Giants lose 10-9, Posey and Nuñez hurt
And the team’s hottest hitter also gets hurt legging out an infield hit.
In the same inning.
So, yes, things can get worse for the National League West’s last-place team.
The Giants rallied from a 9-1 deficit to tie Thursday night’s game in the ninth inning, but the Rockies won 10-9 in the home half of the inning by scoring off Hunter Strickland, who appeared in his third straight game.
The Giants seemed to be playing out the string in the seventh inning when the season slipped two more notches into the ditch. The training staff got called into immediate duty, as did the front office if only because roster moves seem apparent.
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Buster Posey hit a home run and looked achy running the bases. He immediately headed for the clubhouse, limping badly down the steps from the dugout with serious ankle soreness.
Moments earlier, Eduardo Nuñez limped off the field with trainer Dave Groeschner after crossing first base with an infield hit. Nuñez had left hamstring tightness.
Typical. It’s 2017, after all.
Matt Moore coughed up eight runs and 11 hits and was pulled after three innings. Posey made two throwing errors. Hunter Pence misjudged a fly ball. With two players getting treated in the trainers’ room, Austin Slater was forced to play third base for the first time in his pro career and pitchers Ty Blach and Jeff Samardzija were summoned to pinch hit.
For six innings, both teams’ drastically different stories played out in the opener of a four-game series. The Rockies, owning the third-best record in the majors, were powerful, athletic and cohesive. The Giants were not.
Then came the injuries. And a momentum change.
The score was 9-1 when Nuñez hustled up the line at first, his momentum carrying him well out to right field. He didn’t feel right and quickly called for a trainer. He was replaced by Gorkys Hernandez, a significant loss considering Nuñez has had hits in 27 of 29 games.
Two batters later, Posey stepped up. His career batting average at Coors Field is .390, the second highest among active players behind Adrian Beltre’s .400. Posey swung and seemed to feel immediate pain. It was his ninth home run, and he wasn’t enjoying it.
That made it 9-3, and the Giants scored five times in the eighth, a rally highlighted by Brandon Crawford’s three-run homer — the Giants’ first three-run homer of the season, strangely enough. Suddenly, it was 9-8.
The Giants tied it in the ninth on Hernandez’s sacrifice fly off closer Greg Holland, who blew his first save opportunity of the season. He converted his first 23 chances.
Slater led off with his fourth hit and, one out later, took third on Denard Span’s single. Hernandez tried a squeeze bunt, and it went foul. Then a wild pitch sent Span to second, and Hernandez’s flyout tied it.
Brandon Belt was intentionally walked, and Samardzija became the evening’s second pitch to pinch hit. When a pitch got away from catcher Tom Murphy, Span tried scoring and was thrown out.
Raimel Tapia’s single ended it in the ninth.
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