Jeff Samardzija was among the major league leaders in strikeout to walk ratio in 2017. Unfortunately for him and the Giants, his command has been less tight in 2018, and his ERA has suffered accordingly.
And in Thursday’s night series opener against the Colorado Rockies, they did the Giants in, as three of the Rockies’ five runs originated via a walk, including two in the 12th, which proved to be the difference in a 5-3 Rockies win.
The Rockies jumped on Samardzija in the second inning, as Daniel Castro plated Trevor Story, who had singled, and Ian Desmond, who had walked, on a two-run double, and Rockies starter Chad Bettis punctuated the inning with a bloop single to right-center to score Castro, the Rockies’ first run of the game.
Though Samardzija had his struggles early, he settled down and ultimately posted a quality start, lasting 6.2 innings and preventing another run from scoring.
The Giants’ offense answered when Austin Jackson hit a double in the third and later scored on a Gorkys Hernandez sacrifice fly, but struggled to find any offense for a while after that. But they stumbled, or perhaps more appropriately, walked into a rally in the sixth. Buster Posey drew a two-out base on balls, and Brandon Belt promptly made it hurt, launching a deep home run to right-center and tying the game. The home run, which barely cleared the right-center field wall, was initially ruled a double, but was overturned after a replay review.
The two teams mostly stalemated until the 10th inning, when the Rockies threatened with runners on first and second. Carlos Gonzalez grounded out to end the threat.
The Giants threatened with a Brandon Belt double in the 11th, but Evan Longoria followed Gonzalez’s lead, grounding out to third to end the inning.
The Rockies finally broke through in the 12th after Pierce Johnson and Cory Gearrin combined to walk the bases loaded. With two out, Gonzalez blooped a single to right, scoring Chris Ianetta and Charlie Blackmon.
The series continues Friday in San Francisco.