Crawford’s RBI keeps S.F. in game, but it’s nullified by his late error as Cards beat Giants 2-1.
Tough loss followed by news that Leake still isn’t ready to go
ST. LOUIS — The Giants rolled into Busch Stadium on Monday night riding a formidable ball of momentum, but a combination of several little mistakes and narrow misses caused that ball to unravel in a hurry.
The St. Louis Cardinals escaped with a 2-1 victory to end the Giants’ four-game winning streak, and for all the frustrating things that happened — including what looked to be a Buster Posey two-run homer with two outs in the ninth that died at the fence — the news got worse after the game.
Recently acquired rotation stabilizer Mike Leake, who has missed his last two starts and was scheduled to pitch Tuesday night, will be pushed back again because he needs more time for the tightness in his left hamstring to heal. Ryan Vogelsong will start Tuesday, followed by Matt Cain on Wednesday.
And Leake? The pitcher believes it will be during the series that follows this one, at
Pittsburgh, but when is the question. He said he can run at only about 65 percent effectiveness.
“It’s kind of day by day from here,” Leake said. “At the time of our decision (to pitch), it wasn’t quite ready. The running is the concern right now. I can throw off the mound. I can swing. But running and fielding a ball is a question mark.”
It raises so many more question marks at the outset of a critical seven-game trip against the two best teams recordwise in the National League. On the plus side, the Giants played the Cardinals tooth-and-nail in the series opener but just couldn’t generate enough offense against starter Michael Wacha and the St. Louis bullpen. Some of it was their own fault.
Meanwhile, starter Chris Heston and reliever Hunter Strickland made one bad pitch apiece, and it resulted in the two runs the beleaguered Cardinals offense could muster. Brandon Crawford tried mightily to prevent the eventual winning run from crossing the plate in the eighth after a Stephen Piscotty triple off Strickland (2-2), but Crawford’s wide throw prevented an inningending double play.
In the end, the Giants appeared to have overcome it all on one swing of the bat by Posey, who got the day off but pinch-hit with two outs in the ninth against Trevor Rosenthal after the Cardinals closer had walked Andrew Susac.
Posey fouled off a pitch, then launched a ball to deep center that appeared to have enough to leave the yard. At least Bruce Bochy thought it did.
“I thought it was out, I’ll be honest,” the Giants manager said. “He hit it in the biggest part of the park, but I thought it was going.” Posey himself wasn’t sure. “I knew I hit it good, but I knew it was also high,” he said. “I didn’t really have the feel that it was a no-doubter.”
For five innings, it didn’t appear the Giants were going to get anything against Wacha, the man who surrendered Travis Ishikawa’s homer last October that put San Francisco in the World Series. Wacha limited the Giants to three singles and a walk over the first five innings.
That said, the Giants had opportunities. In the third, rookie Kelby Tomlinson drew a one-out walk and went to third base on a hitand-run single by Heston. But leadoff man Gregor Blanco ill-advisedly tried to drop a bunt and popped it up foul to catcher Yadier Molina. It was a rally-killer.
“I’m sure Gregor would love to have that bunt back,” Bochy said.
In the bottom of the fourth, Heston served up a 1-2 middle-of-the-plate fastball that Molina crushed into the left field seats for his third homer. It was the rookie’s only real bad offering, although his control wasn’t sharp — he walked a season-high five and was
2 out after 4 ⁄ innings having
3 thrown 104 pitches.
The Giantsgotthe tyingrun in the sixth on a Crawford twoout double to the wall, although they should have gotten more. Matt Duffy and Brandon Belt opened the inning with singles, but Hunter Pence hit a slow chopper to second baseman Kolten Wong, who tagged Belt going by and threw to first for the double play. Belt neither stopped nor tried to evade the tag.
“I saw the ball wasn’t hit very hard, but by the time I looked up, he was right in front of me,” Belt said. “I couldn’t stop, and I was trying to beat the ball anyway.”
Then Crawford’s try for a miracle spinning double play in the eighth on Mark Reynolds’ chopper that scored Piscotty went awry.
“That was a tough one,” Crawford said. “It was a ball that wasn’t hit hard enough that I could come home. I thought I was close enough to the bag to take it myself, but I didn’t get a great grip on it and didn’t get back around on the throw.”
Outfielder Nori Aoki n is on the trip and will be activated when he’s eligible to come off the 7-day concussion disabled list Thursday in Pittsburgh. As for second baseman Joe Panik, Bochy said he won’t be playing on this trip, and the question now is when. He’s rehabbing in Arizona.
Madison Bumgarner n was named N.L. Player of the Week after throwing two complete game victories and allowing just one earned run over 18 innings. Bumgarner also went 2 for 6 with his fourth home run of the season.