San Francisco Giants: Bullpen Blunder Leads to a 5-2 Loss

This has been a tough week for the San Francisco Giants. From the rain delays, to getting back home very late, to a blowout home-opener Friday night, just what could’ve went wrong in today’s game? Facing New York Mets ace, Jacob DeGrom, on national television?  Yeah what could go wrong.

As I mentioned above, this San Francisco Giants game was televised as one of the Fox Saturday games.  My first thought was, oh please don’t embarrass yourselves on national TV Giants. For the most part, this was an entertaining pitching duel. Johnny Cueto (5-7 4.29) versus Jacob DeGrom (6-3 3.75).

Cueto and DeGrom matched each other through seven innings. In the fourth inning, Wilmer Flores got the Mets on the board with a solo home run (7) to take a 1-0 lead. The Giants couldn’t get much going against DeGrom until Brandon Belt‘s solo home run (14)  to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning. The only other time the Giants had a chance to rally came in the fourth inning. That evaporated quickly when DeGrom struck out Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford with the tying and go ahead runners on base.

8th Inning:

Sam Dyson got his shot to protect a 1-1 tie in the eighth. his first batter was a lead-off triple by Curtis Granderson. After walking Asdrubel Cabera, Dyson actually managed to strike out Yoenis Cespedes. All of a sudden a ground ball can get the team out of the inning. Well with a few lefties coming up, Bruce Bochy decided to bring in Steven Okert for the lefty on lefty matchup. That backfired when Jay Bruce singled to right scoring Granderson and giving the Mets a 2-1 lead. Okert then strikes out Lucas Duda. With Wilmer Flores coming up with a chance to break the game open  George Kontos comes in but that backfired as well. Flores doubled to right field scoring Asdrubel Cabrera. Just like that it  became 3-1 Mets. Although it can’t be that surprising that the bullpen blew another game can it?  Today was different. This was a very winnable game.

Kyle Crick got to pitch the ninth and had a difficult inning. He looked like he had some control problems and allowed two runs extending the Mets lead to 5-1. In the bottom of the ninth the Giants had a little two out  rally going after Brandon Belt beat out a throw to first. Brandon Crawford singled to left scoring Belt and getting the fans into the game. Unfortunately, that was all and the pitching duel that had started this game was forgotten about as the bullpen allowed the winning runs once again.

Giants Notes:

Let the Kids Play:

Since Austin Slater has been up in the big leagues he has produced and because of that, has been in the starting lineup. In 18 games so far, he is hitting 2HR 12 RBI with a .333 batting average. A surprising move today was made when Aaron Hill was designated for assignment for prospect Ryder Jones. Jones played today making his major league debut going 0-4 with a strikeout. The plan is to have him play third base while Eduardo Nunez is on the DL.

50th Loss Today:

Today the Giants lost their 50th game of the year. With a 27-50 record the Giants are now 23 games under .500 and 20.5 games out of first place. The thought process of this team going forward has got to seem to be to begin looking at what the prospects in the minors can do.

Next: Youth Movement Begins

Tomorrow the Giants will look to avoid the sweep to the New York Mets. The Giants will have Matt Moore pitching.