Crawford's Three Errors Pave Way for Sixth Consecutive Loss

Brandon Crawford has the reputation around the league as being one of the slickest fielding shortstops in all of baseball, but on Friday night, his defensive prowess was everything but the norm.

San Francisco's Gold Glove shortstop had a night to forget, committing three of the team's four errors, the last miscue being one which helped plate New York's final run on route to a 3-2 win and the Giants' sixth consecutive loss coming out of the All-Star break.

Crawford’s first two errors hurt and didn’t have a significant effect on the game in the grand scheme of thing, but the third and final one allowed Chase Headley to score the eventual game-winning run from second base in the bottom of the eighth. Angel Pagan had an error in the field as well.

The third error wasn’t an easy play, as Crawford fielded a double play ground ball, stepped on the bag at second, then rotated 360 degrees before throwing the runner at first. Unfortunately for Crawford, the throw was too high for Brandon Belt, and it skirted away from the first baseman, which led to Headley scoring.

The shortstop’s defensive blunders were representative of just one of San Francisco’s many problems coming out of the All-Star Break.

In just six games following the Midsummer’s Class, the orange and black have committed ten errors. Whether or not the Giants choose to pursue a reliever, San Francisco’s defense will need to clean up the effort before making any other decisions.

On the topic of relievers, the Giants got an up-close-and-personal look at two potential trade targets in lefty Andrew Miller and flamethrower Aroldis Chapman.

Mac Williamson turned a 95 MPH fastball from Miller into the then game-tying run, giving one of the best left-handed relievers in baseball his second blown save of the season.

Miller didn’t fool the young bucks of the Giants, as although the lefty won the same side battles against Belt and Brandon Crawford, Trevor Brown and Grant Green both had a pair of singles to set the table for Williamson.

In the following inning, Gregor Blanco put himself in scoring position with no outs, doubling on a 101 MPH heater from Chapman, but the closer escaped the jam as Denard Span grounded out, Angel Pagan popped out to second, and Belt struck out looking on one of Chapman’s usual heaters.

If Chapman was auditioning to become a member of the Giants, tonight was the night when the capabilities of his arm were on full display.

According to Daren Willman, Chapman hit 104 MPH and higher seven times, topping out at 104.9, and his fastball averaged a 103.2 MPH.

Similar to how Crawford’s defensive errors were representative of the team’s defensive woes, the ninth inning summarized San Francisco’s struggles at the plate with runners in scoring position.

In 53 at-bats with runners in scoring position over the past six games, the Giants only have seven hits, good for a .132 batting average.

Just like hits with runners in scoring position, the runs themselves haven’t come easy, as the Giants are only averaging 3.1 runs per game in their past six games.

The Giants lost more than just the game, as Trevor Brown replaced Buster Posey in the bottom of the fourth inning after the All-Star fouled a ball off his foot in the top of the first inning.

Although Posey was diagnosed with a contusion and not a fracture, following an X-ray, the Giants are holding their breath, hoping that another Giant isn’t forced to miss time due to an injury.

Madison Bumgarner overcame a labor-intensive first two innings, in which he allowed his only two runs of the game, and grinder out seven innings while striking out six.

In the bottom of the first, Brett Gardner singled, and Starlin Castro doubled him home to give the Bronx Bombers a quick 1-0 lead. Carlos Beltran and Rob Refsnyder would draw a pair of walks in the inning as well, eventually loading the bases, but Bumgarner escaped with only the one run in the inning to his name.

The workloads for Bumgarner and his opposition, Masahiro Tanaka, were opposites in the first, as the San Francisco ace threw 24 pitches to the Japanese product’s five.

The Yankees struck again in the next inning as Carlos Beltran knocked a single into left to drive in Ronald Torreyes and extend New York’s lead to two.

Bumgarner hit 23 pitches, nearly matching his total in the first frame, after another stress filled inning, but found his groove following the second.

Unlike his last appearance at The Coliseum in Oakland, Bruce Bochy didn’t give Bumgarner the green light to hit for himself tonight, much due in part to already beating, humid 90 degree New York weather.

The climate is much different than the almost perfect Bay Area conditions Bumgarner is accustomed to, so although it could have been his only chance to hit in Yankee Stadium in a couple of years, Bochy’s intentions were in the right place.

The Giants haven’t had any help in the luck department either.

In the third inning, Beltran threw out Blanco as the outfielder tried to score from third on a sacrifice fly, and the replay review showed that the outfielder’s fingertips were barely above the plate, which allowed the umpires to confirm the out.

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