Defense Mistake and Bullpen Costs Giants in the Ninth

Happy Labor Day. Hope you enjoyed your day off doing something fun other than watching the San Francisco Giants try not to lose. The Giants worked hard to win here for the first time in their last eight tries. Once again they just couldn’t survive Coors Field and lose on a walk-off walk.

With the way Chris Stratton pitched it was a huge surprise this game even went into the ninth inning as a tied 3-3 ballgame. Stratton looked good in the first three innings but things started falling apart in the fourth inning. All game long the Colorado Rockies were working the pitch count. Stratton threw 38 pitches in the fourth inning alone.

With the Giants holding onto a 2-1 lead, Stratton gave up a 2-out single to the pitcher Chad Bettis to tie up the game. After DJ LeMahieu hit an rbi single to give the Rockies the lead, Gerardo Parra grounded out on the 98th pitch of the day for Stratton and somehow the game went into the fifth inning only as a 3-2 lead for the Rockies. Stratton put the labor in Labor Day today. He threw 98 pitches in only four innings giving up three runs on eight hits and three walks. Looking at that stat line playing in Coors Field, how did Chris Stratton give up 11 base runners but only allow three to score?

No idea. But, he did his job and kept his team in the game. On the Giants offensive side, it was all Joe Panik and Denard Span. Both hit solo home runs and in the sixth Panik hit an RBI single to tie the game at three. A day after Gorkys Hernandez showed off his defense skills, Denard Span got the start and showed why he is still the starter despite criticism for his defense. Today he went 3-4 and was a triple shy of a cycle.

In the ninth inning After the bases were loaded, Corey Gearrin was brought in to try get the Giants to the 10th inning. after striking out Pat Valaika, he faced slugger Carlos Gonzalez with two outs. He lost the strike zone and gave a four pitch walk-off walk to the Rockies. After all the hard work on Labor Day, the Giants came up short and lost 4-3.

Game Notes:

Joe Panik and Denard Span: Today they both provided the offense. 6-8 with two home runs and three runs batted in between the both of them.

Pablo Sandoval: Including today’s game Pablo Sandoval has not gotten a hit since August 25. He is currently on a 0-33 funk and has not gotten on base via a base hit in nine games.

Mark Melancon: Today it was announced that Melancon will indeed have surgery on his arm in the near future.

Mac Williamson: He has returned for another shot to try to prove he has what it takes to be the future left fielder. Well it was been two days, and his glove has already been pretty disappointing. It has only been two days plenty of time left, however, if he doesn’t improve with the glove, then he has to prove it with his bat. This is his last chance.

Tune in tomorrow night as the Giants will try to against the Colorado Rockies.

The Giants will send out Ty Blach (8-11 4.68)  to go up against Tyler Chatwood (6-12 5.00) of the Rockies.