A historic win was followed by a huge missed opportunity Wednesday, as the Giants blew a healthy lead while losing 9-6 to the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. They ended up with a series split with their NL West rivals, who are one of their chief competitors for a wild-card spot.
A few hours after they won 23-5, the Giants had another offensive explosion going and jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the first four innings while knocking good Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland out of the game. But the Rockies chipped away, scoring in three consecutive innings. Old friend Kevin Pillar had the go-ahead triple in the middle of all the carnage.
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Pillar's Revenge
The Giants led by a pair heading into the seventh, but Sam Coonrod, who has been lights-out since returning from the injured list, immediately ran into trouble. Coonrod walked the leadoff batter and then gave up a single (on a ball Mike Yastrzemski misjudged in right) and a double.
With Pillar due up, manager Gabe Kapler went out and called for Tyler Rogers, who allowed runs in just two of 14 appearances in August. The 2019 Willie Mac Award winner got an 0-2 slider right down the heart of the plate and crushed it into the left-center gap for a triple that gave the Rockies the lead.
San Francisco Giants
The Rockies made it a five-run inning when Sam Hilliard lofted a classic Coors shot to left that kept carrying and carrying until it landed in the first row of the bleachers.
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Picking Up Where They Left Off
Early on, it looked like the Giants might actually exceed Tuesday's historic output. Yastrzemski got them going with a solo homer to right, his eighth. The Giants ended up scoring four runs in the first inning, giving them 27 over the first 10 innings of this series.
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There was no way Kapler could keep Alex Dickerson out of the lineup even with a lefty on the mound, and he had an RBI single in the first and went 2-for-5 with his third double of the two-game series.
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Did His Job
Logan Webb doesn't rely much on his breaking ball, so in theory he's the type who should do well at Coors Field compared to others. That has somewhat been the case this season.
Webb did a nice job of pitching around traffic until the sixth, when the Rockies got a rally going with a couple of singles. In all, Webb was charged with four earned on seven hits, striking out five. In two starts at Coors Field this year he has allowed five earned in 10 1/3 innings. You'll take that as a visitor in Denver, especially with the way the ball was flying this series.