By Morris Phillips

Somewhere near the intersection of the circling seagulls and the empty seats, it got away from the Giants on Thursday.  Too little offense after the fifth inning, not enough good pitching early and shoddy defense throughout and the Giants fell short, losing to Arizona 6-5 in 10 innings. 

“We just let the game get away,” manager Bruce Bochy said.  “Especially when you come back the way we did.”

The Giants fell into a first-place tie with the Dodgers with the loss, as the NL West rivals have been scintillating on the road, and not so good at home thus far.  The Giants dropped two of their first three at AT&T Park as the questions regarding their starting rotation continued, while their offense has been surprisingly productive. 

Ryan Vogelsong gave up a pair of runs in both the second and third innings before settling in and pitching into the sixth inning.  Miguel Montero’s two-run double off Vogelsong in the third put Arizona up 4-1, but the Giants clawed right back.   After single runs in the third and fourth, Michael Morse delivered a two-run double into the right-field power-alley to give the Giants their first lead, 5-4.

But that would cap the Giants’ scoring as four Diamondbacks’ relievers shut the door over the final five innings.  The Giants didn’t help themselves in the field either as they committed three errors, including Pablo Sandoval’s airmail job on a throw in the eighth inning that sailed over first baseman Brandon Belt and allowed Gerardo Parra to score the tying run.

“He got into rush mode there,” Bochy said of Sandoval’s errant throw.

The D’Backs pushed across the game winner in the 10^th off Yusmeiro Petit when Tony Campana singled home Chad Pennington with two outs. 

The Giants return to the park on Friday to take on the Rockies with Madison Bumgarner facing Jorge De La Rosa at 7:15pm.