Costly win keeps Giants in postseason hunt

Sobering thought to start the night: Monday’s meltdown in LA marked the fifth time in September, IN SEPTEMBER, San Francisco blew a game it led in the ninth. Flip those into the win column and Tuesday’s contest was for the NL West lead. Instead, the floundering Giants were hanging onto a chair by a fingernail while knowing the music was about to stop. Oh, and they try to do so while losing two more vital pieces.

Head first didn't work out too well for Crawford, (Getty Images)

'Twas against this backdrop that Johnny Cueto ducked and weaved his way to victory in a game his team absolutely had to have in a 2-0 way-too-long-for-nine-innings victory at Chavez Latrine, uh, Dodger Stadium.

Trailing the Dodgers by seven games with 11 to play it’s a matter of when, not if, LA clinches the division. Even winning out, a mean feat for a team that had lost six of ten, would mean help from Colorado and San Diego would be required so let’s just take an eraser to that white board. The battle is for the wild card, with the G-Men locked with St. Louis and New York for the last postseason spots and knowing the Cards were rolling Colorado like a log. The Mets were toppled by Atlanta, meaning at the end of the night the Giants would be tied for the fourth spot with both or out of the frame.

It was a comedy of errors early on, minus the laugh track. Eduardo Nunez opened the game with a single but was promptly caught learning by Dodgers starter Rich Hill. An inning later Brandon Crawford tried to go first to third on a single to left and not only got gunned down but got a dislocated left pinky for his trouble.

On the flip side Cueto instituted his own version of softball’s international tiebreaker rule, putting the first two hitters aboard in each of the first two stanzas but wriggling off the hook. He’d also return the favor in the pick-off department, getting Josh Reddick for the first out of the fourth.

San Francisco’s first scoring opportunity came in the top half of that inning. Singles by Buster Posey and Hunter Pence combined with a walk to Joe Panik to load the bases with two out. Of course they didn’t score; Brandon Belt went down looking for what seemed to be the 1,164^th time this season. Timing is everything, right.

Nunez finally broke the drought in the fifth, taking a ball 361 feet to left over the 360-foot sign for a two-out solo shot. Between the two clubs it was the 12^th hit of the evening but they were a combined zero for nine with runners in scoring position, which didn’t take into account the base running blunders on both sides. Any way you slice it the Giants had a 1-0 edge at the game’s midway point, giving us plenty of time to shudder at the thought of handing this 30-games-blown bullpen a one-run lead.

Pop goes the pitcher. (Getty Images)

Speaking of bullpens, the Dodgers’ crew has an interesting stat. Thirty-five times this year the starter went five innings or less yet the bullpen held up and gave LA a win. For all of the injuries, slumps, rotation meltdowns and assorted blunders, there’s your campaign right there.

Hill took care of the five-inning part, departing after that number and 77 pitches. Meanwhile, Cueto kept plugging along as the Dodgers squandered more chances than the class nerd at a kegger overrun by a drunken toga-clad sorority. 

Some of those chances were gifts, most notably provided by so spotty play from the Giants’ non-shortstop shortstop, Ehire Adrianza, who butchered plays in the fifth and sixth that Crawford makes with Johnny Lemaster strapped to his back.

Any hope to keep the bullpen out of the equation disappeared soon after the second Adrianza bozo effort when Cueto strained a groin muscle and had to exit, leaving Steven Okert, a guy who wasn’t on the roster three weeks ago, a two-on and one-out Yasiel Puig pickle. Madison Bumgarner was no doubt lobbying to make a “relief” appearance. Why not, there certainly wasn’t a space for him in the trainers’ room.

Okert fanned Puig then did the same to Kike Hernandez to send the Giants to the seventh up 1-0. His reward was his first Major League at-bat (he struck out) and another inning of work (scoreless despite a two-out single), sending fans to Baseball Prospectus to figure out why Okert wasn’t on a Major League roster for much of ’16 while Santiago Casilla was blowing up like a Samsung Galaxy 7.

Will Smith’s quiet eighth left Giants fans squirming at the prospect of nursing yet another one-run lead into the opposition’s final at-bat. They didn’t have to. With one gone in the top of the ninth, Belt finally squared up afastball from Grant Dayton and deposited it in the right field pavilion. That handed a slightly bigger advantage to new/old closer Sergio Romo.

For one of the few times this season, fans were treated to a ninth inning absent drama. Romo struck out Puig, got Andre Ethier on a grounder to second, and fanned Chase Utley to end it. A star is (re)born. Long live the slider.

Eduardo Nunez provides half the San Frncisco offense. (Getty Images)

San Francisco held an 11-9 edge in the hit department and had the big blows from Nunez and Belt. They, along with Posey, registered two hits apiece with Crawford, Pence, Adrianza, Gorkys Hernandez and Jarrett Parker logging the rest. Despite their hit total, the Dodgers were zero for ten with RISP.

Cueto scattered eight hits over his 5 1/3 innings, striking out six and walking a pair en route to his 17^th (and hopefully not last) win of the year. Okert fanned three against one hit in his 1 2/3 frames, with Smith and Romo finishing it up.

Time of game: three hours and 36 minutes. That's what happens when 11 hurlers take the hill; and can you believe the Giants only used four?

Eleven games remain with the Giants, Mets and Cardinals sharing identical 80-71 records. By October 3^rd two will be readying for a winner-take-all battle while the third pats itself on the back for a winning record (probably) and making fishing plans.

  

Matt Moore (11-11, 4.06 ERA), who came one out short of a no-hitter in his last LA appearance, gets the call in Wednesday’s series finale while Kenta Maeda (15-9, 3.24) goes for the Smurfs. 

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