San Francisco Giants: Late Rally Not Enough, Remain Winless at Coors

The San Francisco Giants can not buy a win at Coors Field in 2017 and that trend continued after a 9-6 loss to the Rockies on Tuesday night.

What makes this loss even more irritating is the San Francisco Giants had countless opportunities to blow the game open and do some damage against Tyler Chatwood early on, but could not capitalize.

In the first inning, Joe Panik continued swinging a hot bat with a one out double. Buster Posey advanced Panik to third on a single, putting the Giants in prime position to send Ty Blach out to the mound with a lead already. All hope for that was negated after Brandon Crawford grounded into a double play to end the inning.

To add to the frustration, the Rockies proceeded to score a run in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly by Gerardo Parra, taking a 1-0 lead.

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The Giants had another opportunity to score some runs in the third inning. Denard Span walked with one out in the inning and Panik followed with a single. Now with runners on first and second, Posey, the team’s most dependable hitter, came to the plate.

Posey proceeded to strike out looking, an absolute rally killer. However, all hope was not lost as Crawford walked to load the bases and keep the inning alive. Hunter Pence could not take advantage of the situation, striking out to end the inning.

That would be Chatwood’s last inning of work. He allowed seven Giant hitters to reach base, 4 on hits and 3 via walks. It was not a sharp outing for the lefty, but he managed to hold the Giants scoreless and was replaced by Chris Rusin, who proceeded to strike out the side in the 4th inning.

The Rockies added on to their lead in the bottom of the 4th inning on home run by Trevor Story down the left field line. In the following inning, the Giants began to chip away at the Rockies lead on a two out RBI single from Crawford.

Blach trotted out to the mound in the 6th inning to only a one run deficit, making a shutdown inning an absolute necessity. Everyone knows at Coors Field, all it takes is one bad inning for the game to unravel, which is exactly what proceeded to happen.

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DJ leMahieu led the inning off with a single and scored on a Nolan Arenado double. Mark Reynolds followed with a double off of Blach, knocking in Arenado. Blach was able to retire Parra on a line out to Crawford for the first out of the inning, ending Blach’s night.

Derek Law came in to replace Blach and face Story, who homered earlier in the ball game. Law quickly struck Story out for the second out of the inning, a promising look to escape any real damage for the right-handed reliever.

However, Law had trouble recording the final out of the inning, allowing a RBI double to Ian Desmond and a RBI single to Jonathan Lucroy before striking out Antonio Senzatela to end the inning.

Now trailing 6-1, the Giants were in desperation to start scoring some runs. Mac Williamson led the 7th inning off with a pinch hit single and Span followed with a walk. Panik popped out for the first out of the inning and Posey hit a 2 RBI double to trim the lead to 6-3.

Reyes Moronta made his major league debut in the 7th inning, replacing Law on the mound. He began his major league career by striking out Charlie Blackmon looking and getting LeMahieu to ground out, but struggled to get the final out. After allowing back-to-back singles, he was replaced by Josh Osich.

Osich did not last long as he gave up a RBI single to Parra, extending the Rockies lead to 7-3. Roberto Gomez came in for Osich, also making his major league debut and forced Story to line out to right field to end the inning.

The Giants remained hot at the plate in the 8th inning, all with two outs and Pablo Sandoval on first, who walked earlier in the inning. With two outs, Williamson singled and Span knocked him and Sandoval in on a double down the left field line. Then, Panik knocked in Span on a single up the middle, cutting the lead to 7-6.

Colorado added two more runs in the bottom of the inning off of Mark Melancon, who should really be shut down for the year, and the Giants failed to score in the ninth, falling to the Rockies 9-6.

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The Giants will send Johnny Cueto to the mound looking to avoid the sweep tomorrow. He will match up against Kyle Freeland, first pitch scheduled for 5:40 PM.