field line resulting in what would eventually be the winning run.

On the offensive side of the ball – awful. In the top of the 7th inning, for whatever reason, with 1-out and runners on the corners for the Giants and Pablo Sandoval at the plate, the runner on third, Eli Whiteside came storming down the line while Pablo Sandoval took a pitch completely unaware that Whiteside was breaking for home. A missed sign? Obviously. From who? Unknown. But a squeeze play with your #3 hitter at-bat on the second pitch of that at-bat? Really? Seriously?

In addition to that, the Giants grounded into their league leading 62nd double play and could only scratch out out 6 runs on 22 baserunners (and two of those runs came off solo HR’s). Really, just a eye numbing type of day.

BUT…with all of that said, the Giants conclude a 7 game road trip with a 4-3 record – nothing uber impressive but considering the Giants road-woes, it’s something to be happy with.

They’ll be home tomorrow versus the A’s, with Big Time Timmy Jim getting the series opener start.