This was a tight game. Verlander showed real command, scattering just three hits across six innings. He had six Ks and controlled the game well. JV’s last two starts have been his best of the year.
The Giants scored two in the fourth, and the bullpen held until the 9th.
Sigh.
We have no closer.
Ryan Walker entered with a 2- 0 lead, and immediately loaded the bases with nobody out on two singles and an HBP.
Bob Melvin sent J.P. Martinez out to talk to Walker before a run crossed the plate. Walker must have said something to convince him he wasn’t TOTALLY WRONG. So what did he say?
‘Cause this is what he did.
Walker gave up the RBI single and the walk off double on back-to-back pitches.
He gave up four hits and three earned runs and retired no one. The Giants lost because Ryan Walker couldn’t close. It was all put on him.
Should BoMel have pulled Walker after three batters faced? Four with one run in? Who else would you turn to?
Closing is not easy. It takes a steely nerve. Ryan Walker is trying to get there and last night was another frustrating bump in the road. We all watched Camilo Doval go through it, now it’s Ryan’s turn. Shake it off, kid. Tomorrow’s another day.
Tough loss.
Crazily, the Bums lost in an equally painful way, perhaps more so. Yoshinobu Yamamoto had a no-hitter until two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning in Baltimore and gave up the game-winning home run. It went from no-hitter for one team’s pitcher to a walk off for his opponent!
The Mets lost, which means the Giants didn’t lose ground in the hunt for the second wild card.
But the Pads won on a night we lost. Every time that happens from now until the end of the season, it’s the ringing of a death knell .
Still, because the Bums lost, and we have seven left against them, our odds of making the playoffs actually increased 1/5th of one percent – to 4.4%, on a night when we lost.
All together now:
It’s still mathematically possible …
It’s still mathematically possible …
It’s still mathematically possible …
Giants Baseball Corner 