Giants score two runs in Coors Field, lose Matt Cain to hamstring injury

Alright, recap time! Don't know what you'd rather be doing on a Friday night, but this here is the lifeblood of the website. Just gonna check my notes real quick ...

[cracks knuckles]

Okay, boy, that sure isn't a lot to work with. And I have no idea why Albert Suarez isn't up there, considering he was the secret hero of this dumb game. But we'll start from the top.

For the second game in a row, a recap starts with an injury update. Matt Cain left the game in the second inning with a hamstring strain. It's better than a shoulder strain. It's better than elbow discomfort. It's better than a neverending stream of beetles pouring out of his nostrils and eye sockets before they skitter into a horrified crowd. It's still an injury, and Cain is almost certainly going on the disabled list. Right when he was getting some momentum, too.

This wasn't an especially Coors Field loss, but if we can just talk for a moment about how Beelzebub has a timeshare under the rotten earth there, that would probably advance the conversation.

Things could have been worse, and that's the goal of this recap, to remind you of this. Albert Suarez could have gone the full Mazzaro, giving up run after run after run after run, forcing Bruce Bochy to pull him and wreck the rest of the bullpen. Or, it didn't have to be his fault, as he could have been forced to leave the game after a comebacker off his shin. This game could have came at the end of a stretch where the Giants lost 13 out of 14, robbing you of whatever limited perspective you might have now.

As is, it was a fifth starter's game in Coors, and the Giants lost, 5-2. That doesn't sound so abominable, does it?

Bless Suarez for making that part possible, because while he wasn't perfect, he was plenty good enough for Coors mop-up work, and he did a magnificent job. Three runs in five innings doesn't sound like much, but it was a bullpen saver, and he allowed only five hits and a walk in those five innings.

Those five hits were all doubles, of course, which didn't help. But at the very least, Suarez made history, becoming the only reliever in baseball history to allow five hits and five doubles. There have been starting pitchers who've done it, but in the 100,000+ games of baseball on record, a reliever has never done it. Feel blessed, baseball fan. That's the thing about the ol' ballpark, you see something new ev

* * *

When the Giants give up five runs in Coors, there's no sense spending that much time on the pitching. Like it was their fault, entirely. The Giants scored twice in Coors Field, and it took a two-out hit to get that second run in garbage time. It's an adorable quirk when the Giants are winning just about every game. When the pitchers give up more than a single run, though, the faults are so easy to identify.

How can a team with this much discipline consistently do this poorly in hitter's counts? Note that I'm not talking about discipline in terms of walks -- this was just the second game all season in which the Giants didn't draw a single walk -- but in terms of balancing count leverage with aggressiveness. It's not just enough to take pitches, like you're facing a twitchy 12-year-old pitching for the first time. Take the bad pitches, jump on the good pitches, et cetera. And it's almost like the Giants had that down.

First pitches against Tyler Chatwood
Balls: 12
Strikes called: 2
Strikes swinging (including fouls): 5
Balls in play (out): 5
Ball in play (no out): 1

Those first-pitch outs were on hittable pitches, too. Here's Gregor Blanco against a first-pitch fastball:

Denard Span against a first-pitch fastball:

Brandon Crawford against a first-pitch hanging curve:

It's not like the outs were loud, either. They were pitches to hit, and the Giants couldn't hit them. When the pitches weren't pitches to hit, they laid off them, for the most part. When a hitter gets to a 1-0 count in the National League, the average OPS in that situation jumps 50 points. The Giants consistently got into 1-0 counts. They couldn't do anything.

I'd say it's all Tyler Chatwood -- and he did great, sure -- except the Giants haven't been scoring runs all month. It's like they're baking a complicated recipe and missing a key ingredient. Baking soda. Or baking powder. One of the bakings. They're almost there in so many respects, but they're scoring like it's 2011. That's a rough path back to the postseason.

Or, to put it another way, when Buster Posey hit his first triple since 2014, it was a true what was that moment. It slapped me out of a stupor, don't know about you. It was a line drive with carry, and it sailed over an outfielder's head? What was that?

Again, you don't get to be too weird after a winning jag like the Giants have enjoyed, but that doesn't mean you can't be worried about the offense. This was supposed to be a complete baseball team. After about a month, the incompleteness is freaking me out.