The Giants were fortunate to have a chance to win at the end of a game dominated by Cardinals SP Michael Wacha, but a strange play be Brandon Crawford put them behind and Buster Posey's bid for a game winning HR fell just about 1 foot short. Key Lines:
Brandon Crawford- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .269. Crawford drove in the Giants lone run of the night with a 2-out double to left-CF. Then, in the bottom of the 8'th inning with runners at first and third with 1 out, Mark Reynolds hit a slow chopper to Crawford who charge in from SS. Tomlinson was on the 2B bag, but looking a bit wide-eyed. Crawford appeared to have trouble getting a grip on the ball and decided to take it to the bag himself. He then whirled and threw the ball out of Belt's reach on the home plate side of 1B as the winning run scored. Had the throw been on line, it looked like it would have beaten Reynolds by a full step or two. Not sure if Crawford was frozen by something he saw in Tomlinson or if he just couldn't get a grip on the ball. I tend to favor the latter based on what I saw.
Chris Heston- 4.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 5 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 3.34. Heston struggled through the 4.2 IP, throwing 104 pitches. Still, he left the game with his team having a chance to win.
Hunter Strickland- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 0 K. ERA= 1.75. Strickland was the victim of the weird play I described above, but he got himself into that position by giving up a 3 bagger to Stephen Piscotty with just 1 out.
Buster Posey came up as a PH with 2 outs and a runner on first base after Andrew Susac drew a 2-out walk. He hit a high pitch to R-CF. I did not think he got all of it and didn't think it had a chance off the bat, but the ball carried to the top of the fence where it was caught to end the game. Hearbreak!
The Loss dropped the Giants to 3 games behind the NL West leading Dodgers and 4 games behind the Cubs for the last Wild Card playoff spot.
Ryan Vogelsong tries to even the series tomorrow facing Lance Lynn.
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I'll admit I was pretty PO'd right after that play in the bottom of the 8th, but after replaying it several times, I think you're right on with your assessment of the whole situation.
ReplyDeleteAlex Pavlovic (http://www.csnbayarea.com/giants/rewind-tough-hop-leads-late-loss-giants) explained the play this way, "First, the ball was hit hard enough that Crawford had a shot at ending the inning with a double play rather than trying to get the out at home. Then it short-hopped Crawford, riding up on his hands as different scenarios flashed through the Gold Glove candidate's head. The hop kept Crawford from getting a clean grip, and that kept him from having much of a shot at shoveling a perfect feed to Kelby Tomlinson. Instincts took over.
'I thought the fastest way was to take it myself,' he said. 'We needed a double play.'
Crawford got to the bag quickly and touched it with his right foot as Brandon Moss came in at him hard. He spun and fired for first, but the throw was off.
'I just didn't get all the way around,' he said. 'It was one where I'm trying to use my instincts. Most of the time it works out, unfortunately it didn't.'
That play wouldn't have meant as much had we scored Tomlinson from third when we only had one out I believe.
Frustrating night for sure, but not the end of the world.
I don't get down on Crawford. The, before last nights game, lead all SS' with 20 Defensive Runs Saved. He's playing at All-Star level. He's got a great glove and arm. But every now and then, things are just not going to work out. You expect the hop to go one way, it goes a bit different and you're over-running the ball, or hits the heel of your glove and you struggle to make a play that you make 99 times out of 100.
DeleteIf they were perfect automatons, we wouldn't need to play the game.
Man, it was such a tough loss though it was a great game if you loved pitching. The Cardinals pitchers were pretty much on top of it most of the night though the Giants made it interesting at the end. Heston was pretty shaky and made the mistake with Molina, but give him credit for not melting down when he got himself into the 4th inning jam and working it out on a night he was struggling with command.
ReplyDeleteIt was too bad about the Crawford play. But I'd looked up SS defensive stats yesterday before the game and Crawford lead all MLB SS' with 20 defensive runs saved before yesterday's game so I'm hardly going to point fingers. Even great players will have bad things happen on occasion and not everything works out like we hope.