Jul 28, 2015; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey scores on a sacrifice fly ball by first baseman Brandon Belt (9) in the seventh inning of their MLB baseball game with the Milwaukee Brewers at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports
I said it, didn’t I? Haven’t I been sayin’ it? All good things must end, my friend. And so it has. What happened? Well, I’ll tell you what happened.
The Giants faced the Brewers Tuesday night, for the second game of their three game series. The Giants were outhit, outrun, outplayed and let’s face it, outscored by the Brewers. Am I upset? You better believe it.
For starters, I’m not upset with the Giants. The Brewers were playing like they’d been studying the Giants playbook. They got their lead off man on board four times. They locked down the win by scoring early and often. And by turning double plays.
There’s an old saying: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We’re flattered. Now, knock it off! And give us back our playbook.
Matt Cain was on the hill for the Giants, and to be honest, he was struggling. He got through six innings allowing four runs on eight hits and three strike outs. After the game Cain admitted making some mistakes and not making adjustments until it was too late–the Brewers already had a few runs on the board by the time he made the changes.
Manager Bruce Bochy gave the Brewers pitcher most of the credit. Oliver Macklin, an associate reporter for MLB.com and Adam McCalvy, a reporter for MLB.com, wrote about it in their game recap: “ had good stuff tonight,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “He had good movement, throwing hard out there, and we just couldn’t do much offensively.”
I waited for the spark, the magic moment where one swing of the bat changes the entire game. It showed up in the seventh inning, but didn’t stay long enough to ignite the rally fire. The good news: it smoldered enough that we didn’t get shut out.
Buster Posey was our lead off guy in the seventh, and he drew a walk. Hunter Pence followed with a double, and Buster landed on third base. Brandon Belt ground out–it was a productive out, though, because it got Buster home. Brandon Crawford hit a sac fly to score Hunter.
The Giants had two more innings to get a rally going, but they didn’t cash in. Gregor Blanco led-off the eighth with a base hit and stayed on first until the inning ended. Belt hit a single in the ninth, took second on defensive indifference, where he remained stranded until the game ended. The final score was: Giants 2, Brewers 5
So the reason I was so upset (besides the fact that we lost–but that was inevitable) is because Carlos Gomez scored a run for the Brewers in the first inning. Who? Carlos Gomez: the guy that got caught stealing second base during Monday night’s game, who was originally called safe, but on review was called out; the guy that slammed his batting helmet into the dirt; the guy that made both teams wait for him while he drank water, paced the dugout and tossed major stank eye at the umps; the guy who locked down my vote for unsportsmanlike jerk of the year. Yeah, that guy.
There, now that I got that off my chest, I feel much better.
Now, who’s ready for some day baseball?