Giants score many runs, still lose. Buster Posey hurt.

You know what happened tonight without needing to read a recap. You knew what was going to happen before the game even started. You were born knowing what was going to happen.

The Giants went to Coors Field, scored six runs and lost by three.

That is the way of games like these. And if you’re really lucky and it’s a September game in Colorado, then boy howdy, are you in for a treat. Do you like pitchers? Of course you do! Here’s 16 of them in one game! Two Giants pitchers made their MLB debut in the same inning! The game took an extra half hour, but that doesn’t matter to you. Not at all.

/takes a long gulp from a diet cola

Not. At. All.

It’s easy to shrug and say “Coors Field, man.” And that’s probably accurate. But as Doug and I have been going off on tangents about on the McCovey Chroncast for a while now, this team is incredibly frustrating. Not just because they lose, but because of how they lose. No two aspects ever seem to be in play at any given time. And tonight, well it seemed like none of them were working except the top third of the lineup.

Ty Blach gave up five earned runs. The bullpen gave up four additional runs. Runners were left in scoring position left and right, despite the top third of the lineup going 8-for-13 with two walks.

And then you look at yesterday’s game where Steven Okert would have killed for six runs to keep that “L” off of his record.

Let’s look at some of the individual performances tonight.

Denard Span went 2-for-3 with two walks, two RBIs and three runs scored. Denard Span has scored five of the Giants’ nine runs in the series so far. He could be a legitimate a one-man offense in a non-Denver city.

Joe Panik had four hits (“And no runs!” she screamed, as frustration took momentary control over her hands on the keyboard and began to plot vengeance for this injustice.)

The thing about Joe Panik is that when he is good, he is sneaky good. If someone put a stun-gun to my head immediately after the game and asked me what the first three things I took away from this game are, without consulting the box score, 1.) I would be really confused about their priorities, and 2.) Panik would not have been on the immediate list. But four hits in five appearances! That’s good and it shouldn’t even be sneaky. But his teammates like to leave him on base or hit into double plays, and there we are.

Mac Williamson had two hits and two runs in two appearances and can we please see more of him Mr. Bochy? Do we have to start a petition, because let me tell you, I have learned a thing or two about petitions in the last eight months and I am more than up to the task.

Pablo Sandoval didn’t break his hit-less streak and I’m starting to get really confused as to why he is still playing every day, but he DID get on base with a walk and he scored a run. So that’s a pretty big deal for him. We’ll see if they continue playing him as much or if they start making adjustments.

Buster Posey had two hits and a hat-trick, which apparently hasn’t happened to him in five years. The last time he struck out three times in a game was on August 20th, 2012. That’s pretty impressive.

Unfortunately, Posey also took a foul tip off the hand and had to exit the game. During which time a fan above the dugout decided to say something to him that Phil Nevin and Nick Hundley weren’t having, and the fan was ejected. Good. Lesson number one, folks: Don’t be a jerk or you get to do the walk of shame out of a baseball park on national regional television.

The good news is that the x-rays came back negative, so he’s looking at a bone bruise and a lot of swelling, but nothing worse than that, thank goodness.

/heavy sigh

The time has come to discuss the pitching. And, as noted above, there was a lot of it.

The unequivocally good:

Kyle Crick and Roberto Gomez, with Gomez making his MLB debut. Each came in to face one batter and got the out. Very small sample size but they had the only clean appearances of the night.

The positives:

Reyes Moronta came into his MLB debut facing Charlie Blackmon, D.J. LeMahieu, and Nolan Arenado to start with. No pressure, kid. But he did pretty well! He struck out Blackmon looking, had LeMahieu at two strikes before getting a grounder and worked the count full against Arenado, before giving up a single, followed by another single to Reynolds before he was pulled and Josh Osich cashed in one of his runs. Overall though, it was an impressive first outing, considering the opponents and the ballpark.

The not very good at all:

Derek Law came in after Blach exited in the sixth. Blach had only allowed two runs prior to this inning but the wheels were starting to come off with the heart of the order getting extra-base hit after extra-base hit. Between them, they allowed four runs. It was not even a little bit fun.

Mark Melancon gave up two runs on three hits and had no business being in this game at all. You know what? I should really tell him this directly.

/picks up phone

Mark Melancon: “Hello?”

Me: “Hi Mark, can I call you Mark? Can we talk? Listen, friend. Your Twitter account is pretty good and you’re a generally likeable guy so I hate to be the one to break it to you, but the Giants are unlikely to make the playoffs this year.”

Confused Mark Melancon: “Who is this? How did you get my number?”

Me, with terrible French accent to disguise my voice; “That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you should be getting your surgery so you can recover sooner, NOT playing through an injury for meaningless baseball. Think of the big picture, man!”

Angry Mark Melancon: “I’m hanging up now.”

French me: “This is probably for the best.”

But seriously, why is he doing this? Its not doing anybody any good. And who knows what it is doing to his arm. Playing through injury is not tough, it is foolish. Shut it down, man. Shut it down.

Alright, well that’s more than enough information about a frustrating loss that took forever. It’s a song and dance you know by heart now. The Giants didn’t score runs, then they gave up a lot of runs, then they scored just enough runs to make you think they were competent before giving up more runs and going down quietly. It’s not a very catchy number, but it’s the one we’ve got this year.