Rockies Set Record, Embarrass Giants in 17-7 Slugfest

Last Friday game against the New York Mets was only the San Francisco Giants' 24th game of the season, the Giants hit, what probably everyone thought, was going to be their low of the season. Realistically speaking, how much worse can it get after allowing twelve runs in an inning and getting blown out 13-1?

Only six days later, the Colorado Rockies decided to answer that question by tying a two-ton cinderblock around the Giants' legs and chucking their lifeless corpses into the dark depths of McCovey Cove. The Giants were later eaten by a drunken Lou Seal, who, after over indulging Tequila, confused them for special Cinco de Mayo themed shrimp tacos.

Too dark? Here's the short version: the Giants lost. Bad. Really bad.

Tonight, AT&T Park, a stadium that is undeniably known for being a pitcher's park and a hitter's nightmare, might as well have been called the Coors Field of the Bay Area. The Colorado Rockies turned the pitcher's paradise into its personal funhouse, putting up 13 runs in the fifth inning, the most they've ever scored in one inning, on route to stomping on San Francisco's hopes and dreams of winning a measly game in May, blowing San Francisco out 17 to 7.

It's easy to look at the score and say that the Colorado offense was the main reason that that Rockies were able to blow the Giants out the water. That wouldn't accurately characterize what happened on the field. Simply put, the Giants made a lot of mistakes, which came in different shapes and sizes.

Despite the vote of confidence from Bruce Bochy, Matt Cain has still been unable to reach anywhere close to his former self. Cain's porous outing can be summarized by the two-run home run that he allowed in the first inning to the San Francisco Giant killer Nolan Areando, in which he left a changeup that didn't move right over the heart of the plate for the Silver Slugger to crush into the left field bleachers. The veteran simply couldn't execute, leaving his pitches up in the zone or right down the middle of the plate, the perfect location for the Colorado offense to ignite.In his four innings of work, the veteran left his pitches up in the zone and, predictably, the Rockies tee'd off against him, dinging him for eight hits and six earned runs before chasing him out of the fifth inning without recording an out.

With no outs and plenty of ducks on the pond, Vin Mazzaro replaced Cain to limit the damage. The good news is that Mazzaro recorded one out. The bad news is that Mazzaro faced ten batters. Doing a little bit of math, that doesn't add up to a good result. The freshly called up Giant allowed six hits and seven earned runs as his ERA jumped from 0.00 to, drum roll please, 63.00. Not even Vince Carter in his prime had the leaping prowess to outjump the leap that Mazzaro's ERA took that inning.

I did leave out two details. Cain allowed eight runs and Mazzaro allowed nine, but "only" six and seven were earned, respectively. Why is there a discrepancy in the runs versus earned runs, you may be asking? Errors.

Brandon Crawford, who came into the game with the longest active errorless streak for a shortstop, short-hopped Brandon Belt on a routine throw to first and the slick-fielding first baseman couldn't handle the throw. Crawford wasn't alone, as his middle infield mate, Kelby Tomlinson, couldn't handle a routine grounder off the bat of Mark Reynolds.

The Giants also had their fair share of negatives on the offensive side of the ball.

The Giants made some noise in the bottom of the third with Posey and Brandon Belt setting the table with a pair of back-to-back singles to start off the inning. Crawford followed Belt by singling to right, but the combined thinking of Roberto Kelly and Posey made the ill-advised decision to run on Cargo's cannon of an arm in right, and the slow-footed catcher was gunned down at home. Instead of the bases loaded with no outs, the Giants had runners at first and second with one out. That decision bit them right away, as Mac Williamson grounded into an inning-ending double play that could have been a go-ahead double play.

The offense failed to capitalize in the following inning as well. Tomlinson gave the Giants a spark by just beating out a double after challenging Parra's arm in left, but neither Blanco, Cain, nor Span couldn't bring the lonely duck on the pond home and tie up the contest.

That's a whole lot of negatives, and with games like this, it is of utmost importance to look back at the few positives that did happen.

For one, the Giants had five players record multi-hit games in Denard Span, Duffy, Posey, Crawford, and Blanco, with Blanco and Posey racking up two RBIs apiece. Lost in Colorado's offensive outburst were San Francisco's seven runs, a sign that even when the pitching is sour, the Giants still know how to handle a bat.

Aside from Mazzaro, the bullpen did a fantastic job as Derek Law, Cory Gearrin, and Hunter Strickland combined for 4.2 innings of scoreless baseball and held down the fort after the disaster that was Cain and Mazzaro's outings. These young arms handled the situation with confidence and treated their inning as if the game was tied up, rather than being down by ten. With the future of Peavy and Cain still in a state of flux, it's nice to know that those three are waiting in the wings just in case stuff hits the fan.

Oh, and the Giants are still somehow in first place.

The beauty of baseball is that tonight's game is only 0.006% of the schedule. 1 out of 162. Meaning that tomorrow, the Giants have a chance to redeem themselves and give the Rockies a taste of their own medicine.

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