Mercury News
Sometime during the middle innings Monday night, Giants mascot Lou Seal provided a metaphor for the season. His electric cart died on the warning track and had to be pushed off the field.
It was apropos for the Giants, whose old, slow, lifeless and unreliable offense failed them yet again in a 4-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Casey Blake hit a tiebreaking, two-run home run in the eighth off Santiago Casilla, Pablo Sandoval made a monster of a mental mistake on the basepaths, and the "Beat LA" cheer was rendered trite in the first rivalry game of the season at AT&T Park.
It is too early to call the Giants a lost cause in 2010. They wouldn't be the first flawed team to overcome roster shortcomings and long odds.
But the detritus is starting to pile up. All the ground-ball double plays, the undisciplined first-pitch swings, heavy legs and baserunning mistakes have served to kill rallies and undermine pitching efforts.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy sat hope-filled rookie Buster Posey and started his cadre of plodding 30-year-olds. They responded with five double plays. Three came on the ground, giving the club an NL-high 81 this season. Two of those ground-ball twin killings came on the first pitch; the free-swinging Giants have 19 of those this year, too.
"We're finding ways to hit into them," Bochy said. "Put guys in motion and we're (swinging and) missing. It's hurting us now."
Nothing stung worse that Sandoval's mistake in the seventh inning. With runners at the corners and nobody out, Sandoval tried to tag up from first base on Edgar Renteria's fly ball to shallow right field. Pinch runner Aaron Rowand had broken off third base, but only to draw the throw from Andre Ethier. First baseman Ronnie Belliard cut it off and Sandoval was tagged out after a short rundown. Renteria clasped his hands to his head when he saw what Sandoval was doing. Cameras caught Aubrey Huff and several other Giants reacting with horror and disbelief, too. Sandoval jogged back to the dugout and sat by himself, next to the water jug for the rest of the inning. "We talked to him," Bochy said. "This kid is playing hard. He's doing all he can to help the team win. He's being aggressive. That's what happens with a young player. You can't fault him for his thinking." Sandoval said he thought Rowand was going to the plate. "I made a mistake," Sandoval said. "You learn. It's part of the game. "... I have to read that play. It's done. You have to be prepared for that situation, for every pitch." The Giants still had one more chance to score Rowand with two outs, but third baseman Blake smothered Bengie Molina's ground ball. It would've been an infield hit for many big leaguers. But Molina was out by four steps. Barry Zito received a 1-0 lead on Huff's run-scoring single in the first inning. But a huge defensive lapse allowed the Dodgers to push ahead in a two-run third. Center fielder Andres Torres tried to make a diving play on Manny Ramirez's drive but let the ball get past him for a double that scored Reed Johnson from first base. Zito limped through six innings with 113 pitches and seemed destined for a low-scoring loss. Even by their standards, the Giants offense was dreadful in the first five innings against Chad Billingsley. Travis Ishikawa, who is 9 for 17 as a pinch hitter, took Zito off the hook. He delivered a pinch double in the sixth and scored the tying run on Freddy Sanchez's two-out single. The Giants were poised to grab the lead in the seventh, after Sandoval singled on the 12th pitch of a spirited at-bat against Jeff Weaver. With runners at the corners and the middle infielders back, even a ground-ball double play would've scored the tiebreaking run. Instead, the result was more painful. Much more painful. Sandoval didn't get a chance to win it, either. With the tying runs on base in the ninth, Bochy pinch-hit Posey for Sandoval; the rookie struck out while chasing a high fastball from left-hander Hong-Chih Kuo and Renteria popped out to end it.
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