Giants’ Bullpen Collapses Late In Loss To Mets
July 9, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; New York Mets catcher Anthony Recker (20, center) and first baseman Josh Satin (13) are congratulated by shortstop Omar Quintanilla (3) after Recker hit a two-run home run during the sixth inning against the San Francisco Giants at AT
The San Francisco Giants are inching closer and closer to the “sellers” level of the trade deadline triangle, if that makes sense. They lost a 16-inning marathon on Monday night in spite of Tim Lincecum’s solid outing.
Barry Zito wasn’t quite as sharp on Tuesday, but the bullpen was worse. Jose Mijares, Jeremy Affeldt and Jake Dunning all surrendered at least one run. Dunning inherited a bases-loaded jam mustered by Affeldt. After Affeldt intentionally walked David Wright, Marlon Byrd greeted Dunning with a grand slam to secure the Mets’ 10-6 victory.
The big theme of the aforementioned disastrous eighth inning: walks. New York took three free passes, including Wright’s intentional walk. After Mijares allowed Omar Quintanilla to reach on a single, Affeldt was summoned, and he gave up a single and his wild pitch allowed the runners to advance. That set the stage for another walk, perhaps strategic. Daniel Murphy hit a shallow fly ball, but Gregor Blanco’s throw was wide and late.
Mijares escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the seventh. His eighth inning wasn’t much of an encore, though.
The last time the Giants scored more than five runs was June 14, a 6-0 win over the Atlanta Braves. They did just that on Tuesday against Dillon Gee, but that was hardly enough to compensate for Zito’s blunders.
The lefty, who entered Tuesday with a 1.98 ERA at home in 2013, yielded five runs over six innings. He walked four and struck out five while issuing seven hits.
The walks theme surfaced in the fourth. Zito walked Wright, allowed a single to Byrd and walked Josh Satin before Andrew Brown’s single through the left side of the infield scored a pair of runs. Brown didn’t put much of a charge into it, but it trickled into left field at a slow pace, which allowed the back-runner to score. Quintanilla capped a three-run inning with an RBI single.
New York’s three-run fourth matched San Francisco’s two-run second, plus more. Much like Brown’s single, the Giants didn’t do much to score. Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt both singled, but Pence scored on Anthony Recker’s wild throw and Belt scored on Guillermo Quiroz’s ground ball. Recker’s two-run homer in the sixth broke the 3-3 tie.
The Giants scored runs in the sixth and seventh to inch within a run, and Pablo Sandoval’s sacrifice fly in the seventh notched the game at 5-5.
The Mets’ five-run eighth was too much for the Giants to overcome, though. A flash of a comeback surfaced in the ninth when Nick Noonan singled, but that door was promptly slammed shut.