Monday was supposed to be the day the Giants were lowered down into their grave.
After losing 12 of their past 13 games, including three non-competitive weekend contests against a fourth-place New York Mets team, a Giants’ team that was left for dead long ago should have been buried by the Colorado Rockies.
Instead, San Francisco –a club that seemingly has nothing left to play for but pride– dusted itself off, stood up when no one was looking and followed the lead of starter Jeff Samardzija in a 9-2 win over Colorado.
A Rockies team that had defeated the Giants in a franchise record nine consecutive ballgames failed to take advantage of a San Francisco squad supposedly unsettled by dissension and reportedly rife with conflict.
Hours after closer Mark Melancon stood in the Giants’ clubhouse addressing a report indicating his early impressions in San Francisco “rubbed some teammates the wrong way,” a Giants team that looked lifeless over the past two weeks suddenly took on the spirit of the contending club they were supposed to be all along.
After a historic two-week tumble plunged the Giants a season-high 24 games under .500 on Sunday, San Francisco fed off the energy of Samardzija, who tossed 6 and 1/3 innings while allowing six hits, two earned runs and racking up five strikeouts.
Like most Giants’ starters, Samardzija has struggled to pick up run support this season, but for the first time in what feels like a month, San Francisco’s situational hitting allowed Bruce Bochy’s ballclub to jump out to an early lead.
“That’s the fun thing about this team is even when it’s not going well, it’s easy to go out there and give everything you got because they’re out there doing the same,” Samardzija said. “It’s going to happen. So it’s a great lineup and you can’t keep it down for too long.”
With two outs and no one on in the first, a Hunter Pence infield single triggered a Buster Posey RBI double to give the Giants a 1-0 lead against Rockies’ right-hander German Marquez.
In the third inning, a Posey sacrifice fly plated Denard Span, and first baseman Brandon Belt followed with his third triple of the season, a rope of a line drive that thudded off the right center field wall and caromed in front of Rockies’ right fielder Raimel Tapia, to give the Giants a 3-0 lead.
Posey’s second RBI of the game came a day after he drove in the lone Giants’ runs in their 8-2 loss, and gave the soon-to-be five-time All-Star multiple RBIs in consecutive contests for the first time this season.
In the fourth inning, the Giants’ received their second triple of the game, a laser off the bat of Span that plated Gorkys Herandez and gave the team its first four-run lead since June 11. Seriously, it’s been more than two weeks since the Giants actually looked comfortable.
“Hopefully this will do a lot for their confidence or just take a little pressure off,” Bochy said. “Just quit fighting it so much you know. There’s a lot of talent in this offense, there’s no reason why we can’t be consistent putting runs on the board and we’re facing a good staff here, but really, every night you’re facing somebody that’s a Major League pitcher.”
After adding on a run on a Joe Panik sacrifice fly, San Francisco looked poised to cruise to its first victory in nearly a week, but a team that’s been knocking on death’s door stopped a few hearts along the way.
In the top of the seventh inning, Samardzija allowed a pair of singles to the first two hitters he faced, and was lifted after inducing an Ian Desmond groundout. Samardzija’s replacement, Hunter Strickland, endured some of the same struggles that befell his fellow relievers while Strickland served a six-game suspension last week.
With the Giants ahead 5-2 and the go-ahead run at the plate, Strickland got D.J. LeMahieu to roll into an inning-ending groundout on a check-swing tapper that preserved San Francisco’s edge and kept notorious Giants’ killer Nolan Arenado to come to the plate with a chance to put the nail in the coffin.
After Strickland wiggled his way out of a jam, late RBIs from Brandon Crawford, Kelby Tomlinson, Panik and Posey gave the Giants a 9-2 lead, and made sure the only save situation Melancon encountered was the one in front of his locker, before the game ever started.
“I don’t think we’ve forgotten about it, it’s just been awhile since we’ve all came together in the same game and contributed at the same time along with a great performance by Samardzija,” Crawford said.
The Giants’ closer did walk down to the bullpen, stretch out and get loose in the bottom half of the eight inning, but the fact San Francisco ended up saving its $62 million arm was a loud response from a team that proved it wasn’t ready to accept the narrative.