© Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
Coors Field is not a pitcher-friendly ballpark. On Labor Day, it was especially cruel to Madison Bumgarner. The Giants’ ace was tagged for three home runs and seven runs in a 9-8 loss to the Colorado Rockies.
Bumgarner lasted five innings, somewhat of a feat considering how poor his first inning was. He failed to retire his first five batters. First, Bumgarner allowed a leadoff single before a two-run home run to DJ LeMahieu. After a double from Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story followed suit with his own two-run homer. A pair of strikeouts were split before and after a single by Carlos Gonzalez, and a popup ended the inning.
Story was far from done with his torment of Bumgarner. After retiring eight-straight batters, Bumgarner committed the cardinal sin of allowing the leadoff batter on by hitting Charlie Blackmon. After striking out LeMahieu, it seemed like he’d picked up a double-play ball from Nolan Arenado. But Kelby Tomlinson saw the ball roll right past his glove into center field. It appeared his vision was blocked by the second-base umpire, but the play prevented the inning from ending.
With two men on, Story came up again, belting a three-run homer to left field to give the Rockies a 7-2 lead.
But in the mile-high air, the Giants were far from the stagnant offense they had been over the past two days, during which they mustered a combined two runs. Gorkys Hernandez put the team on the board with his 14th home run of the season in the third inning. Then a double and uncontested steal of third base by Chase d’Arnaud set up a sacrifice fly from Evan Longoria in the third.
In the sixth, a double from Nick Hundley was followed by a wild pitch and one-run single from Brandon Crawford, closing the deficit to 7-3. The next inning, Longoria tagged the Rockies for two more.
A pinch-hit single from Aramis Garcia and infield single from Austin Slater were saved by Arenado bobbling a sure double-play ball hit by d’Arnaud toward third base. The next batter was Longoria, who hit a two-run triple to right field after Carlos Gonzalez made an ill-advised attempt at a diving catch. It left the Giants trailing by just a couple runs in the seventh.
Then, the eighth came around and both offenses exploded in spectacular fashion. Hernandez was hit by a pitch before Alen Hanson stepped up as a pinch-hitter and ripped a game-tying home run to right field. The next batter was the rookie, Chris Shaw, who was 0-for-6 with five strikeouts through his first three games. Shaw tore a monster shot to right field to give the Giants an 8-7 lead.
The back-to-back pinch-hit home runs were the first for the Giants since 2001 when Barry Bonds and Shawon Dunston pulled off the feat.
But in the bottom half of the inning, the Rockies responded. A two-run single evaporated the Giants lead, and the Rockies shut down the Giants in the ninth to secure the win. The Giants dropped to 68-71.