Giants' stunning ninth-inning collapse vs. Reds prevents first sweep of season
The "Giants Postgame Live" crew breaks down San Francisco's 10-9 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday at Oracle Park.
Giants' stunning ninth-inning collapse vs. Reds prevents first sweep of season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
If you thought there was rock bottom to this season earlier in the year, there's apparently nowhere else to go for the Giants.
They will continue to dig deeper.
Alex Pavlich here with George Kontos.
Welcome to Toyota Giants Postgame Live.
I'm gonna be honest, we have a half-hour show ahead of you, and George and I are sitting here trying to figure out what to say.
I am speechless.
This has been a unbelievably rough season, maybe the worst in franchise history, when you look at everything that has happened.
George, that ninth inning is still really hard to believe.
Yeah.
I, I mean, I think we're all sitting here thinking what everybody is thinking; the players, the fans, I mean, all of us.
That's- that's just tough, you know?
I mean, the- you had an opportunity to go win a ballgame and- and d- they obviously weren't able to do that.
There were a lot of things that- that could've gone differently.
Led off the h- led off the inning with a home run.
Hector Rodriguez hit one of the longest home runs I've ever seen- Yeah in a game here, 115 miles an hour off the bat.
You know, Spencer Bivens on the mound, you gotta forget about it and try and attack the next hitter.
That run means nothing, and it looks like there was just a little bit of a snowball effect that kinda happened, where there was another base hit by Ali Delacruz, then there was walks, unable to find the strike zone.
I think this is the first time in Giants history that seven runs in the ninth inning, was given up to lose a ballgame.
So this, there's really not- not much to say about- about this loss.
It was one that was almost a, a The- the book was almost closed on it.
This is just a tough one.
I mean, it takes, it takes kind of This is a big gut punch for everybody.
Yeah, this is the biggest gut punch in a season just full of them.
I mean, you could list 10, 20 really, really tough losses this year, and this one takes the cake.
We're gonna go back to that ninth inning.
It's our Toyota Play of the Game, and it's a play of the game for the Cincinnati Reds.
I'm gonna sum it up here.
You mentioned that long, long, long home run.
That was before this, against Spencer Bivens.
Dylan Smith comes in with the bases loaded.
He gives up the grand slam, and you just kinda had a feeling after this that this- this thing was probably over, this wasn't gonna head in a, in a good direction.
Well, you- you talk about momentum, right?
And- and- and look, a home run is a home run.
That ball in a night game that Eugenio Surez just hit is a, is a caught ball.
Yeah.
It is not leaving the ballpark.
But it's a day game; the ball did.
Weren't able to make that play right now.
I thought that was an error all the way.
I didn't think it was even a single.
There was plenty of time there.
But this pitch right here, you know he's bunting.
You have the oppor- you have, you have the opportunity in that situation to throw a fastball up in the zone to make it more difficult.
When you throw the ball down in the zone, it makes it easier for the hitters to get the ball on the ground with the bunt.
It This is, this was, again, just one of those things where you're sitting there in the top of the ninth inning as a fan, everybody, you're like, "Okay, we're gonna go get three outs."
And this is why you have to keep your focus in a Major League Baseball game, 'cause you never know what can happen, and the Giants got snakebit today really, really badly in that ninth inning.
I wanna get back to that word focus in a second, but just summing this up, the ninth inning, two home runs, one of 'em about as far as you will see a bar hit, ball hit in the cove.
I haven't seen a ball go that far in a long time, where you can't even, like, see the ballpark.
It's just that far out.
Then the grand slam.
Three pitchers for the Giants, six hits, two wild pitches, two walks, a stolen base, and the error there.
And I- I think you hit on the key word there, that it just seemed like there was a lack of focus there, especially when it started to spin on them.
You hope the guys get a little bit more into it, and it just seemed like some guys got a little bit tight.
You were mentioning the pitches, some of the pitching mistakes.
There's also, like, yeah, you know they're trying to bunt.
For a couple guys in a row there, are trying to bunt.
It ju- it I think that's the key thing here.
Aside from the mistakes, there was, there was a lack of focus there.
You know, the, i- it's unfortunate, 'cause that ninth inning, which is I guess what we have to talk about this whole show, because we thought we had this game in the bag.
But there were, there were so many good things that were done by a lot of these younger guys in this game today, you know?
It, it was overshadowed.
A Logan Webb start.
You know, it feels like, and, and we've all felt this throughout the course of a baseball You feel a lot more in playoff baseball, obviously.
But when the momentum shifts, and you could feel throughout that inning when the momentum was slowly shifting.
It almost felt like the Giants, who went from the foot on the accelerator, all gas, no brakes, you kind of felt like you got a little bit Just in general, the tone got a little bit on your heels.
And look, it's, it's unfortunate.
Spencer Bivens did a really nice job in that eighth inning, and I think that when, when Drew Gilbert hit that double off the wall and broke it open, and they're probably like, "You're going out there for the ninth inning," when he may not have gone out there for, in a save situation.
There's a lot of things that can change, but the bottom line is this is still a Major League Baseball game.
And when you're told, and I've been through this, this is my experience.
When you're told, like, "Let's see what happens," right?
Like, "We're gonna go back out there if we add on," you have to try and stay locked in and focused because when you lose a little bit of that focus And I'm not saying that Spencer Bivens did, but when you go into a game that's a hold situation, potential, potential save situation, the adrenaline's running, you're running hot.
Then you, then the game breaks open a little bit, and you almost feel like you just take a little bit of your foot off the gas.
And whenever you do that in a Major League Baseball game, those guys with a stick in their hand 60 feet, 6 inches away that are trying to claw back, they can do some damage, and that's kind of exactly what we saw with the snowball effect today in that ninth inning.
Yeah, you nailed it.
We were talking in studio and- and S- Spencer came back out and, and you were a little iffy on just him coming back out after the adrenaline rush there of the eighth inning.
He hasn't been in the big leagues a whole lot this year.
But then again, i- it's a six-run lead.
He is a guy who's generally more of that long reliever type.
So if you're the Giants, you think, you know, you have a six-run lead.
You can get through this, get the three outs.
Maybe there's a little bit of damage here and there, but you save Dylan Smith.
In a weird way, it might've been a cleaner day if Dylan Smith came in just with a three-run lead.
We've seen him succeed this year.
But it reminds me a little bit of in Boston, where they tried to get the extra out.
And this is certainly a different circumstance, but can you as a relief pitcher talk to that aspect of it?
When you come back out and the adrenaline from that first inning is maybe worn off, to try to ramp back up and try to go out there and get outs.
And, and you made a great point there for Bivens.
All of a sudden it's a six-run game, like, and you're going back out- Yeah where you probably thought you were done.
Yeah.
It's, it's This is by I mean, it's, it is difficult.
But a- but again, and I'm gonna, and I'm gonna stress, this, this is the major leagues.
This Things change, things can change very quickly, and they do, as we just saw.
There, there's no excuse there, but it, but it is very difficult.
I mean, I- I- I think of, one of my most memorable in a bad way days was, you know, opening day in 2013, Dodger Stadium.
I came in and I pitched the seventh inning of a 0-0 ballgame, and I, and I thought, I made the mistake of thinking I was done.
And I let down a little bit, and Bochy comes up, and he's like, "You're going back out there for the eighth."
And it's opening day.
I didn't expect it, which was my first mistake.
I didn't expect to go back out.
Until someone shakes your hand and says, "Good job," you need to make sure that you are ready to go.
And then obviously, I, I gave up a couple runs.
I gave up the home run to Clayton Kershaw on that opening day.
And it's about letting the focus down.
You let your focus down, and at the Major League level, these guys are able to j- to The, the, the pitches don't have the same crisp on 'em.
They don't have the same ability and conviction, the same backspin on 'em whenever you let that focus down a little bit.
And again, I'm not making an excuse.
I'm not even saying that that happened to Spencer Bivens.
I'm just saying that a lot of times when the game goes from high leverage to then broken open and there's not the same high leverage situation anymore, it's hard emotionally to replicate going back out there and throwing or pitching with the same conviction.
Yeah, that's a great point.
A couple, just putting a footnote on this, that is the first time, as you mentioned, the first time the Giants have ever blown a six-run lead in the ninth inning.
They had blown a five-run lead twice in franchise history, once in 1929 and once in 2020.
Since 1974, they had been 773 and 0 when leading by six in the ninth inning.
So just really something we haven't seen before.
This is a season we haven't seen before, so that kind of fits right in.
