Recap: Giants Lose 4-3, 2013 Reality Strikes Again

Aug 26, 2013; Denver, CO, USA; San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey (28) runs to first on a bases on balls in the first inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants had another night of missed chances in ther 4-3 loss to the Diamondbacks on Saturday night. Ryan Vogelsong (3-4, 5.49 ERA) went 6 innings, but Sandy Rosario (L, 3-2, 2.95) gave up a 1 out base hit to Eric Chavez in the bottom of the 9th and Arizona had a walk off victory.

There wasn’t much action in the early going. Although the play of the game was made by Pablo Sandoval in the bottom of the 3rd inning. Well, play of the game is subjective. But this may be the greatest Duane Kuiper call ever.

Vogelsong saw his streak of 15 straight scoreless innings come to an end in the bottom of the 4th. After Martin Prado led off with a double, Aaron Hill and Miguel Montero followed with singles on the first pitch each saw. The DBacks led 1-0. Gerardo Parra followed with a sacrifice fly, again on the first pitch. Willie Bloomquist then hit a single to score Montero and make it 3-0 DBacks. The inning ended when Bloomquist was thrown out trying to stretch his single into a double.

The Giants, and Vogelsong, were in trouble again in the bottom of the 6th. With the bases loaded and 1 out, Trever Cahill was on the bad end of more great Giants defense. He hit a groundball to Brandon Crawford‘s right. Seeing that he didn’t have a chance at a double play, Crawford turned and fired a strike to Buster Posey to get the force out at home.

You can go watch that here:

You can see that not even Buster expected that throw to come home when you watch that clip. It was a heads up play by future Gold Glover Brandon Crawford. Vogey got the next guy on a comebacker and it remained 3-0 DBacks.

The Giants bats finally got going in the top of the 7th inning. Gregor Blanco led off the inning with his second HR of the season. With 1 out Angel Pagan reached on a single back at the pithcer. He stole second base and then moved to 3rd on a wild pitch. Cahill paid a lot of attention to Pagan and it hurt him. On a 3-2 sinker Marco Scutaro drove a deep fly ball to the track in left center field.

Angel Pagan scored and Scutaro slid in with a triple. It was a heads up move by the veteran to get himself on 3rd with less than 2 outs. Brandon Belt followed with a strike out though to render that point useless. But Buster Posey came through in a way Buster does. On a 0-2 high fastball he muscled a single to right field to score Scutaro and tie the game at 3.

In the bottom of the 7th inning Angel Pagan showed us again why we missed him these last few months. Thanks to @carmenkiew for the gif.

The game stayed tied until the bottom of the 9th. Rosario came in for the Giants and gave up a leadoff single to Willie Bloomquist. He was bunted over to second and the Giants intentionally walked Paul Goldschmidt (a move I am a fan of in any situation), to bring up Eric Chavez. He then stroked a first pitch single to the gap in left center field and the game was over. The Giants lost 4-3 in yet another game that they had chances.

The 2013 San Francisco Giants in a nutshell. 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position. 9 men left on base.

I should have seen it coming. I picked the wrong guy to pick on before the game over on Twitter. Blame me folks.

Join us tomorrow as we do a live game thread here at Around The Foghorn. We’ll be around by 12:45pt. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10pt at Chase Field. The Giants try to go for the series win as they send out RHP Yusmeiro Petit (1-0, 3.18) to face LHP Patrick Corbin (13-4, 2.79).