Boston didn’t miss Rafael Devers bat much in 7-5 win over San Francisco
Well, this one wasn’t too pretty. The San Francisco Giants finally put more than two runs on the board, pitched with an early multi-run lead, created opportunities to extend that lead against a not-sharp Boston starter Hunter Dobbins, and…they lost 7-5.
In three separate bases-loaded situations, the Giants generated just two runs and five outs.
Christian Koss came up with the bases jammed and nobody out in the 2nd and 4th innings, and both times rolled into double-plays. Credit where credit’s due — he put the ball in play, and the ball in play ultimately drove in a run both times. But you generally don’t want an offensive contribution ending with the defense feeling like they pulled a Get Out of Jail Free card.
Nothing was punished. Nothing was definitive. Every run scored came with a caveat. The Giants first run came home because Wilmer Flores slapped a knuckler to David Williams at second which glanced off his glove. Mike Yastrzemski extended their lead to three-runs in the 3rd with a two-out single that ricocheted off the pitcher Dobbins and rolled back into the no man’s land between the mound and the plate.
The team’s only other RBI was Flores’s single in the 5th, which re-tied the game at 5-runs apiece, but any viable opportunity to tack on was snuffed out when Flo was thrown out trying to advance to second on the throw home.
The Giants worked 8 walks against Boston pitching, had 10 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Starter Hunter Dobbins, who has one of the lowest BB rates in the lead, walked 5 in 4 inning pitched, but gave up just 4 hits — all singles. They set the table, and the table was set for them, but San Francisco lacked the K.O. punch as they have all year. The guy they hoped would provide it went 0-for-5 at the plate, but many of the ripest run-producing chances didn’t fall into Rafael Devers’ lap.
And in the opposite corner was a scrappy Boston Red Sox line-up that is turning out pants pockets, flipping couch cushions and finding missing car keys and crumpled up fivers. Their line-up collected 11 hits on Friday, five of them went for extra bases. Number 8 hitter Ceddanne Rafaela went 3-for-4, a triple shy of the cycle. His solo shot in the 6th off Sean Hjelle, the one that gave Boston the lead for good, was his seventh of the season. The double off Hayden Birdsong he hit in the 3rd was Boston’s first hit of the game, and set-up number 9 hitter David Hamilton’s 2-run shot to straight-away center — this from a player who is hitting .186 after Friday’s 2-hit night.
That homer, just Hamilton’s third of the year, was the signal that the Giants were in for it. The game had been entirely pleasant up to that point. Just a couple innings in, but still, a 3-run lead this early on with San Francisco’s pitching chops — my offense starved imagination played tricks on me. I daydreamed of a blow-out, a cake-walk through 9, with no drama, frustration, or worry…
Shoulda known better.