SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The first thing that must be said is that any right fielder in the majors would have charged the ball as Cody Ross did in the ninth inning Monday night, in a disastrous moment for the Giants that turned a game of beauty on the mound into a 2-1 loss to the Rockies.
Brian Wilson was trying to save what would have been Jonathan Sanchez's career-best 10th win. Dexter Fowler was on first base. Nobody was out. The Giants led 1-0.
Wilson fired a 96-mph fastball that shattered the bat of Carlos Gonzalez. Ross, hearing and seeing the bat break, instinctively ran in but quickly realized how well the ball was struck anyway. He retreated but had no chance. Once the ball cleared his head and rolled toward the wall in right-center, 30,224 fans knew Fowler was going to score the tying run.
It got much worse. Freddy Sanchez fielded Ross' throw and bounced a throw to third. The ball hit a sliding Gonzalez and rolled into a camera well beside the Giants' dugout. Gonzalez was awarded home plate on the error, and the game was lost.
"That was kind of bizarre, a broken-bat triple," Ross said after a number of teammates walked by to console him. "I've never seen anything like it."
The Giants hit three balls hard against Huston Street in the ninth, including a leadoff drive by Aubrey Huff that Ryan Spilborghs caught with his back to the left-field fence. The game ended with Buster Posey slamming his helmet to the ground after Street speared his line drive.
Though the Giants lost no ground to San Diego and Philadelphia for the division and wild card, as both lost as well, the Rockies snuck within two games of the Giants in both races. The Giants also fell to 3-4 with two games left in their final long homestand of the year.
"It was tough because Johnny went out and pitched a gem," Freddy Sanchez said. "It would have been a nice win. It's one of those bad beats. It's tough to take."
The second baseman said that in his rush to nail Gonzalez he got a poor grip on the ball, but said, "I should have made a better throw."
Ross also said he should have found a way to catch Gonzalez's triple.
Perhaps, too, the Giants could have scored more than once against Jorge De La Rosa after he walked the leadoff hitter in three straight innings. The Giants took advantage only once, after Huff and Pat Burrell walked to start the fourth. Posey, returning after two days off with a strained forearm, lined a single to center for the Giants' only run.
The Giants hit into three double plays, including a hard-hit one-hopper by Ross after Posey's single.
The only solace for the Giants was Jonathan Sanchez's effort. After 93 runs scored during the first six games of this homestand, a pitching duel finally broke out on a foggy evening and Sanchez was up to it.
Manager Bruce Bochy rewarded Sanchez for eight shutout innings by allowing him to start the ninth in a bid for his second career complete game. The other was his no-hitter last year. Sanchez got ahead of Fowler 0-2 but then threw four straight balls, most of them not close. The lefty said he tried too hard to get the out once he was ahead.
"He was throwing well," Bochy said. "It was hard to take him out after the way he ended the eighth inning,"
Gonzalez's broken-bat triple cost Sanchez the win and pinned the loss on Wilson, who also took his fourth blown save in 40 save chances this season.
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