San Francisco Giants' Blake Sabol #2 is congratulated by third base coach Mark Hallberg #91 after hitting a two-run home run off Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Bryan Woo #33 in the fourth inning of their MLB game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, July 3, 2023. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
SAN FRANCISCO — There were more questions than answers after the San Francisco Giants suffered a ninth inning meltdown on Monday night.
The Giants and Seattle Mariners were tied until All-Star closer Camilo Doval blew the game in the most bizarre fashion.
Doval allowed four runs and Blake Sabol’s three-run home run in the bottom of the inning wasn’t enough as the Giants lost a 6-5 heartbreaker in front of a sellout crowd of 40,691 at Oracle Park.
Doval entered in a tie game, allowed a leadoff single to Mike Ford and then everything unraveled.
Doval threw a pitch to Ty France that appeared to hit him between the knob of the bat and France’s bottom hand. After review, the umpires’ questionable call was upheld, putting two runners on with nobody out and the go-ahead run in scoring position.
That brought up the nine-hitter, Kolten Wong, and the entire stadium knew a sacrifice bunt was coming.
To defend it, the Giants appeared to execute the wheel play, a basic play in baseball when the middle infielders rotate to the corners to cover first and third, while the corner infielders crash the plate and attempt to field the bunt as quickly as possible. The goal? To get the lead runner at third base.
Wong’s first bunt attempt went foul while Brandon Crawford and Brett Wisely rotated from shortstop and second base to third base and first base, respectively. But on the next pitch, Crawford rotated to second base instead of third, leaving third base wide open. Pinch runner Jose Caballero stole third easily. Giants manager Gabe Kapler said it was Doval’s responsibility to step off and throw to second for a pickoff attempt, but that never happened.
And on the next play, when Wong hit a weak grounder to LaMonte Wade Jr. at first base, Wade took a chance and threw to third but Caballero beat the ball back and everybody was safe. The bases were loaded. Nobody was out. And Doval couldn’t stop the bleeding.
J.P. Crawford hit a sacrifice fly to score Caballero, then Julio Rodriguez smoked a two-run double, Toescar Hernandez later drove in Rodriguez and Doval was on the hook for his third loss of the year.
It was a shame to waste a heroic effort from Sabol, who had a breakout night at the plate. He blasted a two-run shot off Mariners starter Bryan Woo, an Alameda High graduate making his sixth big league start, to give the Giants a 2-1 lead in the fourth.
And then in the ninth, with the Giants trailing 6-2, Sabol was down to two strikes with two outs and two runners on base when he walloped another high fastball over the center-field wall to bring the Giants within one.
Wilmer Flores came off the bench with a pinch-hit single to put the tying run on base, but Crawford struck out swinging to end the game.
The Giants wasted a strong outing from Logan Webb, who struck out 11 while holding the Mariners to two runs in 6 2/3 innings.
Originally published at Jason Mastrodonato