Giants can’t complete comeback vs. Padres, fall to their worst record through 98 games
SAN FRANCISCO – Giants manager Bruce Bochy told reporters something interesting during his afternoon session on Friday:
He goes back to his office after every game and reviews each pitch and play in a condensed version prepared by the team’s video analysts. Even in this lost season, Bochy hasn’t shirked those duties.
After Friday’s unspeakably ugly 12-9, 11-inning loss to the San Diego Padres, can we recommend that he open a bottle of cabernet and listen to some Waylon Jennings, instead?
Try as the Padres might to tank this season, they keep underestimating the Giants’ knack for futility.
Only a masochist would wish to review the absurd and slow-paced theater that played out Friday night – even if it included the Giants’ sudden, two-out comeback in the bottom of the ninth that forced extra innings.
The Giants had given back a four-run lead to a Padres team that was designed to finish in last place. They trailed by three runs with the bases empty and two outs in the ninth.
Then Buster Posey drew a walk. He took second base on defensive indifference. He jogged home on Brandon Crawford’s single. And Conor Gillaspie delivered a bolt from the blue off the bench.
Gillaspie’s pinch home run forced extra innings. But that only kept the flocks of seagulls waiting longer to feast in the bleachers. The Padres scored three times off George Kontos in the 11th inning to take yet another victory at AT&T Park.
“We battled,” Gillaspie said. “That’s all you can ask for. We just couldn’t pull it out.”
Gillaspie’s home run was his first since his shot that delivered the Giants a victory over the New York Mets in the NL Wild Card Game last October.
How the Giants have fallen since then. The Giants slipped to 37-61 this season — officially below the awful 1985 team for their worst record through 98 games in the franchise’s San Francisco history. The 1902 New York Giants are the only club that has lost more times (34-64) through 98 games.
San Diego’s Wil Myers hit a tiebreaking home run against Hunter Strickland in the seventh inning, and the rebuilding Padres beat the Giants for the 16th time in 21 games since last year’s All-Star break
Nobody could’ve seen that coming. Nobody could’ve predicted Hector Sanchez, either. The former Giants backup catcher hit a solo home run in the fourth inning. Then he lined an RBI double in the fifth that knocked a bewildered Jeff Samardzija from the game.
“The guys go and battle for you and give you a nice, comfortable lead,” said Samardzija, of the Giants’ four-run first inning. “It’s essentially what I’ve asked for as a pitcher. To have it turn out how it did, that’s not high on my list of things I enjoy doing.”
Samardzija appeared lost in a fog as he handed over the baseball. He wasn’t alone. How could anyone process the fact that Sanchez, the one-time understudy to Buster Posey whose best claim to fame was catching one of Tim Lincecum’s no-hitters, was 11 for 22 with five home runs and 13 RBIs against his former team?
Sanchez also took Samardzija deep from the left side last week at Petco Park. He connected as a right-handed hitter against Steven Okert for a walk-off shot in that series, too.
Sanchez’s inexplicable inferno was the most interesting part of a game between two teams that entered a combined 36 games under .500 and looked even worse. There can only be one last-place team in the NL West, even if both the Giants and Padres are deserving of the title.
The Padres contributed a throwing error from right field as part of the Giants’ four-run first inning. They also twice botched a rundown in the fourth inning that allowed Gorkys Hernandez to reach third base safely before he scored on a wild pitch.
The Giants made inexcusable mistakes, too. Samardzija had to be rescued in the fifth before he could give away the last bit of a four-run lead. Right-hander Cory Gearrin finished the task in the sixth when he issued a four-pitch walk to Padres reliever Craig Stammen, who went on to score the tying run.
Then Strickland, who has been the Giants’ best reliever this season, served up the tiebreaking shot to Myers. It was only the second homer that Strickland had surrendered this season, and his first to a right-handed hitter since Mark Trumbo hit one Aug. 14 of last season. Strickland entered with a 1.85 ERA in 39 appearances, and is drawing interest on the trade market.
There were a few positive signs. Hunter Pence, who entered with just four extra-base hits and eight RBIs all season in games at AT&T Park, laced an RBI double as part of the four-run first inning, he knocked in another run with a single in the third and then stole second base.
Pence also threw out a runner at third base to end the sixth – just the eighth outfield assist by a Giant all season, the third fewest in the major leagues.
Pence almost contributed a running catch in right field in the eighth inning, too. But the ball whipped out as if his glove were a jai alai cesta, and then it deflected off his bare hand before hitting the ground. The juggling act resulted in an RBI triple for Jose Pirela, who scored on Carlos Asuaje’s single.
But the Giants always seem to get the tying run to the plate in the ninth, even though it leads to false hope most nights.
They completed the comeback this time. The hope still proved false.
“You’d like to think the momentum has swung, and you’ll find a way to win the ballgame,” Bochy said.
Kontos, who was supposed to be off limits due to his workload, instead appeared for the fourth time in five games. Matt Szczur needed a home run to become the first player in modern history to collect the cycle in a game that he didn’t start. Instead, his fourth hit was a tiebreaking single in the 11th.
Final game time: four hours, 46 minutes. And a day game looming.
Put away the iPad, Bruce Bochy. Get some sleep.
