Giants drop first game in Coors, 6-4

There are Coors Field games where it seems like everyone's playing on the moon, where the ball floats over the fence on check swings, and it never happens for the good guys. There are Coors Field games where the outfield seems six acres deep and the third base line and first base line meet at a 120º angle. This was one of the latter games. This is not how Abner Doubleday meant it to be when he came back from Vietnam and invented baseball.

Oh, sure, you can argue that the Giants can take advantage of the thin air and spacious outfields, too. Sure, you can say it's literally an even playing field, and ... yeah ... well ... Coors Field is stupid. There's my recap, pal.

Seriously, though, I'm sure it's fun to watch the Rockies if you watch 81 games in Coors Field, but it's just so danged jarring to watch it nine games every season after getting used to AT&T Park, Dodger Stadium, and Petco Park for nearly 100 games. You have expectations off the crack of the bat. Then the camera angle changes, and there's so much outfield. How did they get that past the zoning board? The planning commission? I'm going to raise hell at the next council meeting.

All of which is a long-winded way of suggesting that I was perfectly fine with Chris Heston on Friday night. He's never going to miss a lot of bats, which means he's probably the kind of pitcher who should fake a case of dropsy before getting on the plane to Denver. The location of his 11 hits, according to Gameday Classic (sinkers unless otherwise noted):

1. Low-outside corner to a lefty
2. Outside edge of the zone to a lefty
3. Inside edge to a righty
4. First-pitch curveball in the middle of the zone to a righty
5. Curveball on the outside edge to a lefty
6. Changeup below the strike zone to a lefty
7. Low-outside corner to a lefty
8. Low-inside curveball to a righty
9. High, middle-of-the-plate sinker to a lefty
10. Outside edge of the zone to a righty
11. Outside edge of the zone to a lefty

Of all 11 hits, there were exactly two pitches in the middle of the zone, and one of them was a get-it-in curve. Only one pitch was abjectly horrible, location-wise.

Now, does that mean Heston is completely without blame? That this isn't a discouraging start? Not at all. If Johnny Cueto hits those spots, he's probably working on a shutout. It's a concern that Heston doesn't have that kind of stuff. All the location in the world might not be able to help him. Still, I encourage you to play around with that link and see the locations for yourself. These weren't bad pitches. In theory. If Heston keeps making them and they keep getting hit, well, that's a problem.

Somehow I don't think that will happen. Just one of those nights. Coors'd. May Heston throw 498 shutout innings of dubious quality against the Rockies at AT&T.

★★★

Before railing on Casey McGehee, let's pause to mention that Buster Posey is hitting a quiet .234 and was 0-for-4 tonight, with four runners left on base. Bad slumps happen to good players. It's still April, and were still in the fact-finding phase of the season.

Before railing on McGehee, let's note that if he gets 600 at-bats, he's on pace for 91 double plays. You know that's not going to happen. You know that's not going to happen. Keep the quips in the holster. It's like someone being on pace for 80 home runs after a hot month. It's amazing, fun, fantastic, but not going to last. It never does. There's absolutely no way McGehee is this bad. We're just watching the 15-homer month of double plays, and it seems worse than it is.

Before railing on McGehee, let's remember that he's a Giant, and, why, we root for Giants! Wish our new hero the best of luck, for he wears the garb of our chosen 25!

With that out of the way, can I just put out there that I'm not having a lot of fun watching Casey McGehee play baseball right now? I don't want to be a jerk about it, but it's not fun. There's still a lot of time for it to be fun, alright. Let's wait for that.

★★★

On the other hand, here's Brandon Belt going the other way. Taking tough pitches. When he was sucking lemons earlier in the season, it was impossible to remember what Good Belt looked like. It was a patchwork quilt of foggy memories, getting fuzzier with each Swiss cheese swing on a high, outside fastball.

Now we can remember. Oh, right. That guy. That guy is generally pretty good. Belt is spitting on the low breaking balls now, and he's using the entire field. I went on a hike last weekend, and there was a tunnel that went under a road. When I got in there, I told my family to freeze: Everything was completely dark. Everyone needed to wait for their eyes to adjust ... but they never did. "Hold on, I have this!" I shouted, and I turned on my phone's flashlight. It didn't work. It didn't work! I still couldn't see well. This was a tunnel of dark magic!

Then I took off my sunglasses. That's how I figure Belt's slump was. One day, dude just realized he was wearing mental sunglasses at the plate and he took them off. If you can explain how he looks so much different, so much better, i'd like to read it.

★★★

Update on #PETITWATCH: The Giants are now 0-6 when Petit enters a game. He has not entered a game with a lead so far this season, and the Giants have not come back for him. He does not have a record, existing in 0-0 limbo for the rest of time. Did he really come into the game? You cannot prove that he did. He is in baseball purgatory, neither dead or alive, throwing innings that are undetectable on a quantum level.

Pray for Yusmeiro Petit.

★★★

Justin Maxwell is still a treasure, apparently.

I idly mentioned Giancarlo Stanton when describing Maxwell yesterday, and while that was obviously hyperbole, danged if this home run didn't remind me of Stanton. The frame. The stance. The 15-feet-off-the-ground trajectory.

He's not Stanton, of course. He's a valuable part of the team, hopefully for the rest of the year, though. For the last few games, he's been the best player on the team.