Giants Win Mess of a Ballgame

The series finale managed to mesh every element of San Francisco Giants baseball into one, long, eleven inning ballgame.

The Giants came into the game with a weird lineup, had a lead, blew a lead, retook the lead, and eleven innings later won a ballgame.

Think of it like the torture years reinvented.

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Ah, the bullpen. Like this topic has not been run into the ground a million times over already.

It's easy to scrutinize the bullpen, yet again, for failing to protect a lead.

It's easy to point fingers, saying that the front office needs to trade the entire farm system for an Andrew Miller or an Aroldis Chapman.

After all, this bullpen has now blown 16 saves in the season, and on back-to-back nights no less, but not everything is black and white.

Before Cory Gearrin left a hanging slider on a 3-2 count right over the heart of the plate, he threw a beauty of a changeup on a 2-2 count.

It should have been strike three, and there should have been two outs with a runner on second, rather than a 3-2 count with one out and a runner on second.

Gearrin didn't get the call, and Jake Lamb, who is second in the MLB in slugging, tied up the ballgame, barely lining a two-run home run over the right field fence.

There shouldn't have been a runner on second to begin, as Buster Posey made his first error at first base since July of 2014, putting Paul Goldschmidt on base.

It was a series of unfortunate events that led to the 3-2 slider, and it is irresponsible to pin the Giants completely losing their 4-2 lead entirely on Gearrin's shoulders.

Following Gearrin's subpar inning, Hunter Strickland and Josh Osich pitched two very impressive back-to-back scoreless innings and looked sharp.

Santiago Casilla somehow managed to pull off a Houdini act, escaping a situation with runners on 1st and 3rd to finish off the Diamondbacks and win the series.

It wasn't pretty, but Casilla has a knack for eluding trouble, even if just barely.

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Bruce Bochy has become accustomed to working with limited resources this season, whether it be in the starting rotation, the bullpen, or the lineup.

Due to various injuries to key players, Bochy has had to work with the various players in his arsenal, from rookies just getting their feet wet in the bigs to career journeymen looking for a permanent destination.

The mish-mashed roster has made for some fascinating and strange lineups, but out of all the starting nines that Bochy has thrown out onto the field, today's was an anomaly.

Denard Span was ruled out due to neck stiffness, for which he is getting an MRI, Gregor Blanco was scratched just before game time due to a sore left knee, and Matt Duffy, Joe Panik, and Hunter Pence are, of course, on the disabled list.

With Bochy's options dramatically limited, he had to play the hand he was given, and the result was a lineup was more fitting for a Spring Training game than the 84th game of the season against a divisional rival.

Brandon Belt, Buster Posey, and Brandon Crawford were in their usual 3-4-5 spots, but the normalcy stopped there.

Ruben Tejada and Grant Green, who haven't played a combined ten games for the orange and black, were the table setters, batting in the one and two spots, respectively.

Mac Williamson patrolled right field, which is not an unusual sight, but with no Span or Blanco, Jarrett Parker had to play only his third career game in center field.

The Giants were also short a left fielder with Angel Pagan out of the lineup, so Trevor Brown started behind the plate, Posey moved over to first, and Belt moved to left, which is only the 48th time he has played the position.

Albert Suarez was scheduled to start as well, only his sixth start for San Francisco.

All in told, the Giants had five players in their starting lineup who weren't even on the Opening Day roster.

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