By Morris Phillips
After treating good, ticket buying customers to in-between inning video skits and little else for way too long, the Giants fashioned a genuine, offensive breakout with the help of an unusual source.
A video review of a play at the plate in which Giants’ pinch runner Gregor Blanco was tagged out by White Sox’s catcher Tyler Flowers resulted in the call being overturned due to the Buster Posey-prompted rule that states a catcher can’t block the runner’s path to the plate without having the ball in hand.
The overturned call allowed Blanco to score and the Giants to tie Wednesday’s game, 1-1. After manager Robin Ventura’s meltdown and dirt-kicking display, the run-starved home team went on to score six more times—all with two outs—in a much-needed 7-1 win.
Afterwards, the opinions on how the rule was applied were split, depending of course on which clubhouse you entered.
“You look at the spirit of the rule… of what they’re trying to do and what it’s actually doing, and it’s a joke,” a much more level-headed Ventura said afterwards. In his opinion, the fact that Blanco was clearly out should precede the interpretation of the rule, which was instituted in the off-season to protect catchers from bang-bang collisions like the one that ended Buster Posey’s season in 2011.
“I know the rule has created a lot of controversy, and they’ve talked about reviewing it at the end of the season. But it is a rule. (Flowers) can’t block the plate without the ball,” Bochy stated.
Regardless of your perspective on the call, the review left much to be desired. The original review took nearly five minutes back in the New York following Bochy’s demand that the play be reviewed. While the reversal prompted loud applause throughout AT&T Park, it also drew Ventura out of the White Sox’s dugout and the former All-Star player reacted with a classic umpire-manager confrontation with dirt flying after Ventura was ejected by home plate umpire Chris Segal.
And when the New York review crew allowed lead runner Adam Duvall to advance from first to third, Ventura returned to the field to argue that part of the decision. This time, Ventura must have proved persuasive. Duvall was returned to second base.
All the hullabaloo allowed the Giants to avoid a season-worst six-game losing skid. In the five losses, the Giants managed just nine runs. Prior to the seventh inning Wednesday, the Giants returned home with a whimper, scoring just two runs in their first 16 innings back.
But Giants’ fans know when they enter the park these days that the offense is blacked out. The Giants came into Thursday with losses in six of their last seven games at home, and 22 losses in their last 29 home games.
In the Giants’ rally, several players had critical breakouts. Angel Pagan responded first with a two-run single, his first runs batted in since returning from the disabled list. Buster Posey and Hunter Pence came up with run-scoring hits too, and when outfielders Adam Dunn and Jordan Danks collided trying to catch Pablo Sandoval’s fly ball, two more Giants came in to score.
Starting pitcher Jake Peavy picked up the win as his excellent pitching easily trumped the fact that the former White Sox changed his number from 43 to 22 in an attempt to change his fortunes. Peavy hadn’t won since April 25 when he was with the Red Sox, and he had lumped together 12 losses with the Giants and Boston in the long stretch that ended Wednesday. Peavy went seven innings, allowing four hits and run, and picked up his first win as a Giant.
“Catching those breaks,” Peavy said.
The Giants take Thursday off, and return to the diamond Friday night when the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner faces Cole Hamels of the Phillies.
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