Chris Haft
MLB.com
Only obsessive perfectionism could have darkened the Giants' mood on Sunday.
Annoying as their 4-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies was, it didn't undo San Francisco's recent accomplishments. It finished a 6-3 homestand, winning series against St. Louis, Philadelphia and Colorado -- each a postseason qualifier in 2009.
The Giants could torture themselves with the nagging thought that a more fruitful homestand was within reach. They fell 2-0 last Sunday to St. Louis while going 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and wasting nine hits. Their 7-6, 11-inning loss on Wednesday to Philadelphia seems guaranteed to rouse the fans' discontent all season.
This one wasn't as galling, but it was still winnable. Colorado scored all of its runs in the fourth and fifth innings after having two outs and nobody on base.
"It's a good homestand," Bochy said. "It could have been a great one."
The Giants established a pattern by capturing the first two games of every series before dropping the finale. It's essential to remember that under any circumstance, sweeping an opponent is a considerable challenge.
Asked to address the difficulty of scoring a sweep, Giants first baseman Aubrey Huff considered the lean times he spent with Tampa Bay and Baltimore and said, "I wouldn't know. This is my first year on a really good team. It's pretty tough. Usually I was on the other end of that."
"You're playing Major League teams," Bochy said. "A lot has to be going your way. To sweep, you have to be clicking everywhere, pitching and hitting. And you hope that they scuffle on all ends."
None of this was the case on Sunday.
The Giants clunked instead of clicked offensively, going 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and mustering four hits overall.
Jhoulys Chacin, Colorado's rookie right-hander, surrendered one hit in seven innings to post his first Major League victory in his second big league start.
"He stayed away a ton and really didn't give you a lot to hit," said Huff, whose team-high fourth homer of the season led off the Giants' ninth against reliever Manny Corpas to avert a shutout. "He was really working the outside corner, nibbling off the plate."
By contrast, Jonathan Sanchez (2-2) labored for the second outing in a row, allowing only three hits but walking five in 4 2/3 innings.
The Giants trailed only 1-0 when Sanchez walked Carlos Gonzalez to prolong the fifth inning, then yielded Troy Tulowitzki's single on a 3-2 pitch. Up next was Jason Giambi, a left-handed batter -- significant, since lefties were 0-for-17 off Sanchez to that point.
But with Sanchez's pitch count at 94, Bochy removed him and installed Brandon Medders.
"He logged a lot of pitches there like he did the last game," Bochy said, referring to Sanchez's 107-pitch effort in five innings against Philadelphia on Monday. "I have to take care of him, too. That's a lot of work in five innings. ... We were going to watch him today."
Bochy last mentioned "taking care of" and "watching" a pitcher on Wednesday, when he relieved Tim Lincecum with a 4-1 ninth-inning lead and one out. But Sanchez didn't complain.
"I had [thrown] a lot of pitches," he said.
Medders, unscored upon in his previous three appearances, walked Giambi before yielding Melvin Mora's two-run single and Ryan Spilborghs' RBI single.
One inning earlier, Sanchez hit Giambi with a pitch, then walked three consecutive Rockies on full-count deliveries to force in a run and shatter the scoreless tie. Though Sanchez was close to escaping the inning unscathed and occasionally looked perturbed with plate umpire Tim Tschida's strike zone, he was philosophical about his lapses afterward.
"That's how the game is," said Sanchez, whose ERA rose from 1.85 to 2.48.
No comments:
Post a Comment