Giants’ Rally Falls Short, Diamondbacks Prevail In Extras

The Giants’ comeback bid fell short on Tuesday night.

Brandon Belt’s game-tying two-run home run in the ninth inning erased a 4-2 deficit. Belt, who hit a walk-off single on Monday night, again did his damage as a pinch-hitter on Tuesday.

But Belt’s heroics would not lead to a win, as the game went into extra innings. Pablo Sandoval, who made a throwing error in the fifth inning, made another costly throw in the 11th inning. Belt couldn’t handle his one-hop throw, and the Diamondbacks capitalized, scoring two runs in the 11th to win the game 6-4.

Apr 23, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval (48) is tagged out at the plate by Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero (26) during the tenth inning at AT

With runners on second and third and two outs in the 10th inning, Hunter Pence singled. But Sandoval, who doubled two batters earlier, was thrown out by a good 10 feet attempting to score the game-winning run. Former Giant Cody Ross made a perfect throw to gun Sandoval out.

The home run ball has undeniably been Matt Cain’s undoing in 2013. He entered Tuesday having allowed five home runs in just four starts. Paul Goldschmidt, who entered Tuesday’s action with a .345 average and four home runs in 55 career at-bats at AT&T Park, notched that total to six with a two-run homer in the third inning. Now, Cain trails only Jeremy Hefner for the MLB lead in the home runs allowed department.

Cain yielded two runs in the first inning, but only was of those were earned. Crawford made a rather surprising error on the first ball that was hit in play. The runner who reached on the error, Gerrado Parra, scored after Cain surrendered two straight hits and one RBI groundout.

Andres Torres led off a two-run eighth inning with a leadoff single. Brandon Crawford tripled to easily score Torres from first, and Crawford would score on Hector Sanchez’s RBI groundout.

With the bases clear in the eighth, the Giants manufactured another rally that would chase Corbin from the game. Pagan singled with one out and Sandoval singled with two outs.

Pagan’s single summoned the hard-throwing David Hernandez from Arizona’s bullpen. If you’ll recall, Hernandez coughed up Arizona’s 4-2 lead in the eighth inning last night by serving up a Buster Posey two-run homer. And as things usually go, Posey and Hernandez locked horns again. But round two went to Hernandez, who jammed Posey with a fastball on his hands.

After the Giants’ bullpen pitched four scoreless innings, Santiago Casilla allowed two runs (one earned) to cough up the tie. His defense didn’t help him. Sandoval’s poor throw and Belt’s failure to save it was the main example of the poor defense. But Buster Posey let a fastball squirt past him, which allowed one run to score–Casilla was charged with a wild pitch, but it could’ve gone either way.

The gates opened when Parra doubled to give the Diamondbacks a 6-4 lead.