It must be nice to be a fan of the San Francisco Giants. Those who watch the Colorado Rockies can only be jealous.
Saturday afternoon at AT&T Park was the latest example of who the Giants are, from top-to-bottom of their entire organization. The Rockies, up three runs early, were never able to get comfortable, and were never able to bury the Giants for a simple reason. The Giants don’t quit.
It is such a common theme for games in San Francisco. The Giants might not have the most prolific offense, or even as good of a pitching staff as they once had. What they do have, however, is a mindset that won’t allow them to give in, give up, or go away. Night owl Rockies fans are very familiar with the theme. When the Rockies are playing at home and the game ends around 10 pm, flip over to MLB Network. When they are showing the last few innings of the Giants game, it is oftentimes a familiar scenario.
The Giants might be losing. They might not have many, or any, runs on the board. However, there is a theme that is very common. The Giants make it dicey. They might not win every game, but it is nearly certain that fans of the other team are sitting on the edge of their seat biting their finger nails as they sacrifice sleep to see if their team can pull off a victory against the Giants.
Rockies fans know the feeling very well. Despite losing on Saturday, the Rockies are currently 4-1 in San Francisco in 2015. However, it hasn’t been easy. The Giants fight back. They always make it interesting.
It might not be fun for the Rockies to have to play at least nine games each season in the park by the bay, but it is something that the franchise should take a good long hard look at. The Rockies should figure out what it takes to play baseball every single game in that fashion. It could very well be manager Bruce Bochy who imparts that passion. It could be from higher than that. However, one thing is certain, the Giants are a model of what the Rockies should look to be.
On Saturday the Giants pulled it off again. The Rockies came out on fire, bashing Tim Lincecum around for three quick runs. His day was over, however, when DJ LeMahieu smashed a ball off of his elbow in the 2nd inning. It may have been the worst thing that happened for the Rockies. Had the ball sailed into center field, the Rockies would have scored another run and been able to continue their assault on the former ace Lincecum.
The Rockies gave away their three run lead in the third inning when both Troy Tulowitzki and Wilin Rosario made misplays on consecutive plays. Rosario made an error on Joe Panik’s at-bat that would have recorded the second out of the inning. Right after that, Tulowitzki bobbled a ball from Matt Duffy that should have been an inning-ending double play. Instead, the Rockies only got an out at second base, a run scored and Buster Posey coming to the plate.
Of course, in true Giants fashion, Posey drilled a pitch to deep left-center field that was eventually ruled fan interference, but still cost the Rockies two more runs and the lead.
It happened again in the 7th inning, with the Rockies holding onto a 5-4 lead. Rafael Betancourt struggled to keep the Giants at bay. He gave up three more runs and the Giants were on their way to a 7-5 win in a game in which they had no business winning.
The Rockies mindset seems to be better in 2015. They seem to be winning games on the road without the thought of how the altitude, or lack of altitude, is effecting them. However, they are still have a long way to go. Modeling themselves after the defending world champs who never seem to have a problem staying in games is a great place to start.
