San Francisco Giants lose the series to the Cardinals after Friday’s walk off victory and Marlon Byrd’s grand slam

Aug 29, 2015; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants fans applauded starting pitcher

(32) who was relieved in the fifth inning of their MLB baseball game with the St. Louis Cardinals at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports

The Bad (il cattivo)

Errors, errors and more errors‒the Giants made a bunch of errors Friday night, but not the kinds of errors that show up as an “E” on the scorecard. They were mental errors, or bobbled ball errors, I can think of two them on Friday night, and they caused the Giants to miss the second leg of the double play. Which means the runs scored by the Cardinals were “earned” by the Giants pitcher. It also means the Cardinals got an extra out. Maybe even two.

The Cardinals made some fielding errors Friday night too. But you know what? They were charged as errors, and not one of the runs hammered in by Byrd’s grand slam were “earned” runs, leaving the Cardinals pitcher’s ERA intact.

Matt Duffy’s game on Sunday. I’m a big fan of the Duff Man. No fooling. Duffy is a Giant in every sense of the word. But Sunday’s game, he wasn’t himself. I’m not sure if playing hurt has taken a toll. But the third baseman, two-hole hitter we watched on Sunday was not our Matt Duffy. I know everyone has a bad day now and then, but Duffy ground out into two double plays, add that to his fly out and singular ground out‒makes Duffy responsible for six Giants outs. He threw one Cardinal out. Which means he was responsible for more Giants outs than Cardinals outs. Who was that guy?

The balk call on Mike Broadway in the eighth inning was, simply put, a bad call. I think Krukow called it a ticky-tacky call.

Sunday’s game was bad in a lot of ways‒Duffy wasn’t alone. But there was also plenty of good, the Giants gave it a fight, and that’s all we can ask, right?

I can’t help but think that a lot of the problem is the fact that we are missing so many key players. I think the rookies have done an amazing job, but we are piling a lot on kids who have been playing minor league ball or were expecting to play minor league ball. Instead of giving them part-time jobs, coming in late in a game, making a plate appearance as a pinch hitter–they’ve been tossed into the deep end of the pool without swimmies. What’s most impressive is that none of them have drowned.

Next: The Ugly