Patrick Bailey and LaMonte Wade Jr. lead SF Giants to 10-4 win in Colorado
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Patrick Bailey's first game at a mile above sea level was a big one. He hit two doubles and a triple at the SF Giants survived a Coors Field bullpen game to defeat the Rockies 10-4.
LaMonte Wade Jr. continued his on-base tear in the Mile High city by reaching base in al six of his plate appearances. Wade had two singles, three walks and a double - although broadcaster Hunter Pence thought he should have tried for second on a cue shot to down the line that dribbled past the third baseman.
Thairo Estrada was nearly as good in his first game back from the injured list, going 3-5 with a walk and two doubles. Overall, the team had seven doubles, a triple, and 11 walks - they honestly should have scored far more than ten runs. Part of that was leaving the bases loaded in the 2nd, 4th, and 9th innings, the latter featuring four walks from Daniel Bard.
Sean Manaea didn't get the win, but deserved it with 4.2 innings of relief, another thankless outing where he ate innings and sacrificed his ERA at high altitude. He had five strikeouts against just one walk, but got smacked around by Rockies left fielder Jurickson Profar. Profar had an RBI double and RBI triple, scoring or driving in three of the runs yielded by Manaea.
On the seventh-inning triple, Austin Slater and Mike Yastrzemski collided, which brought the trainers onto the field. Both outfielders would stay in the game. They didn't even have to borrow Joc Pederson's oxygen can.
Bailey didn't use one after his first major league triple, either. The rookie catcher legged out a 420-foot triple that knocked in Mitch Haniger in the third inning. One of his doubles went 397 feet, meaning the humidor probably robbed him of two homers Tuesday night.
Dinelson Lamet was the losing pitcher after giving up three runs on six hits and two walks, including three doubles. Lamet threw 83 pitches in his three innings, a game-long theme for Colorado's pitchers, who threw a whopping 240 pitches (The Giants' five pitchers combined for 155.)
The Giants rode a five-run fifth inning to victory, after Mike Yastrzemski and Bailey set the table with, what else, a walk and a double. Wade followed with a two-run single, J.D. Davis hit a two-run double, and Michael Conforto knocked in Davis to give the Giants an 8-1 lead.
The bullpen game almost spiraled out of control early. Opener John Brebbia loaded the bases in the bottom of the first, but got out of the jam without yielding a run. Ryan Walker, Luke Jackson, and Scott Alexander combined for 3 1/3 innings of two-hit ball, with one of those hitters erased on a game-ending double play.
Brandon Crawford got the scoring started for the Giants, driving in Bailey with a double off the wall, punctuated by an adventurous slide into second.
After a walk to Wade, Estrada celebrated his return from the injured list with an RBI single. Pederson was hit by a pitch - welcome back from the injured list, Joc! - but Davis struck out with the bases loaded.
In the 4th, the Giants didn't score despite three walks and an Estrada double, and in the 9th, they drew four walks, but also struck out three times with the bases loaded. Most likely, the hitters learned their lesson after last week's 14-run game against the Pittsburgh Pirates was followed by a 2-1 loss.
It's called saving some runs for tomorrow, and it's the main form of analytics my grandfather supported. We'll see if the team's decision to leave 15 runners on base will pay off with runs in the rest of the series. If the Rockies can't get LaMonte Wade out, it might not matter.
