With the first week of the season not yet complete, Madison Bumgarner and Brandon Belt have put on two displays of awesome power which, under normal circumstances, would provide unheralded levels of excitement to any fanbase, but these two lefties couldn’t mask an issue which will likely rear its ugly head in the coming weeks.
Bumgarner obliterated two home runs on Opening Day, becoming the first pitcher in major league history to accomplish that feat. Belt one-upped his team’s ace five days later, hitting two home runs as well including the first grand slam of his major league career on route to a five-RBI game, but morale-crushing losses masked both individual performance.
For the fifth straight game, the Giants have struck first and established a lead of some varying quantity. For the fifth straight game, the Giants have blown that lead. Instead of entering Saturday’s matinee with a record of 5-0, 4-1, or even an understandable 3-2, San Francisco’s record currently sits at 1-4 after blowing two leads against the San Diego Padres in their home opener on route to a 8-7 loss.
San Francisco’s pitchers have now blown eight leads spread out over five games. Both starters and relievers are at fault for the inability to maintain the upper hand, albeit the starting rotation has coughed up five leads compared to the bullpen’s three. Regardless of who embraces responsibility, this issue has the potential to make or break San Francisco’s season.
Another core issue which many have pushed to the side, at least for right now, is the inactivity from left fielders. After yesterday’s ballgame, San Francisco’s three left fielders are a combined 0-20 with 10 strikeouts.
Matt Cain, San Francisco’s former No. 1 option whose days as a starting pitcher decimate more and more with every bad start, lost a 1-0 lead before retiring a batter, serving up a 3-1 fastball right down the heart of the plate to San Diego’s star prospect Manuel Margot, who deposited the pitch into the left field bleachers for his first career home run. Margot got the better of Cain in their second match-up as well, hitting the second career home run on a very similar fastball right down Broadway.
San Francisco rallied back from a three-run deficit with the help of Belt’s bases clearer to take a 5-4 lead, launching a slider into the area which Petco Park formerly designated as a mini-beach,b but the advantage, and the ballgame, disappeared by the seventh inning.
George Kontos, who voiced his desire for a more significant role in the bullpen, opened the door for a Padre rally by issuing a leadoff walk. San Diego rattled off three runs in the inning, two from a Yangervis Solarte two-run double and the third from a suicide squeeze, resulting in the team’s third blown save of the young season. The Padres may have blown a lead of its own when Belt tallied his first grand slam, but they took advantage of their new life and kept the lead intact.