The second game in the Battle of the Bay between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's centered around the battle of the bullpens.
No, this wasn't one of those bullpen games where the starter barely gets through five innings, and the bullpen comes in, shuts down the opposition, maintains the deficit, then protects the lead on route to a feel good win. Sorry everyone, that game happened last week in Pittsburgh.
This game *cracks knuckles* *sips coffee* *hyperventilates a little*, oh this game was as far from a feel-good story as a ballgame can get.
Before discussing the horror that was the San Francisco and Oakland bullpens, and the even worse news that happened before the game, let's remember the positives that happened because it's easy to forget.
This game should have been centered around an excellent performance by Albert Suarez. It is not, but I'm going to talk about him regardless because he pitched a darn fine game and it needs to be appreciated by everyone who calls themselves a Giants fan.
Just like Jeff Samardzija the day before, this outing was Suarez's first taste of the Bay Bridge Series.
In retrospect, this is just one game, but with fans on both sides of the Bay Bridge fighting for bragging rights, the pressure was on Suarez to deliver and right the ship after an embarrassing display of San Francisco Giants baseball the previous night.
With all eyes on him, Suarez went out in front of a packed AT&T Park crowd and churned out a solid start, which, on an average day, would have been enough to secure a win.
The rookie's only real blemish came in the top of the fourth inning when Khris Davis golfed a curveball well below the knees just over the left field fence.
I hesitate to put any blame on Suarez because the home run was pure power on Davis's part. Watching the replay again, the Oakland outfielder got almost none of his lower body into the swing, meaning he was using mostly pure upper-body strength. There was a lot of wind blowing out, but that doesn't make the dinger any less impressive.
Meanwhile on the offensive front, the Giants were taking it to Suarez's opposition, Kendall Graveman.
Brandon Crawford, who finished the day with three hits and five RBIs and fell a home run short of the cycle, opened up the scoring with a booming double that one-hopped the right-center field wall, driving in Angel Pagan and Buster Posey. Pagan, who extended his hitting streak to nine games, drove in a pair of his own in the fourth with a bases-loaded singled.
The Giants headed into the sixth inning with a 4-1 lead, looking like they were on their way to splitting the brief two-game series at AT&T before heading over to The Coliseum just across the water.
Then, the bullpens came into play.
With two outs in the fifth inning and Suarez's pitch count at 91, Bruce Bochy brought in George Kontos, who was expected to eat up an inning or two before handing the ball over to the late innings guys.
The Giants have been one of the best teams in baseball when it comes to stranding runners when bringing in someone from the bullpen, with the percentage stranded in or around the eighties.
I say this primarily to emphasize how bad and how strange the bullpen performance was in the ballgame.
With the count at 2-2, Kontos left a cutter right out over the heart of the plate and allowed a double to Stephen Vogt, which plated two runs and reduced the San Francisco lead to 4-3.
It was a shot in the gut because those two runs went right to Suarez's record, but he was still in line for the win if Kontos could get out of the inning with a win. Simple, right? Right?
Kontos looked like he was going to get out of the inning with the Giants 4-3 lead still intact, but Conor Gillaspie's throw to first on a weak Marcus Semien grounder missed the target, and the inning continued.
Gillaspie's miscue set the stage for Billy Butler, who plated two and gave the A's a one-run lead with a single up the middle.
Bochy had seen enough and relieved Kontos of his duties before he could register an out in favor of Hunter Strickland, who got Coco Crisp to fly out to center and end the inning.
The San Francisco offense got the Giants back in the game by putting up a four-spot in the equally atrocious Oakland bullpen thanks to a Denard Span two-run double and a Crawford two-run triple.
Josh Osich then followed Strickland by pitching a scoreless seventh inning, and the Giants suddenly had an 8-5 lead going into the eighth inning.
The ship seemed like it was righted, and the Giants, once again, looked like they were going to escape this mess of a game with a win.
Oakland said otherwise, tacking on five more runs against Cory Gearrin, who didn't record an out, and Javier Lopez, who only recorded two. Derek Law got the Giants out of the inning, but Santiago Casilla had a meltdown giving up three in the ninth, bringing Oakland's total to 13.
The Giants had back-to-back home runs in the ninth off the bats of Jarrett Parker and Span, then got Pagan on base with no one out, but couldn't complete the comeback.
All in told, this game featured three blown saves, three pitchers not recording outs but runs, a balk, 14 total pitchers, and a final game time of 3:53.
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