If Citi Field is supposed to be death on home runs, the Giants still need convincing.
They have played six games at the Mets' new home since it opened last year and lost four. Three of those four, including two this weekend, ended with a New York home run.
In 2010, the Mets' catchers are doing the damage. A day after Rod Barajas walked off with a home run against Sergio Romo, backup Henry Blanco did it against Guillermo Mota in the 11th inning Saturday for a 5-4 Mets victory.
How ironic that the two catchers who work here after Bengie Molina spurned a Mets offer won these two games.
"We're losing a few with the long ball," manager Bruce Bochy said. "It's been biting us."
Indeed, four of the Giants' 12 losses have come on late home runs, the game-enders here against Romo and Mota, David Eckstein's walk-off against Jeremy Affeldt in San Diego and Manny Ramirez's eighth-inning shot off Romo in Los Angeles.
The Giants can take solace in the scripts that led to the Barajas and Blanco jacks. In both games, the Giants clawed back against good pitchers to tie the score. On Saturday, they frustrated Johan Santana by scoring twice in the eighth after Nate Schierholtz and Aaron Rowand opened with singles.
Pablo Sandoval hit a sacrifice fly, and Aubrey Huff tied the game with a two-out single against lefty Pedro Feliciano.
In the 10th inning, Huff thought he had given the Giants a three-run lead with a high drive down the right-field line against Francisco Rodriguez. But the ball was stopped cold by a ferocious, swirling wind that blew wrappers onto the field a la Candlestick Park and kept Huff's ball in the park, where Jeff Francoeur caught it.
"I didn't barrel that one up as much as some of them," Huff said, "but I definitely hit that ball out 99 percent of the time. I'm dumbfounded how he caught that ball at the wall. This place makes our place look like a bandbox. Gracious."
Blanco's homer was a liner to left that cut through the wind. Mota surrendered it as he began his second inning.
Though this counts as a bullpen loss, the relievers actually did a fine job holding the Mets at bay after they scored four off a wild Todd Wellemeyer by the fifth inning. Brandon Medders, Affeldt and Mota combined for 5 2/3 shutout innings before the homer.
"I think we're fine as a 'pen. We're doing our job," Affeldt said. "We've got to stop giving up bad-timing home runs, myself included."
And Wellemeyer needs to curb his generosity. He has walked 20 in 28 1/3 innings, which surely will cost him his job if not remedied. Three of the four Mets who scored against him drew walks. The fourth was hit by a pitch.
"Right now, he's his own worst enemy," Bochy said. "You look up and he's given up three runs and one hit. That tells the story. He's pitching himself into trouble. He needs to get back to where he was in spring training, hitting his spots. He was just missing today."
Saturday's defeat clinched the Giants' first series loss since April 19-21, when they were swept in San Diego. Tim Lincecum seeks to end his two-start winless streak in the finale today.
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