San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Keaton Winn works against the Colorado Rockies during the first inning at Coors Field in Denver on Sat Sep 16, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

A disastrous fifth inning set the stage for the San Francisco Giants (75-73) second loss in this series. All that they can hope for right now is a split losing the front game of Saturday’s doubleheader to the Colorado Rockies (55-92) and game two of the series 9-5.

Friday night the Giants lost a heartbreaker to the Rockies 3-2. The Giants led going into the bottom of the ninth. A single and an error later, the Rockies were celebrating a walk-off win 3-2.

Saturday San Francisco was back on the field playing a double-header scheduled due to a rain-out Thursday night. Losing game one of this series hurt San Francisco’s playoff hopes. Every game going forward is critically important if the Giants want any shot at a playoff berth.

They are not doing much to advance their cause that’s for sure. They are making this pretty hard on themselves. Friday’s loss was a bit of a surprise because the Rockies reside in the basement of the NL West so this is a team that the Giants need to beat, especially with a couple of series coming up with the Dodgers, one with the Diamondbacks and another with the Padres.

The Giants got off to a quick start taking a 2-0 lead in the second inning and adding another run in the third inning to extend their lead to 3-0. In the second inning Blake Sabol doubled and both LaMonte Wade Jr. and Luis Matos scored.

In the third inning Thairo Estrada scored on passed ball by Austin Wynns. It was all looking good for San Francisco until the bottom of the third inning. This is when it all went sideways for the Giants.

A Colorado triple from Ezequiel Tovar with the bases loaded tied up the game 3-3 and this game quickly escalated in favor of the Rockies.

The fifth inning was a disaster for San Francisco. Giant’s starting pitcher Keaton Winn fell apart and after 76 pitches he was done. He had allowed three hits and three runs. Ryan Walker who relieved him in the fourth did not fare much better allowing two hits and three runs walking three batters. San Francisco walked in two runs in the fifth inning and when the dust had settled Colorado had taken a 6-3 lead. The Rockies would add another run in the sixth inning to lead 7-3.

Going into the seventh inning, the Giants had three innings left to make up a lot of ground or drop even further back in the wild card race. This was a horrible let-down after last night’s loss.

Colorado continued their beat-down in the bottom of the seventh inning scoring two more runs. The Rockies 9-3 lead set up a more than likely Colorado win going into the eighth inning and assuring them a split series or better.

San Francisco crept a little closer in the eighth inning when LaMonte Wade Jr. homered, a solo, to right center but still trailing 9-4 going into the ninth inning. The Rockies were three outs away from taking a 2-0 lead in the series.

San Francisco made a little noise in the ninth inning. Estrade singled Brandon Crawford home. With two outs, Mitch Haniger struck out swinging and that was the ball game 9-5.

This game was lost on the mound and the quiet bats didn’t help at all. They had seven hits in the game and left a lot of runners stranded The Giants are in a self-destruction mode right now and have to turn it around in the second game of the double dip. The two teams will take a breather and then play the second game of this double-header with first pitch at 5:10 PM.

Starting pitchers in the night cap for the Giants Scott Alexander (7-2 ERA 4.53) for the Rockies Kyle Freeland (6-14 ERA 6-14) at Coors Field.