Baseball Lifer

The Giants come into Denver, and get a big 7-6 win over the Rockies at Coors Field.

Alex Wood made the start for the Giants, and the Rockies got to him for a run in the bottom of the first inning, as Brendan Rodger singled the opposite way to right to knock in Connor Joe. Antonio Senzatela, the starter for the Rockies pitched two innings, and then he left after hurting himself while he was warming up for the top of the third.

Former Giant, Ty Blach came in for the Rockies in the third, and the Giants then tied it that inning on a solo home run to left-center off the bat of Curt Casali, his second over the Giants’ last four games. Casali then hit a three-run blast to left in the fifth to give the Giants a 4-1 lead. However, this is Coors Field, as the Rockies scored two in the fifth, and one in the sixth to tie it.

It was 4-4 going to the seventh, and the right-hander, Ashton Goudeau, was brought in for the Rockies, Darin Ruf doubled to lead off the inning, and then Curt Casali, who I think should be the everyday catcher at this point, singled Ruf to third with his third hit of the night. The lefty, Lucas Gilbreath, came in for Colorado, and he walked Austin Slater to load the bases. Wilmer Flores then hit a ground ball to third that was bobbled by Rockies third-baseman, Ryan McMahon, who bobbled the ball, and allowed everyone to be safe. The Giants took a 5-4 lead, which was made 6-4 on a sacrifice fly by Mike Yastrzemski.

Then, go figure, the Rockies scored two in the bottom of the seventh to tie. Ryan McMahon tied the game with a single to atone for his error in the top of the inning.

Yaz then hit one out to the second deck in right to give the Giants the lead off Daniel Bard in the top of the ninth. Camilo Doval came in for the bottom of the ninth, which at Coors Field, is always scary. Doval walked C.J. Cron with one out, but that was the only blemish for Doval, who struck out Brendan Rodgers, and got Ryan McMahon to ground out to end the game.

John Brebbia, who pitched the eighth for the Giants, got the win; Bard got the loss; and Doval got his sixth save. The Giants improve to 21-14, but remain in third place, and a game and a half back of the Bums.

GAMEBALL:

Curt Casali

I think at this point, Curt’s the everyday catcher. He’s great in the clubhouse, and he is a natural leader, which is why pitchers seem to love throwing to him.

Casali has hit three home runs in the Giants’ last four games, capped off with two tonight, which was part of a 3-for-4 night at the plate. He wasn’t the greatest hitter last year, but he almost always seemed to pick up big hits when they counted. As for this year, his average is now up to .298. As I said, he’s the everyday catcher.

TIP OF THE CAP:

Yaz: Yaz knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly in the seventh, and then he had the biggest swing of the game in the ninth with his blast into the second deck out in right.

Camilo Doval: Yeah, you’d generally prefer a 1-2-3 inning out of your closer, but Doval converted the save up by just one in the bottom of the ninth at Coors Field, which is very hard to do.

Darin Ruf: 2-for-3 for Ruf tonight after coming in to pinch hit for Tommy LaStella in the fifth, the second of which a double that started the Giants’ two-run rally in the seventh.

Tommy LaStella: Speaking of LaStella, he has been dealing with a lot of injuries as of late, including an achilles injury that prevented him from being at 100% late last year. After suffering an injury at the end of Spring Training this year, he finally appeared in his first game of the regular season, as he got the start at second tonight.

Thairo: Since I gave Ruf a tip of the cap for his two-hit night, I might as well give Thairo one for his two hits.

Luis Gonzalez: This really sucks. Luis was on fire, but this is the harsh reality of Baseball. He was the guy with the options, so he was the one who had to go back to Sacramento. Hang in there, and keep doing what you’ve been doing, pal; you’re going to be a big part of this team later this season, when they’re making their run.

JOKER:

ROCKIES

Same story every year. The Rockies get off to a blazing-hot start out of the gate in April, and then they crash into the cold-bitter reality in May that they suck, when they start playing good teams.

SMACK OF THE STICK:

Tyler Rogers: Tyler Rogers is a lot like Russ Ortiz. Rogers is generally dominant, but he’ll have that one inning where everything goes sideways on him. The bottom of the seventh tonight was one of them, as he instantly surrendered the lead the Giants had just took in the top of the inning.

Brandon Crawford: An 0-for-4 night for Craw, who’s batting average dips to .203. If you don’t want me to think that Crawford only had a great year last season to get his new contract, then he better start swinging the bat again, and soon.

FLIP OF THE FINGER:

Dick Monfort: What’s the reason for the Rockies’ cold bitter reality mentioned above, you might ask? That they suck, because their owner, Dick Monfort, is an evil ghoul, who could put out a contending team every year if he wanted to, but thinks it’s best to only make the Playoffs two out of every five seasons. That’s right, not win the World Series two out of every five years: just make the Playoffs two out of every five years.

When Monfort was called out by a fan on an email in 2014, he told the fan that perhaps “Denver didn’t deserve the Rockies.” He also told another fan that same week not to come if he wasn’t happy.

Monfort saved his worst for this past off-season, as he was the top owner involved in the completely pointless and useless dick-waiving lockout of the Players that delayed start of this season. I suspect that he and other Owners wanted to knock off a month of the season, so they could save money by having to not put on as many telecasts, since local television contracts stipulate that teams can cancel up to 25 games, and make just as TV revenue as they do in a full 162-game season.

This is all despite the fact that the Rockies generally draw big crowds, and drew over 3,000,000 fans when they last went to the Playoffs in 2018. Monfort is not just an evil ghoul, he’s a complete fucking idiot, who thinks that it is more profitable to slash payroll and cut costs a bit, despite the fact that it will significantly lower attendance, then to contend every year, and draw 3,000,000. It is TERRIFYING that people like him run our game.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Tonight’s game showed just why we don’t need to worry at all about the Giants. As much as the Rockies such, they are still very dangerous at Coors Field, because it provides the greatest home-field advantage in the history of the game. The Giants held in there tough tonight, and they won, despite losing two leads. They just don’t let adversity get to them.

Look, we’re probably not going to win 107 games again, but neither are the Dodgers, and they showed their vulnerabilities over the weekend. All I can say is strap yourselves in, because we are in for another very wild race in the National League West this season.

Stephen