Damon Bruce was fantastic on KNBR after the game. Line of the night: "This is the type of game that gets radio hosts fired! I'm sure Larry Krueger was sacked after a game like this!"
The three worst Giants losses of the last decade: Game 6 of the 2002 World Series (a game that myself and my fellow Giants fans will never get over), Game 4 of the 2003 NLDS (Jose Cruz Jr's infamous dropped fly-ball), and tonight's soul-crushing defeat in Colorado. People can argue the following: they had a decent 5-6 road trip, and they're only 4 games out of the Wild Card with 37 games left. Well, all of that is a bunch of bull!! The Giants, if they knew how to close games, would have had a 9-2 road trip. They should have swept the Reds and even more so, the Rockies, against whom they had leads in all four games of this series!!! This 4-game set against the Rockies proved more than anything else that the 2009 Giants are simply not good enough to hang with the class of the National League like the Dodgers and Rockies, and that they have absolutely no business playing October baseball.
The really good teams don't blow five straight games either with pathetic, unwatchable hitting or with bullpen meltdowns. The real contenders make productive outs to move runners up a base. The teams that deserve to play in the postseason grind-out their at-bats and come through with runners in scoring position, especially with less than 2 outs. The high-caliber squads, as Mike Singletary puts it, "impose their will" on their opposition. The Giants don't do any of the above.
It looked like it was going to be the win of not only this year, but the last six years. Brian Wilson buckled down and single-handedly extended the game to give his team a chance to break through. Of course, it should have never gotten to the 14th inning, because the Giants had the game right there for them in the top of the 9th inning after a leadoff double by Ryan Garko. But Bruce Bochy had a brain cramp and forgot to manage. He didn't have Rowand bunt the pinch-runner Joe Martinez to third and what ensued was three awful at-bats that left Martinez stranded at second base. How does a manager who knows his team has trouble scoring runs not play for the 1-run lead in the ninth inning with your closer waiting to come in? Awful game management by Bochy. The Giants finally did score in the top of the 14th inning, when Eugenio Velez brought home Edgar Renteria and Travis Ishikawa with an opposite-field triple. Randy Winn allowed an insurance run to score with some crafty baserunning on a groundball hit by Juan Uribe. The Giants had what looked like a secure 4-1 lead.
Then the nightmare began. All Brandon Medders had to do was lay a fastball right down the middle to get Dexter Fowler, who was completely out of the at-bat after fouling a pitch off his shin. But Medders failed on the easiest pitch of his career, and Fowler reached 1st base on the walk. Bruce Bochy summoned Justin Miller after Medders got Clint Barmes to pop out. Miller clearly wasn't over his Saturday-night clunker, as he allowed a single by Troy Tulowitzki, walked Chris Iannetta, and most egregious, WALKED RELIEF-PITCHER ADAM EATON!!! The walk to Eaton made the score 4-2 and then off of an 0-1 fastball from Merkin Valdez came the most haunting walk-off grand slam by Ryan Spilbourghs. Medders and Miller showed tonight why the Giants got them off the scrap heap for nothing: Medders couldn't get a hitter on one leg out and Miller walked a pitcher who's had 13 at-bats and no hits all year!
The Colorado Rockies are playing like a team of destiny, as they are now 53-26 since they replaced Clint Hurdle with Jim Tracy as manager. They will make the playoffs, and they will be a force to be reckoned with come October. With the likes of Jason Marquis, Ubaldo Jiminez, and Jorge De La Rosa, they boast a strong starting staff. The back of their bullpen is solid with Franklin Morales, Rafael Betancourt, and Huston Street. They play fantastic defense (Troy Tulowitzki is a hell of a player), and also...they kind of a do a good job swinging those bats. Watch out Dodgers, because these Rockies just might snatch away that NL West title.
Barry Zito stepped up today and delivered another great outing. But right on cue, the Giants didn't back him up at all. On any other team, Zito would have 13 wins. Yes, his command was off as he issued six walks, but bottom line, he held the Rockies to only 1 run in 6 innings. That is fantastic pitching. He lowered his sparkling post-All-Star-break ERA to 2.06. Plain and simple, I've never seen any team in my life squander so many stellar outings by its starting staff. Absolutely pathetic.
I'm going to go fume for the rest of the night.
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