SAN FRANCISCO — Giants closer Sam Dyson and catcher Nick Hundley had slightly different interpretations of the pitch that led to Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu’s two-run home run that erased the Rockies’ 8-7 deficit in the ninth inning and put them up 9-8. This earned Dyson a blown save and put the Giants in a hole they would not recover from.
The homer occurred on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, a 3-2, 91.4 mph sinker on the inside of the plate:
After Thursday’s game, both Dyson and Hundley offered their interpretations of how well the pitch was located.
“I mean, it was roughly where we wanted it,” Dyson said. “I figured we would go in, like we did two nights ago, and just didn’t get it far enough in there.”
Dyson was referring to the approach he and Buster Posey took Tuesday night against LeMahieu, where Dyson threw three straight inside sinkers, the third of which LeMahieu grounded to Joe Panik to start a game-ending double play.
Hundley, meanwhile, thought Dyson did exactly what he needed to on the pitch.
“It wasn’t a bad pitch,” Hundley said. “(LeMahieu) did a really good job getting to it, caught it out front. He’s a really good player and in a perfect world, he hits it on the ground, but he did a really good job elevating it, because it wasn’t a bad pitch.”
From manager Bruce Bochy’s perspective, the pitch was a “mistake,” perhaps due to the presence of the runner on first.
“Well, he just made a mistake there 3-2,” Bochy said. “The leadoff hitter got on, you know. He got a base hit there, and (it) puts a little pressure on you, and then he just made a mistake. The other night, he got the big double play, and that’s baseball.”
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