D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports
After a fairly perfect game Monday, in which the Giants’ offense (12 runs) and pitching (zero) was the best it has been all season, they ran into a wall.
Or at least a third-base coach.
Mauricio Dubon ran into both Ron Wotus and trouble, and the club’s overall sloppiness outweighed some of its late-game heroics as the Giants watched three Rockies home runs in the ninth and 10th translate to a tough-to-swallow 7-5 loss to the Rockies on Tuesday in front of 5,595 disappointed fans at Oracle Park.
The Giants (15-9) dropped just their third in 10 games and could not capitalize on any leftover momentum from Monday’s first blowout of the season. This game was marked by solid play bookmarked by early and late issues.
The late trouble first: Young fireballer Gregory Santos, who had been touched up in Saturday’s loss, allowed 10th-inning blasts to Ryan McMahon and C.J. Cron to dig a hole too large for the Giants to escape. McMahon’s was particularly majestic, a leadoff 449-foot shot over Triples Alley that just kept going and going.
An inning earlier, it was a more trusted Giants reliever who helped to cost the club the game. The Rockies went ahead in the top of the ninth on the third pitch Jake McGee threw. The closer has now allowed home runs in three of his past four appearances, this one a dead-center shot to Garrett Hampson that temporarily put the Rockies ahead.
Brandon Crawford had sent it to extras in the bottom of the ninth, his third career Splash Hit (and first since May 14, 2014) coming off Daniel Bard to breathe life into a game that seemed dead.
Crawford had his big offensive moments, as did plenty of the old guys. Crawford and Buster Posey each had three hits, and Brandon Belt had a pair, including a fifth-inning home run to right that put the Giants up, 3-2.
But the game was marked more by mistakes. It was not a well-pitched effort, Aaron Sanchez walking five batters. Crawford would make up for it, but his poor throw on what would have been a sixth-inning-ending double play loomed large and allowed Colorado to score. Dubon, though, had the most embarrassing moment.
Dubon ran through the stop sign and right into Wotus pic.twitter.com/XlxRV54w1T
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 28, 2021
Dubon, the victim of poor luck all year while batting, appeared to take that frustration to the basepaths. He was on first and Crawford on third with two outs in the fourth inning when Jason Vosler slugged his first extra-base hit of his young career, drilling a double to right field. The Rockies’ relay was on, and Wotus’ stop sign was up, alerting a chugging Dubon to hold at third.
Dubon apparently never saw him, continuing to sprint right through Wotus — and we do mean through him. He ran right into the third-base coach, which makes Dubon out (and he was easily tagged out at home for good measure). In a game that went 10 innings, that run was important.
And in a rotation that has been mostly flawless, Sanchez has been the hardest to figure out. He has gotten solid results but with diminished velocity that has prompted a quick hook from Gabe Kapler throughout the month.
The 82 pitches Sanchez threw matched his season high, but the five walks he served up were easily a high, too. The Rockies managed a single hit against him, but it was a first-inning Charlie Blackmon double that scored two.
Those would be the only runs he allowed through 4 2/3 innings, but he walked the bases loaded in the fifth and had to be lifted for Jose Alvarez. The lefty quickly induced a comebacker from Ryan McMahon, which he cleanly handled to escape the inherited jam.
Sanchez’s stuff was better — his four-seamer averaged 90 mph and sinker average 90.3 mph a start after he never cracked 90 mph — and he consistently used his pair of fastballs, changeup and plus curveball to induce weak contact. Colorado’s average exit velocity was 71.0 mph, which the Giants will take every day. But he could not last long yet again and is yet to get an out in the sixth inning.
The scariest moment of the game did not involve a Giant or Rockie.
In the top of the sixth, Colorado’s Sam Hilliard hit a foul ball directly into home-plate umpire Kerwin Danley’s mask. The longtime ump was down motionless for several minutes, surrounded by Giants trainers, before he was able to walk off while looking dazed. Ryan Additon took over calling balls and strikes.