Thursday, September 13, 2012

Rock Solid Recrap: Rough First Inning Too Much To Overcome

Giants 8, Rockies 3 (boxscore)

What Went Wrong: We can pretty much narrow this down to San Francisco's five-run 1st inning against Jeff Francis. Though the 11 strikeouts from the offense and Dexter Fowler and Josh Rutledge combining to go 1-for-9 out of the top two spots in the order could also qualify as parts of the problem, especially considering Carlos Gonzalez and Wilin Rosario each reached three times behind them, including Rosario's 24th homer.

Turning Point: Gregor Blanco started the game with a triple. Marco Scutaro singled him home. The Giants rolled for four more runs, including three with two outs, and never looked back.

Jeff Francis' Line: 3 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 5 K, 78 pitches (51 strikes)

The rough 1st inning put the Rockies behind the eight-ball and guaranteed a short evening for Francis. Pitching for a normal team, he may have been able to squeeze out two or three more innings based on how strongly he recovered in the 2nd and 3rd. The Rockies, however, are not normal, so it just goes down as an awful outing and another taxing night on the bullpen.

Bullpen's Line: 6 IP, 3 ER, 8 H, 0 BB, 7 K

Adam Ottavino was solid, striking over four and allowing one run over three innings. It was Josh Roenicke who struggled the most, allowing two earned runs in the 9th. His ERA finally creeped over 3.00 after staying in the 2's basically all season.