BREAKING NEWS: late-game 1 run lead in Colorado means nothing

Three runs is never enough in Denver. The San Francisco Giants’s 12 game win streak over the Colorado Rockies was snapped in Wednesday’s 5 - 3 loss.

The Rockies hung 2 quick runs on starter Logan Webb in the first with Charlie Blackmon homering and Ryan McMahon scoring on a two-out Brendan Rogers double. But Giants bats quickly responded in the top of the 2nd with a hit by pitch and a double that put Brandon Crawford and Thairo Estrada at 2nd and 3rd.

After Joey Bart lined out, Mike Yastrzemski dropped the needle on a sinker middle-in from Kyle Freeland, singling to bring in Crawford, before Austin Slater hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Estrada.

The Giants took a 3-2 lead on a Darin Ruf sacrifice fly in the 4th, set up by Mike Yastrzesmki’s hustle double to start the inning.

After feeling his way through the first, Logan Webb settled in on the slab. After giving up a two out walk to Charlie Blackmon in the 2nd, Webb retired 16 consecutive hitters before allowing a decisive lead-off single to Connor Joe in the 8th.

Webb’s 7 inning outing was his longest since an April 13th start and maybe a sign the young ace is finding his footing again. His final stat line: 7 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 6 SO, 3 ER.

No lead is safe in Colorado—the Giants know this, especially after watching yesterday’s 8 run lead dwindle to uncomfortable margins over 9 innings. A one-run lead at Coors is as volatile as bronco at a rodeo. Nursing one in the 8th with the tying run on base is like saddling up to ride said-bronco whilst doing your taxes—it’s ill advised and you’re probably going to end up with some crooked numbers.

With the tying run at first, Webb was yanked for the favorable lefty match up in José Álvarez and Charlie Blackmon, but cheeky Blackmon laid down a sacrifice bunt that set up Yonathan Daza’s game tying, opposite field RBI single.

Small ball is back! For a moment it felt like this game was going to come down to sacrifice flies, well-placed bunts, and hustle doubles. Situational contact! Then CJ Cron hit an Álvarez change-up 450000 feet and we all remembered that seeing-eye singles are nice, but it’s nicer when someone just STATCASTs the snot out of a ball.

The Giants didn’t get the big hit today. The ducks were on the pond but no one brought them home to roost (is that the expression?). A bases loaded chance in the 3rd went bad. A lead-off double in the 6th went untouched

San Francisco left 16 runners on base. Hitters were 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position on Wednesday. Yesterday they went 6 for 16. The only explanation is that there is no explanation. Hitting is a weird science: an odd mix of animal husbandry, precalculus and voodoo. Sometimes your baking soda volcano erupts like Mt. Vesuvius and you become the coolest kid in 8th grade and sometimes it spits up some cottage cheese like foam and makes the gym smell like eggs. I don’t want to be reductive or flippant…but that is literally the only way to explain why the Giants scored less runs than the Rockies today.

I don’t want to make Joey Bart’s seat any hotter, but he left seven men on base over his four at-bats. He struck out 3 times. He lined out with two runners in scoring position in the second. He struck out with the bases loaded and two outs in the third.

Bart is sweating. Wednesday’s Denver finale was an opportunity to come up big with the bat after Curt Casali’s consecutive starts and recent offensive kick, but Bart didn’t deliver. He showed up to the science fair with a dud volcano and now has an off-day to think about it.