Hunter Pence and the Giants were in the final stages of authoring a dramatic Father’s Day story. But for a team that hasn’t written many fairytales or happy endings, Sunday wasn’t exactly a start.
After Pence delivered a go-ahead, pinch hit home run in the top half of the ninth inning, Giants closer Mark Melancon blew his fourth save opportunity of the season, and second in a row, as Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado smacked a walk-off three-run home run to send the Giants packing.
Arenado’s home run helped him become the first Giants opponent to hit for the cycle since Kelly Johnson on July 23, 2010 at Chase Field, and helped the Rockies to their first four-game sweep of San Francisco in franchise history.
The closer the Giants paid a record sum to this winter –$61 million– continues to struggle, and so does a team that dropped its season-high sixth straight game.
After allowing a pair of solo home runs in the top half of the seventh inning, Giants starter Ty Blach exited Sunday’s series-finale at Coors Field on the hook for the Giants’ loss, but Pence delivered a stunning two-run shot off of Rockies right-hander Jake McGee to put the Giants in position to win.
In the end, Arenado’s third extra base hit of the day and Melancon’s fourth blown save of the year ruined what was shaping up to be a memorable Father’s Day tale.
With the Giants ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Blach took the mound in front of a Coors Field crowd, which included his father, Randy, who beamed with pride as his son carved through a potent Rockies lineup.
But after a sharp six innings of work, Blach allowed solo home runs to Rockies shortstop Trevor Story and pinch hitter Pat Valaika in his final frame, and exited without a chance to put the finishing touches on a Giants feel-good victory.
Pitching in front of more than 100 family members and friends, Blach gave the Giants every opportunity to win Sunday, but lately, even that hasn’t been enough.
Though Blach tossed 6 and ⅔ innings of seven-hit ball at an always-lively Coors Field, Bruce Bochy’s lineup failed to feed off the competitive energy Blach brought to the hill until the top half of the ninth inning.
After the Giants’ leadoff hitter reached base in each of the first four innings, the first time San Francisco failed to force Rockies right-hander Tyler Chatwood immediately into the stretch provided a breakthrough in the fifth.
With two outs and center fielder Denard Span standing on second base, Crawford lofted a 95-mile per hour fastball over the gate in the left-field corner at Coors Field to give the Giants a 2-0 lead.
The home run marked the sixth of the season for Crawford, and his second opposite-field home run of the series. On Thursday night, Crawford launched the Giants’ first three-run home run of the season, but San Francisco couldn’t capitalize on it in a 10-9 walk-off loss.
Blach was brilliant through the first five innings of Sunday’s start, scattering three hits, two to Arenado, and two walks while striking out five Rockies hitters.
But in the sixth, Blach allowed a leadoff single to Rockies second baseman D.J. LeMahieu, who torched the Giants’ pitching staff all series long. Arenado, a notorious Giants killer who entered Sunday’s contest with 54 career extra-base hits against San Francisco, pelted a double into the left center field gap to score LeMahieu and put the tying run on second base.
Though Blach is not blessed with Madison Bumgarner-type stuff, the Giants left-hander is a gamer, and he proved it by working out of a sixth inning jam. Pop outs from first baseman Mark Reynolds and left fielder Ian Desmond followed by a groundout from Carlos Gonzalez helped keep the Giants ahead 2-1, and allowed Blach to exit the field with an emphatic fist pump.
But when Blach took the hill in the seventh, a pair of middle-in mistakes, one to Story and one to Valaika, knocked him out of the game and put the outcome in the hands of his teammates.
On Thursday and Friday, pitching and defense crushed the Giants’ chances as Matt Moore and Jeff Samardzija each allowed 11 hits in their starts while the team’s outfielders looked like they were trying to scale the Rocky Mountains in pursuit fly balls. On Saturday, the team’s season-long long slump with runners in scoring position proved to be its downfall, as San Francisco was non-competitive in a 5-1 defeat, its eighth-straight loss to the Rockies.
On Sunday, it was Melancon’s meltdown and early base running miscues that thwarted the Giants’ hopes of salvaging the series, as three separate mental errors killed early rallies.
In the top of the first inning, Buster Posey smoked a line drive that registered at 106 miles per hour off the bat, but LeMahieu gloved it to start a 4-6-3 inning-ending double play. The Giants could have avoided the twin killing, but instead of running full speed or sliding into second base, Crawford slowed up, Story beat him to the bag and the rest was history.
Had Crawford run with more of a purpose, center fielder Denard Span could have scored from third base. Instead, Story was a step ahead, and the Giants were left thinking what could have been.
The fact Span was still on third base was a result of his own base running miscue, as he froze at second on a Crawford line drive single with just one out. Instead of recognizing Story was shaded away from the second base bag, Span retreated, and the false step cost him, as he was forced to hold up at third instead of trotting home to help the Giants draw first blood.
In the third inning, it was Posey who committed a rare mental mistake, as he tried to dart over to third base on a groundball to Arenado off the bat of left fielder Austin Slater. Arenado fielded the ball cleanly, turned around, and ran Posey out of the base line to cut down a runner in scoring position.
For the fourth straight day, the Rockies’ ability to execute and the Giants’ self-inflicted wounds tilted the outcome in Colorado’s favor, and even though Arenado needed late-game heroics to send his teammates to their second walk-off win of the weekend, the Giants’ late collapse is yet another sign of the times.