Giants blow it in the ninth inning for the second straight game

Fewer than 24 hours after blowing the team’s latest, largest lead in 90-plus years, the Giants managed to ... blow a late lead! Fantastic! The inaugural 2020 Pandemic Bay Bridge Series was the true plague all along.

The A’s hit a lead-erasing home run off of Trevor Gott in the top of the inning for the second straight game. The only kindness this time around was that the lead was not as large, so the ninth-inning home run put the A’s on top, rather than just tying the game and prolonging the agony.

The Athletics took the first two games and clinched the series win with a 7-6 victory on Saturday evening. There’s probably nothing like playing the Giants to make a good team feel like they can accomplish anything.

San Francisco starter Kevin Gausman looked strong, but his weakness today appeared to have been the long ball. He struck out a whopping 11 batters but served up three runs on two homers. In all, he went 5.1 innings and allowed five hits and three walks.

He could really be something on a contending team with a potent offense and a competent band of fielders. So look out for that when he gets traded in a couple weeks.

It’s possible that Trevor Gott will no longer be the Giants’ closer after this series.

Donovan Solano stretched his hitting streak to 17 games, going 1-for-4 and also reaching on an error.

Thus concludes your Donny Barrels watch for August 15, 2020.

The brightest spots in the game were:

1. Mike Yastrzemski, who gave the Giants a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning with a triple that drove in two and then allowed sweet baby Yaz to come in himself when the throw to third base bounced off him and into the stands.

2. Darin Ruf, who put the Giants on top, 6-3 (A six-to-three Giants lead! It really happened, I promise!) with a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh.

The darkest spots were in the top of the ninth, when Trevor Gott gave up a leadoff homer to Sean Murphy, got a popup for the first out, gave up a double to Tony Kemp, got a lineout, and then walked Matt Olson and gave up a two-out, three-run home run to Mark Canha that gave the A’s the lead and the win after Liam Hendriks once again put away the Giants with little hassle apart from a walk to Alex Dickerson in the bottom of the frame to end the game.

The seagulls are still fun, right?

See you tomorrow for another loss! Crack open your beverage of choice; you’ve earned it.