With two outs in the 6th, the Rockies up 8-7, Mickey Moniak greeted Reiver Sanmartin, San Francisco’s third pitcher of the inning, with a punched single into left.
One run scored as left fielder Turner Hill overran the ball, allowing Moniak to take second and a second run to race home. The top of the half started with the Rockies in a one-run hole. After that single punctuating a four-score rally, the half-inning ended with them in possession of a commanding lead that would only grow as the game progressed.
A rough frame for Sam Hentges, JT Brubaker, and Sanmartin for sure. And only a brief dip into the weeds of the inning is required to recognize that rough isn’t a strong enough word.
Four walks were handed out in the 6th. Tack on a wild pitch and a hit batter — that’s six gifts of 90 feet. 540 feet of hassle-free, ‘round the bases travel before Moniak’s 80 MPH punch — Colorado’s first and only hit in the inning — turned the diamond into a carousel. Hentges faced four batters, walking two and retiring two. Brubaker came in as the fireman and bag the third out; instead he spiked a change-up that catcher Drew Cavanaugh lunged to get in front of. Cavanaugh deadened the ball but lost track of it as it trickled comically out behind him. Everyone on the field and the stands could see where the ball ended up except for the desperate catcher, and those brief moments of frantic searching was enough for Zac Veen to race home and tie the game. A wild pitch that ended up about six inches from the plate.
That unfortunate break (along with some excellent aggressive base running) left Brubaker rattled. He walked Amador, then on four pitches, forced the bases loaded with another free pass to Jake McCarthy. In an 0-2 count, he plunked Cole Carrigg to surrender the lead and bring Moniak up to the plate.
As awful and clumsy and amateurish and goofy and embarrassing and u-g-l-y as that 6th inning, it was not an anomaly. That 2-run single was just Colorado’s fifth hit of the day, and yet, somehow, they had scored ten runs. That kind of production doesn’t come without some generous handouts.
Starter Blade Tidwell walked five over 4.1 innings, though he limited Colorado to just three hits they still tagged him for six runs. In the 2nd, two walks and two singles preceded number-9 hitter Amador’s 2-out, 3-run shot to right. Tidwell would walk two more before being pulled in the 5th for Hentges, and both would eventually reach home after a double by Carrig and Moniak sac fly. Keaton Winn surrendered a walk and another 3-run homer before he recorded an out in the 7th.
Eight of the 11 walks (10 BB + 1 HBP) gifted by the Giants came around to score. It’s the 38th time this year that a pitching staff has walked at least 10, and the second time (their 16-2 loss to Milwaukee on June 1st) in which San Francisco has walked as far onto the wild side. It’s just the 15th game in which the team walked at least ten while giving up 9 or fewer hits.
38? 15? Doesn’t that feels like a lot? Almost commonplace, even. I mean, what we did is just another day at the ballpark for the Rockies — they worked ten walks against the Diamondbacks four days ago. If we really want to wallow around in this suck, let’s pile on the other crimes and misdemeanors. Sunday’s loss was the fourth time in the 21st century that a Giants team has handed out at least ten walks, hit at least one batter, thrown at least one wild pitch, committed at least one error, and surrendered at least ten runs in a game, with the most recent franchise collapse coming in a 14-3 loss to the Phillies in 2024.
Less common, but 2024 feels very close. There’s still some level of precedence for the bad we witnessed this afternoon. Does that make it worse? Absolutely! Not only did we get treated to one of the worst pitched games a team can put together against one of the worst teams in baseball — but it’s not even one-of-a-kind, barely even unique.
If you’re chasing that feeling of distinctive despair, consider how one-sided the incompetence was. This loss was far from a team effort. The offense scored 7 runs — that’s a solid performance. The last time a Giants team scored as many while also committing all that aforementioned nonsense was 1979.
What will really salt the wound was how nice the start of this game was thanks to the offense. The bats kept up their groove from yesterday, going 5-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Six of their runs came with two outs. Rafael Devers hustled out a double in the 1st and came home for the game’s first run on a Bryce Eldridge single. Next ups, Devers responded to Amador’s 3-run shot with one of his own in the very next half-inning — he even put his in the water for his first Splash Hit. Lead-off extraordinaire, Drew Gilbert bagged another RBI knock. Turner Hill collected one too for his first Major League hit, and Buddy Kennedy worked a bases loaded walk in the 5th, earning the San Francisco arms their third lead of the day.
All of that didn’t matter. The seven Giants’ arms (well, five in particular) were dead-set on their artlessness. Everything the offense gave to them was repackaged and offered up to their opponents — a turn even more vexing considering zero walks were handed out yesterday. (That kind of 180 might explain why the Giants have yet to win four games in a row).
A 13-7 loss, and a 6-7 season series loss to the Rockies (their first since 2020). Truly a fitting end to the Battle of the Bad.