Giants avoid sweep again as bullpen, fielding falters

There’s no way to blame Bruce Bochy for this one. I’m not a 100-pitch zealot, but Lincecum looked tired. He walked Shane Victorino on four pitches after dominating the little twit all day.

I’m not even going to blame Brian Wilson. Chase Utley’s a great hitter who turned around a fastball for a single. Ryan Howard was the tying run, and Wilson teased him with several well-placed cutters on the outside corner that just missed. Though Wilson hung a slider to Jayson Werth that was fouled away, the rest of the at-bat was filled with perfectly thrown corner fastballs, including one that could have ended the game. Werth hit a bloop. Nate Schierholtz was playing doubles defense, but in the wrong direction. Game tied. It happens.

I’m not going to blame Jeremy Affeldt...wait, maybe a little bit. But every reliever has his thorn, just like every season has a sad, sad loss. At least the anti-Romo contingent that crawled out from under a rock after the Manny Ramirez home run will go back from whence they came. Affeldt has collected quite a few "Wet the Bed Free" cards over the past year, so it’s hard to be that livid.

Not going to blame Sergio Romo, either. He got out of the jam in the bottom of the tenth, and sometimes relievers hang sliders to scrubs like Wilson Valdez.

Can’t blame Eugenio Velez because it’s not his fault that his lunkheaded manager considers him a defensive replacement when he plays baseball like Fred Lewis on acid. So I guess that’s almost like blaming Bochy, but I digress.

You know what? Everything up there was very fair and measured. So if there’s such a thing as baseball karma, one of those who escaped blame will win it in extra innings. Velez, I’m looking in your direction. You have runners at second and third with one out in a one-run game. It’s all you.

...

Ah, screw it, I’m blaming Velez. Nice game, you hack.